{ "schemaVersion": 1, "kind": "event", "id": "purim-established", "era": "exile-return", "order": 255, "title": "Purim remembers sorrow turned to joy", "group": "esther-diaspora", "date": { "kind": "relative", "label": "After the deliverance · Annual remembrance established" }, "pin": [ 48.25778, 32.18922 ], "pinConfidence": "Identified site", "pinPlace": "openbible-a033b84", "summary": "Mordecai and Esther establish an annual remembrance of deliverance, with feasting, gifts to one another and gifts to the poor. The name Purim recalls the lot cast for the planned destruction. The book closes with Mordecai using his position to seek his people’s welfare under continuing Persian rule.", "context": "The festival preserves memory beyond the original survivors and includes provision for the poor. The closing notice of royal tribute shows that rescue has not ended imperial government. This stop describes the book’s institution of Purim, not every later custom associated with the festival.", "question": "How do shared celebration and gifts to the poor shape the memory of deliverance?", "locationNote": "Susa locates Esther and Mordecai’s court setting. The observance extends across communities; it is not restricted to the capital or a single festival site.", "passages": [ { "reference": "Esther 9:20–10:3", "range": [ 17009020, 17010003 ], "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther%209%3A20%E2%80%9310%3A3&version=BSB", "availability": "bundled", "verses": [ { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 20, "text": "Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far," }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 21, "text": "to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar" }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 22, "text": "as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 23, "text": "So the Jews agreed to continue the custom they had started, as Mordecai had written to them." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 24, "text": "For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 25, "text": "But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 26, "text": "Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced," }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 27, "text": "the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 28, "text": "These days should be remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, nor should the memory of them fade from their descendants." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 29, "text": "So Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 30, "text": "And Mordecai sent letters with words of peace and truth to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes," }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 31, "text": "in order to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them and had committed themselves and their descendants to the times of fasting and lamentation." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 9, "verse": 32, "text": "So Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, which were written into the record." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 10, "verse": 1, "text": "Now King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the land, even to its farthest shores." }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 10, "verse": 2, "text": "And all of Mordecai’s powerful and magnificent accomplishments, together with the full account of the greatness to which the king had raised him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?" }, { "book": "Esther", "chapter": 10, "verse": 3, "text": "For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews and highly favored by his many kinsmen, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen." } ] } ], "related": [ { "range": [ 5016011, 5016014 ], "kind": "teaching", "note": "Moses’ festival instructions also join rejoicing with inclusion of people who lack resources; Purim is a later, distinct observance.", "reference": "Deuteronomy 16:11–14", "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2016%3A11%E2%80%9314&version=BSB" } ], "places": [ { "id": "openbible-a033b84", "name": "Susa", "coordinate": [ 48.25778, 32.18922 ], "kind": "City", "confidence": "Identified site", "confidenceSource": "editorial", "sources": [ { "label": "OpenBible.info: Susa (CC BY 4.0)", "url": "https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a033b84/susa" } ] } ], "mapPeriod": "persian-world", "further": [ { "label": "OpenBible.info: Susa (CC BY 4.0)", "url": "https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a033b84/susa" } ], "provenance": { "sources": [ { "name": "editorial", "ref": "content/authored/exile-return.json" } ], "review": "draft" }, "eraName": "Exile & Return", "interactiveUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?event=purim-established", "attribution": [ "Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.", "Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.", "Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm" ], "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/purim-established/", "markdownUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/purim-established/index.md", "jsonUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/purim-established/index.json", "cautions": "Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.", "revision": "76e5d6813c1f58f8" }