PUR

A non-Hebrew word found at Esther 3:7 and 9:24, 26; it means “lot” (Heb., goh·ralʹ; see LOT, I). This is the singular form, the plural being “Purim.” (Es 9:26, 28-32) “Pur” is linked with an Akkadian word, puru, meaning “lot.” It is the source of the name of the Jewish festival Purim.​—See PURIM.

The festival celebrated on the 14th and 15th of Adar, the last month of the Jewish year, corresponding to late February and early March; also called the Festival of Lots. (Es 9:21) The name comes from the act of Haman in casting pur (lot) to determine the auspicious day to carry out an extermination plot against the Jews. Being an Agagite, perhaps a royal Amalekite, and a worshiper of pagan deities, he was resorting to this as “a species of divination.” (Es 3:7, Le, ftn; see DIVINATION; LOT, I; PUR.) In King Ahasuerus’ (Xerxes I) 12th year, on Nisan 13, apparently in the spring of 484 B.C.E., the official extermination decree that Haman had induced the king to approve was prepared for all the Persian provinces, commanding the destruction of the Jews.