16 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. ^2 (A)They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, ^(B)the hour is coming when ^(C)whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. ³ And they will do these things ^(D)because they have not known the Father, nor me. ⁴ But ^(E)I have said these things to you, that when ^(F)their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, ^(G)because I was with you. ⁵ But now ^(H)I am going to him who sent me, and ^(I)none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ But because I have said these things to you, ^(J)sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for ^(K)if I do not go away, ^(L)the Helper will not come to you. But ^(M)if ^(N)I go, ^(O)I will send him to you. ^8 (P)And when he comes, he will ^(Q)convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ concerning sin, ^(R)because they do not believe in me; ^10 (S)concerning righteousness, ^(T)because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; ^11 (U)concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world ^(V)is judged.

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ When ^(W)the Spirit of truth comes, ^(X)he will ^(Y)guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but ^(Z)whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will ^(AA)glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ^15 (AB)All that the Father has is mine; ^(AC)therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

^16 (AD)“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and ^(AE)again a little while, and you will see me.” ¹⁷ So ^(AF)some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ^(AG)‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ^(AH)‘because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? ^(AI)We do not know what he is talking about.” ^19 (AJ)Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(AK)you will weep and lament, but ^(AL)the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but ^(AM)your sorrow will turn into joy. ^21 (AN)When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ^22 (AO)So also you have sorrow now, but ^(AP)I will see you again, and ^(AQ)your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. ^23 (AR)In that day you will ^(AS)ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(AT)whatever you ask of the Father in my name, ^(AU)he will give it to you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in my name. ^(AV)Ask, and you will receive, ^(AW)that your joy may be full.

I Have Overcome the World

²⁵ “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. ^(AX)The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; ^27 (AY)for the Father himself loves you, because ^(AZ)you have loved me and ^(BA)have believed that I came from God.^{[a] 28 (BB)}I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now ^(BC)I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

²⁹ His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not ^(BD)using figurative speech! ³⁰ Now we know that ^(BE)you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that ^(BF)you came from God.” ³¹ Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² Behold, ^(BG)the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when ^(BH)you will be scattered, each to his own home, and ^(BI)will leave me alone. ^(BJ)Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. ³³ I have said these things to you, that ^(BK)in me you may have peace. ^(BL)In the world you will have ^(BM)tribulation. But ^(BN)take heart; ^(BO)I have overcome the world.”

The High Priestly Prayer

17 When Jesus had spoken these words, ^(BP)he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, ^(BQ)the hour has come; ^(BR)glorify your Son that the Son may ^(BS)glorify you, ² since ^(BT)you have given him authority over all flesh, ^(BU)to give eternal life to all ^(BV)whom you have given him. ^3 (BW)And this is eternal life, ^(BX)that they know you, ^(BY)the only ^(BZ)true God, and ^(CA)Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I ^(CB)glorified you on earth, ^(CC)having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, ^(CD)glorify me in your own presence with the glory ^(CE)that I had with you ^(CF)before the world existed.

^6 (CG)“I have manifested your name to the people ^(CH)whom you gave me out of the world. ^(CI)Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything ^(CJ)that you have given me is from you. ⁸ For I have given them ^(CK)the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that ^(CL)I came from you; and ^(CM)they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am praying for them. ^(CN)I am not praying for the world but for those ^(CO)whom you have given me, for ^(CP)they are yours. ^10 (CQ)All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and ^(CR)I am glorified in them. ¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but ^(CS)they are in the world, and ^(CT)I am coming to you. ^(CU)Holy Father, ^(CV)keep them in your name, ^(CW)which you have given me, ^(CX)that they may be one, ^(CY)even as we are one. ^12 (CZ)While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have ^(DA)guarded them, and ^(DB)not one of them has been lost except ^(DC)the son of destruction, ^(DD)that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now ^(DE)I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have ^(DF)my joy fulfilled in themselves. ^14 (DG)I have given them your word, and ^(DH)the world has hated them ^(DI)because they are not of the world, ^(DJ)just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I ^(DK)do not ask that you ^(DL)take them out of the world, but that you ^(DM)keep them from ^(DN)the evil one.^{[b] 16 (DO)}They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ^17 (DP)Sanctify them^[c] in the truth; ^(DQ)your word is truth. ^18 (DR)As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And ^(DS)for their sake ^(DT)I consecrate myself,^[d] that they also ^(DU)may be sanctified^[e] in truth.

²⁰ “I do not ^(DV)ask for these only, but also for those ^(DW)who will believe in me through their word, ^21 (DX)that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that ^(DY)they also may be in ^(DZ)us, so that the world ^(EA)may believe that you have sent me. ^22 (EB)The glory that you have given me ^(EC)I have given to them, ^(ED)that they may be one even as we are one, ^23 (EE)I in them and you in me, ^(EF)that they may become perfectly one, ^(EG)so that the world may know that you sent me and ^(EH)loved them even as ^(EI)you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be ^(EJ)with me ^(EK)where I am, ^(EL)to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me ^(EM)before the foundation of the world. ^25 (EN)O righteous Father, even though ^(EO)the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ^26 (EP)I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love ^(EQ)with which you have loved me may be in them, and ^(ER)I in them.”

The Jews Destroy Their Enemies

9 ^(A)Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, ^(B)on the thirteenth day of the same, ^(C)when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, ^(D)on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. ^2 (E)The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand against them, ^(F)for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples. ³ All the officials of the provinces and ^(G)the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴ For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew ^(H)more and more powerful. ⁵ The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶ In Susa the citadel itself the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, ⁷ and also killed Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha ⁸ and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha ⁹ and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha, ^10 (I)the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, ^(J)the enemy of the Jews, ^(K)but they laid no hand on the plunder.

¹¹ That very day the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was reported to the king. ¹² And the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! ^(L)Now what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” ¹³ And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed ^(M)tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”^{[a] 14} So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. ¹⁵ The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

^16 (N)Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also ^(O)gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder. ¹⁷ This was ^(P)on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa gathered ^(Q)on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested ^(R)on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in ^(S)the rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as ^(T)a holiday, and ^(U)as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

The Feast of Purim Inaugurated

²⁰ And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, ²² as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into ^(V)a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴ For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, ^(W)the enemy of all the Jews, ^(X)had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and ^(Y)had cast Pur (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them. ²⁵ But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing ^(Z)that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews ^(AA)should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term ^(AB)Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in ^(AC)this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and ^(AD)all who joined them, that without fail they would keep ^(AE)these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year, ²⁸ that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther, ^(AF)the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew gave full written authority, confirming ^(AG)this second letter about Purim. ³⁰ Letters were sent to all the Jews, ^(AH)to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, ³¹ that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther obligated them, and as they had obligated themselves and their offspring, with regard to ^(AI)their fasts and their lamenting. ³² The command of Esther confirmed these practices of ^(AJ)Purim, and it was recorded in writing.

The Greatness of Mordecai

10 King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on ^(AK)the coastlands of the sea. ² And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, ^(AL)to which the king advanced him, are they not written in ^(AM)the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? ³ For Mordecai the Jew was ^(AN)second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he ^(AO)sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.

How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song?

Give Thanks to the Lord

Of David.

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.