The command had also been given out in the royal palace at Susa; and Mordecai had gone out from the presence of the king in royal garments of violet and white and with a great crown of gold and with a robe of fine linen and purple. The people of Susa shouted and were glad. To the Jews there came light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every country and city, where the king's command came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, and a holiday. On the fourteenth day of the month Adar, the Jews rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. Therefore the Jews who live in the country villages keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar as a day of rejoicing and feasting and a holiday, and as a day on which they send gifts to one another. But the Jews in Susa rested on the fifteenth day of the same month and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. The Jews made it a custom for them, and for their children, and for all who should join them, so that it might not be changed, that they should observe these two days as feasts each year. For Haman had plotted to destroy the Jews completely, and he cast pur, that is, the lot, to destroy them. For this reason these days are called Purim. REBUILDING THE TEMPLE That the promise made by Jehovah through the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, Jehovah influenced Cyrus, king of Persia, in the first year of his reign to make this written law throughout all his kingdom, "Thus commands Cyrus, king of Persia: 'Jehovah, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me to build him a temple in Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you of all his people wishes to return, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, in Judah, and rebuild the temple of Jehovah, the God of Israel. (He is the God who lives at Jerusalem.) In every place where any who are left of Jehovah's people now live, let the men of that place help with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the offering each man wishes to give for the house of God at Jerusalem.'" [Illustration: © _Ernest Normand_ _Esther Denouncing Haman_ Painted by Ernest Normand] Then the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, including all whom God had influenced to build the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem, started to return. And all their neighbors supplied them with silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things in addition to all that each man wished to give.