Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 122

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of David.

¹ I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!^(A)

² Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!—

³ Jerusalem, which is built as a city that is compacted together—

⁴ To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed and as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

⁵ For there the thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you [the Holy City]!

⁷ May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces!

⁸ For my brethren and companions’ sake, I will now say, Peace be within you!

⁹ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek, inquire for, and require your good.

7 So the king and Haman came to dine with Esther the queen.

² And the king said again to Esther on the second day when wine was being served, What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted. And what is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom, it shall be performed.

³ Then Queen Esther said, If I have found favor in your sight, O king and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request.

⁴ For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, slain, and wiped out of existence! But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I would have held my tongue, for our affliction is not to be compared with the damage this will do to the king.

⁵ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he, and where is he who dares presume in his heart to do that?

⁶ And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and queen.

⁷ And the king arose from the feast in his wrath and went into the palace garden; and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Queen Esther, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

⁸ When the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the drinking of wine, Haman was falling upon the couch where Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even forcibly assault the queen in my presence, in my own palace? As the king spoke the words, [the servants] covered Haman’s face.

⁹ Then said Harbonah, one of the attendants serving the king, Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, whose warning saved the king, stands at the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him on it!

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.

⁹ I, John, your brother and companion (sharer and participator) with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance [which are] in Jesus Christ, was on the isle called Patmos, [banished] on account of [my witnessing to] the Word of God and the testimony (the proof, the evidence) for Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ I was in the Spirit [rapt in His power] on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice like the calling of a ^[a]war trumpet,

¹¹ Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Write promptly what you see (your vision) in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia—to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

¹² Then I turned to see [whose was] the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,

¹³ And in the midst of the lampstands [One] like a Son of Man, clothed with a robe which reached to His feet and with a girdle of gold about His breast.^(A)

¹⁴ His head and His hair were white like white wool, [as white] as snow, and His eyes [flashed] like a flame of fire.^(B)

¹⁵ His feet glowed like burnished (bright) bronze as it is refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.^(C)

¹⁶ In His right hand He held seven stars, and from His mouth there came forth a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full power at midday.^(D)

¹⁷ When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid! I am the First and the Last,^(E)

¹⁸ And the Ever-living One [I am living in the eternity of the eternities]. I died, but see, I am alive forevermore; and I possess the keys of death and Hades (the realm of the dead).

¹⁹ Write therefore the things you see, what they are [and signify] and what is to take place hereafter.

²⁰ As to the hidden meaning (the mystery) of the seven stars which you saw on My right hand and the seven lampstands of gold: the seven stars are the seven angels (messengers) of the seven assemblies (churches) and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.