Pur, Purim

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A feast, signifying “lot or lots.” Haman cast lots to find an auspicious day for the destruction of the Jews. On this being averted their deliverance was commemorated by an annual feast (Esther 3:77In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. (Esther 3:7); Esther 9:24-3224Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; 25But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, 27The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; 28And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. 29Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. 30And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31To 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. 32And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book. (Esther 9:24‑32)). It fell on the 14th and 15th of Adar. This feast is not mentioned by name in the New Testament though some suppose it to be alluded to in John 5:11After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1); but of this there is no intimation, and such a feast did not call the Lord to go to Jerusalem. The feast is still kept by the Jews: the Book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and on his wife; and blessings on Mordecai, and on Harbonah.