⁸ Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever^(A) you can find for them.’”

¹⁹ That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar^(A) as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.^(B)