To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.
Mordecai wrote out the whole affair and sent it far and wide so all Jews would know how their deliverance came about. But mark this: he never once names God in his account, though he had the root of the matter in him. He wrote at the palace where policy reigned over piety, and the air of a place shapes what a man will say.
AI summary
Commenting on Esther 9:20-32
THE TWO DAYS OF PURIM MADE FESTIVAL. (Est 9:20-32) Mordecai wrote these things--Commentators are not agreed what is particularly meant by "these things"; whether the letters following, or an account of these marvellous events to be preserved in the families of the Jewish people, and transmitted from one generation to another.
Commenting on Esther 9:20-32
Mordecai and Esther bound the Jews and their seed to observe these days with fasting and earnest prayer, written into their decree. The Hebrew word for their cry signals not mere commemoration but desperate supplication joined to the fast.
AI summary