Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Jehovah implored to defend the psalmist against the wicked.
Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto Jehovah, concerning the words of Cush a Benjamite.
7 O Jehovah my God, in thee do I take refuge:
Save me from all them that pursue 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 Jehovah my God, if I have done this;
If there be iniquity in my hands;
4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me
(Yea, I have delivered him that without cause was mine adversary;)
5 Let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it;
Yea, let him tread my life down to the earth,
And lay my glory in the dust. Selah
6 Arise, O Jehovah, in thine anger;
Lift up thyself against the rage of mine adversaries,
And awake for me; thou hast commanded judgment.
7 [a]And let the congregation of the peoples compass thee about;
And over them return thou on high.
8 Jehovah ministereth judgment to the peoples:
Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness, and to mine integrity [b]that is in me.
9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous:
For the righteous God trieth the minds and [c]hearts.
10 My shield is with God,
Who saveth the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
Yea, a God that hath indignation every day.
12 [d]If a man 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 maketh his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity;
Yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
15 He hath made a pit, and digged it,
And is fallen into the ditch which he made.
16 His mischief shall return upon his own head,
And his violence shall come down upon his own pate.
17 I will give thanks unto Jehovah according to his righteousness,
And will sing praise to the name of Jehovah Most High.
2 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. 2 Then said the king’s servants that 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 Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of [a]Hegai the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them; 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 a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, 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 that had been carried away with [b]Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. 7 And he [c]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 So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. 9 And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens who were meet to be given her out of the king’s house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. 10 Esther had not made known her people nor her kindred; 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 would become of her.
12 Now when the turn of every maiden was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that it had been done to her according to the law for the women twelve months (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 the things for the purifying of the women), 13 then in this wise came the maiden unto the king: Whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. 14 In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into 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, except 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, was 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 them that looked upon her.
16 So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained favor and kindness 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 [d]release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the [e]bounty of the king.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my [a]gospel: 9 wherein I suffer hardship unto bonds, as a malefactor; 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 Faithful is the [b]saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him: 12 if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we shall deny him, he also will deny us: 13 if we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself.
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