Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 7

An Ode of David, [probably] in a wild, irregular, enthusiastic strain, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.

¹ O Lord my God, in You I take refuge and put my trust; save me from all those who pursue and persecute me, and deliver me,

² Lest my foe tear my life [from my body] like a lion, dragging me away while there is none to deliver.

³ O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

⁴ If I have paid back with evil him who was at peace with me or without cause have robbed him who was my enemy,

⁵ Let the enemy pursue my life and take it; yes, let him trample my life to the ground and lay my honor in the dust. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁶ Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; lift up Yourself against the rage of my enemies; and awake [and stir up] for me the justice and vindication [that] You have commanded.

⁷ Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about You, and return on high over them.

⁸ The Lord judges the people; judge me, O Lord, and do me justice according to my righteousness [my rightness, justice, and right standing with You] and according to the integrity that is in me.

⁹ Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the [uncompromisingly] righteous [those upright and in harmony with You]; for You, Who try the hearts and emotions and thinking powers, are a righteous God.^(A)

¹⁰ My defense and shield depend on God, Who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹ God is a righteous Judge, yes, a God Who is indignant every day.

¹² If a man does not turn and repent, [God] will whet His sword; He has strung and bent His [huge] bow and made it ready [by treading it with His foot].

¹³ He has also prepared for him deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.

¹⁴ Behold, [the wicked man] conceives iniquity and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.

¹⁵ He made a pit and hollowed it out and has fallen into the hole which he made [before the trap was completed].

¹⁶ His mischief shall fall back in return upon his own head, and his violence come down [with the loose dirt] upon his own scalp.

¹⁷ I will give to the Lord the thanks due to His rightness and justice, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

2 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he [earnestly] remembered Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her.

² Then the king’s servants who ministered to him said, Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

³ And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the capital in Shushan, to the harem under the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their things for purification be given them.

⁴ And let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This pleased the king, and he did so.

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

⁶ Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives taken away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile.

⁷ He had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was beautiful and lovely, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

⁸ So when the king’s command and his decree were proclaimed and when many maidens were gathered in Shushan the capital under the custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken to the king’s house into the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

⁹ And the maiden pleased [Hegai] and obtained his favor. And he speedily gave her the things for her purification and her portion of food and the seven chosen maids to be given her from the king’s palace; and he removed her and her maids to the best [apartment] in the harem.

¹⁰ Esther had not made known her nationality or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to do so.

¹¹ And Mordecai [who was an ^[a]attendant in the king’s court] walked every day before the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what would become of her.

¹² Now when the turn of each maiden came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the regulations for the women had been carried out for twelve months—since this was the regular period for their beauty treatments, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet spices and perfumes and the things for the purifying of the women—

¹³ Then in this way the maiden came to the king: whatever she desired was given her to take with her from the harem into the king’s palace.

¹⁴ In the evening she went and next day she returned into the second harem in the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She came to the king no more unless the king delighted in her and she was called for by name.

¹⁵ Now when the turn for Esther the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter, had come to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s attendant, the keeper of the women, suggested. And Esther won favor in the sight of all who saw her.

¹⁶ So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

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

¹⁸ Then the king gave a great feast for all his princes and his servants, Esther’s feast; and he gave a holiday [or a lessening of taxes] to the provinces and gave gifts in keeping with the generosity of the king.

⁸ Constantly keep in mind Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] risen from the dead, [as the prophesied King] descended from David, according to the good news (the Gospel) that I preach.^(A)

⁹ For that [Gospel] I am suffering affliction and even wearing chains like a criminal. But the Word of God is not chained or imprisoned!

¹⁰ Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God’s chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory.

¹¹ The saying is sure and worthy of confidence: If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him.

¹² If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny and disown and reject Him, He will also deny and disown and reject us.

¹³ If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself.