Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 122
A Prayer for Jerusalem
A Davidic song of ascents.
1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”(A)
2 Our feet are standing
within your gates, Jerusalem(B)—
Haman Is Executed
7 The king and Haman came to feast[a](A) with Esther the queen. 2 Once again, on the second day while drinking wine,(B) the king asked Esther, “Queen Esther, whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek, even to half the kingdom, will be done.”(C)
3 Queen Esther answered, “If I have obtained your approval,[b] my king, and if the king is pleased,(D) spare my life—this is my request; and spare my people—this is my desire.(E) 4 For my people and I have been sold out(F) to destruction, death, and extermination.(G) If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves,(H) I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn’t be worth burdening the king.”
5 King Ahasuerus spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”[c](I)
6 Esther answered, “The adversary and enemy(J) is this evil Haman.”
Haman stood terrified(K) before the king and queen. 7 Angered(L) by this, the king arose from where they were drinking wine and went to the palace garden.(M) Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life because he realized the king was planning something terrible for him.(N) 8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the house of wine drinking, Haman was falling on the couch(O) where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the palace?” As soon as the statement left the king’s mouth, Haman’s face was covered.(P)
9 Harbona, one of the royal eunuchs,(Q) said: “There is a gallows 75 feet[d] tall at Haman’s house that he made for Mordecai,(R) who gave the report that saved[e] the king.”(S)
The king commanded, “Hang him on it.”
10 They hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.(T) Then the king’s anger subsided.(U)
John’s Vision of the Risen Lord
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s word and the testimony about Jesus.[a](A) 10 I was in the Spirit[b][c](B) on the Lord’s day,[d] and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write on a scroll[e] what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 I turned to see whose voice(C) it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven gold lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man,[f](D) dressed in a long robe and with a gold sash wrapped around His chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool—white as snow—and His eyes like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of cascading[g] waters.(E) 16 He had seven stars in His right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth,(F) and His face was shining like the sun at midday.[h]
17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last,(G) 18 and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. 19 Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this. 20 The secret of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven gold lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels[i] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands[j] are the seven churches.
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