From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Methodist · 1 Catholic
“But those Jews that dwelt in towns not walled and in villages, appointed the fourteenth day of the month Adar for banquets and gladness, so as to rejoice on that day, and send one another portions of their banquets and meats.”
“the...villagers who do not dwell in walled cities, [celebrate] on the fourteenth, and those who dwell in walled cities [celebrate] on the fifteenth, like Shushan, and [these cities] must be surrounded [by walls] since the days of Joshua the son of Nun. So did our Sages expound and learn. and...sending Heb. וּמִשְּׁלֹחַ. This is a noun, like מִשְּׁמָר, watch, מִשְּׁמָע hearing. Therefore, the “shin” is vowelized soft (without a “dagesh”).”
“To stablish this among them,.... That it might be a settled thing, and annually observed in all future generations, what they had now done: that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly; as the former had been observed by the Jews in the provinces, and both by those in Shushan, Est 9:17 as festivals in commemoration of their great deliverance; hence the fourteenth of Adar is called the day of Mordecai, being established by him;"And they ordained all with a common decree in no case to let that day pass without solemnity, but to celebrate the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, which in the Syrian tongue is called Adar, the day before Mardocheus' day.'' (2 Maccabees 15:36)”
“The Jews of the villages - They joined that to the preceding day, and made it a day of festivity, and of sending portions to each other; that is, the rich sent portions of the sacrifices slain on this occasion to the poor, that they also might be enabled to make the day a day of festivity; that as the sorrow was general, so also might the joy be. It is worthy of remark that the ancient Itala or Ante-hieronymian version of this book omits the whole of these nineteen verses. Query, Were they originally in this book?”
“Meats, not only to the poor, but to all their friends, ver. 22., and 2 Esdras viii. 10. (Calmet)”
“a day of . . . feasting . . . of sending portions one to another--The princes and people of the East not only invite their friends to feasts, but it is their custom to send a portion of the banquet to those who cannot well come to it, especially their relations, and those who are detained at home in a state of sorrow or distress.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.