Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

7 O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me; and deliver me,

² lest they tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver.

³ O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity on my hands,

⁴ if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy),

⁵ let the enemy persecute my soul and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. Selah

⁶ Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger; lift up Thyself against the rage of mine enemies, and awaken for me the judgment that Thou hast commanded.

⁷ So shall the congregation of the people compass Thee about; for their sakes, therefore, return Thou on high.

⁸ The Lord shall judge the people: Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me.

⁹ O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

¹⁰ My defense is of God, who saveth the upright in heart.

¹¹ God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

¹² If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow and made it ready.

¹³ He hath also prepared for Him the instruments of death; He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors.

¹⁴ Behold, the wicked travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood.

¹⁵ He made a pit and dug it, and has fallen into the ditch which he hath made.

¹⁶ His mischief shall return upon his own head; and his violent dealings shall come down upon his own pate.

¹⁷ I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

2 After these things, when the wrath 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 who ministered unto him, “Let there be fair young virgins 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 fair young virgins unto the palace at Shushan, 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 them.

⁴ And let the maiden who pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti.” And the thing pleased the king, and he did so.

⁵ Now in the palace at Shushan there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

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 maid wasfair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

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

⁹ And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens who were meet to be given to her out of the king’s house; and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place in the house of the women.

¹⁰ Esther had not shown her people nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it.

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 Now when every maid’s turn had come to go in to King Ahasuerus, after she had been twelve months according to the manner of the women (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors and with other things for the purifying of the women),

¹³ then thus came every maiden unto the king. Whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto he king’s house.

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

¹⁵ Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, had come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked upon her.

¹⁶ So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

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

¹⁸ Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts according to the state of the king.

⁸ Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my Gospel,

⁹ wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds. But the Word of God is not bound.

¹⁰ Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

¹¹ It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him;

¹² if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

¹³ if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself.