Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Shiggaion of David, which he sang to Jehovah, concerning the words of Cush the Benjaminite.

7 Jehovah my God, in thee have I trusted: save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me;

² Lest he tear my soul like a lion, crushing it while there is no deliverer.

³ Jehovah my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands;

⁴ If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me; (indeed I have freed him that without cause oppressed me;)

⁵ Let the enemy pursue after my soul, and take [it], and let him tread down my life to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

⁶ Arise, Jehovah, in thine anger; lift thyself up against the raging of mine oppressors, and awake for me: thou hast commanded judgment.

⁷ And the assembly of the peoples shall encompass thee; and for their sakes return thou on high.

⁸ Jehovah shall minister judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Jehovah, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity which is in me.

⁹ Oh let the wrong of the wicked come to an end, and establish thou the righteous [man]; even thou that triest the hearts and reins, the righteous God.

¹⁰ My shield is with God, who saveth the upright in heart.

¹¹ God is a righteous judge, and a God who is indignant all the day.

¹² If one turn not, he will sharpen his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready,

¹³ And he hath prepared for him instruments of death; his arrows hath he made burning.

¹⁴ Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood:

¹⁵ He digged a pit, and hollowed it out, and is fallen into the hole that he made.

¹⁶ His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violence shall come down upon his own pate.

¹⁷ I will praise Jehovah according to his righteousness, and will sing forth the name of Jehovah the Most High.

2 After these things, when the fury of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.

² Then said the king's servants that attended upon him, Let there be maidens, virgins of beautiful countenance, sought for the king;

³ and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the young virgins of beautiful countenance to Shushan the fortress, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given.

⁴ And let the maiden that pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.

⁵ There was in Shushan the fortress a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite,

⁶ who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

⁷ And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter; for she had neither father nor mother—and the maiden was fair and beautiful—and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

⁸ And it came to pass when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the fortress, unto the custody of Hegai, that Esther also was brought into the king's house, unto the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

⁹ And the maiden pleased him, and obtained favour before him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, and her portions, and the seven maidens selected to be given her, out of the king's house; and he removed her and her maids to the best [place] of the house of the women.

¹⁰ Esther had not made known her people nor her birth; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not make it known.

¹¹ And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her.

¹² And when every maiden's turn came to go in to king Ahasuerus after that she had been treated for twelve months, according to the manner of the women (for so were the days of their purification accomplished—six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with spices, and with things for the purifying of the women,

¹³ and thus came the maiden in unto the king), whatever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women to the king's house.

¹⁴ In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, unto the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, keeper of the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she were called by name.

¹⁵ And when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, came to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained grace in the sight of all them that saw her.

¹⁶ So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus, into his royal house, in the tenth month, that is, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

¹⁷ And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins, and he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

¹⁸ And the king made a great feast to all his princes and his servants, Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave presents according to the king's bounty.

⁸ Remember Jesus Christ raised from among [the] dead, of [the] seed of David, according to my glad tidings,

⁹ in which I suffer even unto bonds as an evil-doer: but the word of God is not bound.

¹⁰ For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that *they* also may obtain the salvation which [is] in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

¹¹ The word [is] faithful; for if we have died together with [him], we shall also live together;

¹² if we endure, we shall also reign together; if we deny, *he* also will deny us;

¹³ if we are unfaithful, *he* abides faithful, for he cannot deny himself.