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.

³ And Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device which he had devised against the Jews.

⁴ And the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. And Esther arose and stood before the king,

⁵ and said, If it please the king and if I have found grace before him, and the thing seem right to the king, and I be pleasing in his sight, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews that are in all the king's provinces.

⁶ For how shall I endure to see the evil that shall befall my people? and how shall I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

⁷ And king Ahasuerus said to queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he stretched forth his hand against the Jews.

⁸ Write ye then for the Jews as seems good to you, in the king's name, and seal [it] with the king's ring. For a writing that is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, cannot be reversed.

⁹ Then were the king's scribes called at that time, in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors, and the princes of the provinces which are from India even to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people according to their language, and to the Jews according to their writing and according to their language.

¹⁰ And he wrote in the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed [it] with the king's ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback riding on coursers, horses of blood reared in the breeding studs:

¹¹ [stating] that the king granted the Jews that were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that might assault them, [their] little ones and women, and to [take] the spoil of them for a prey,

¹² upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, upon the thirteenth of the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.

¹³ That the decree might be given in every province, a copy of the writing was published to all the peoples, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

¹⁴ The couriers mounted on coursers [and] horses of blood went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the fortress.

¹⁵ And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a mantle of byssus and purple; and the city of Shushan shouted and was glad.

¹⁶ The Jews had light, and joy, and gladness, and honour.

¹⁷ And in every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

19 After these things I heard as a loud voice of a great multitude in the heaven, saying, Hallelujah: the salvation and the glory and the power of our God:

² for true and righteous [are] his judgments; for he has judged the great harlot which corrupted the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his bondmen at her hand.

³ And a second time they said, Hallelujah. And her smoke goes up to the ages of ages.

⁴ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and did homage to God who sits upon the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah.

⁵ And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his bondmen, [and] ye that fear him, small and great.

⁶ And I heard as a voice of a great crowd, and as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of strong thunders, saying, Hallelujah, for [the] Lord our God the Almighty has taken to himself kingly power.

⁷ Let us rejoice and exult, and give him glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready.

⁸ And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright [and] pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.

⁹ And he says to me, Write, Blessed [are] they who are called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb. And he says to me, These are the true words of God.