Psalm 88

Prayer for Help in Despondency

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites. To the leader: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

Esther Saves the Jews

8 On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.^{(A) 2} Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. So Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.^(B)

³ Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. ⁴ The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king.^{(C) 5} She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have won his favor, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I have his approval, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote giving orders to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.^{(D) 6} For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming on my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”^{(E) 7} Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hung him on the pole because he plotted to kill^[a] the Jews.^{(F) 8} You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”^(G)

¹⁵ Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king, wearing royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a mantle of fine linen and purple, while the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.^{(A) 16} For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor. ¹⁷ In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a festival and a holiday. Furthermore, many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.^(B)

Judith Beheads Holofernes

13 When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew. Bagoas closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master’s presence. They went to bed, for they all were weary because the banquet had lasted so long.^{(A) 2} But Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched out on his bed, for he was dead drunk.^(B)

³ Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did on the other days, for she said she would be going out for her prayers. She had said the same thing to Bagoas.^{(C) 4} So everyone went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour on the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem.^{(D) 5} Now indeed is the time to help your heritage and to carry out my design to destroy the enemies who have risen up against us.”^(E)

⁶ She went up to the bedpost near Holofernes’s head and took down his sword that hung there.^{(F) 7} She came close to his bed, took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength today, O Lord God of Israel!” ⁸ Then she struck his neck twice with all her might and cut off his head.^{(G) 9} Next she rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. Soon afterward she went out and gave Holofernes’s head to her maid,^{(H) 10} who placed it in her food bag.

Judith Returns to Bethulia

Then the two of them went out together, as they were accustomed to do for prayer. They passed through the camp, circled around the valley, went up the mountain to Bethulia, and came to its gates.^{(I) 11} From a distance Judith called out to the sentries at the gates, “Open, open the gate! God, our God, is with us, still showing his power in Israel and his strength against our enemies, as he has done today!”

¹² When the people of her town heard her voice, they hurried down to the town gate and summoned the elders of the town.^{(J) 13} They all ran together, both small and great, for it seemed unbelievable that she had returned. They opened the gate and welcomed them. Then they lit a fire to give light and gathered around them. ¹⁴ Then she said to them with a loud voice, “Praise God, O praise him! Praise God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night!”

¹⁵ Then she pulled the head out of the bag and showed it to them and said, “See here, the head of Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his drunken stupor. The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman.^{(K) 16} As the Lord lives, who has protected me in the way I went, I swear that it was my face that seduced him to his destruction and that he committed no sin with me, to defile and shame me.”

¹⁷ All the people were greatly astonished. They bowed down and worshiped God and said with one accord, “Blessed are you, our God, who have this day humiliated the enemies of your people.”^(L)

¹⁸ Then Uzziah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth, and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies.^{(M) 19} Your hope^[a] will never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power of God. ²⁰ May God grant this to be a perpetual honor to you, and may he reward you with blessings because you risked your own life when our people was brought low, and you averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God.” And all the people said, “Amen. Amen.”^(N)

The Riot in Ephesus

²¹ Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia and then to go on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have gone there, I must also see Rome.”^{(A) 22} So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he himself stayed for some time longer in Asia.^(B)

²³ About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way.^{(C) 24} A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans.^{(D) 25} These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, “Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. ²⁶ You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods.^{(E) 27} And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.”

²⁸ When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”^{(F) 29} The city was filled with the confusion, and people^[a] rushed together to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travel companions.^{(G) 30} Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; ³¹ even some officials of the province of Asia^[b] who were friendly to him sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theater. ³² Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.^{(H) 33} Some of the crowd gave instructions to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. And Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defense before the people.^{(I) 34} But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ³⁵ But when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?^{(J) 36} Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷ You have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our^[c] goddess.^{(K) 38} If therefore Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one another.^{(L) 39} If there is anything further^[d] you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰ For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹ When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

The Man with an Unclean Spirit

³¹ He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath.^{(A) 32} They were astounded at his teaching because he spoke with authority.^{(B) 33} In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Leave us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”^{(C) 35} But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” Then the demon, throwing the man down before them, came out of him without doing him any harm.^{(D) 36} They were all astounded and kept saying to one another, “What kind of word is this, that with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out?”^{(E) 37} And news about him began to reach every place in the region.^(F)

Psalm 91

Assurance of God’s Protection

Psalm 92

Thanksgiving for Vindication

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath Day.