Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 122

A Prayer for Jerusalem

A song of ascents. Of David.

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 found favor with you, Your Majesty, 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^(F) to destruction, death, and annihilation.^(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?” ^[b](I)

⁶ Esther answered, “The adversary and enemy^(J) is this evil Haman.”

Haman stood terrified^(K) before the king and queen. ⁷ The king arose in anger^(L) and went from where they were drinking wine to the palace garden.^[c](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 banquet hall,^[d] 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 house?” As soon as the statement left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.^(P)

⁹ Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs,^(Q) said, “There is a gallows seventy-five feet^[e] tall at Haman’s house that he made for Mordecai,^(R) who gave the report that saved^[f] the king.”^(S)

The king said, “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 affliction,^(A) kingdom,^(B) and endurance^(C) that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.^{(D) 10} I was in the Spirit^[a](E) on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet^{(F) 11} saying, “Write^(G) on a scroll^[b] what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned to see whose voice^(H) it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,^{(I) 13} and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man,^[c](J) dressed in a robe^(K) and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.^{(L) 14} The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow^(M)—and his eyes like a fiery flame.^{(N) 15} His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace,^(O) and his voice like the sound of cascading^[d] waters.^{(P) 16} He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth,^(Q) and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.^(R)

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.^(S) He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,^{(T) 18} and the Living One.^(U) I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever,^(V) and I hold the keys^(W) of death and Hades. ¹⁹ Therefore write what you have seen,^(X) what is, and what will take place after this. ²⁰ The mystery^(Y) of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels^[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands^[f] are the seven churches.^(Z)