Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

122 I rejoiced when they said to me, “We will go into the House of the LORD.”

² Our feet shall stand in Your gates, O Jerusalem!

³ Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together in itself,

⁴ to which the tribes—even the Tribes of the LORD—go up (according to the testimony to Israel) to praise the Name of the LORD.

⁵ For there are thrones set for judgment, the thrones of the House of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Let those who love You prosper.

⁷ Peace be within Your walls and prosperity within Your palaces.

⁸ For my brothers’ and neighbors’ sakes, I will now wish you prosperity.

⁹ Because of the House of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. A song of degrees

7 So, the king and Haman came to banquet with Queen Esther.

² And the king repeated to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, Queen Esther that it may be given to you? And what is your request? It shall be done, even up to the half of the kingdom.”

³ And Esther the Queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request.

⁴ “For we are sold —I and my people —to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. If we were merely sold as servants and handmaids, I would have held my tongue, for it would not have been worth the king’s time.”

⁵ Then king Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he? And where is he who presumes to do this?”

⁶ And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

⁷ And the king arose from the banquet of wine in his wrath and went into the palace garden. But Haman stood up to beg Queen Esther for his life. For he saw that the king intended to do him harm.

⁸ And when the king came out of the palace garden into the house again, where they had been drinking wine, Haman had fallen upon the bed where Esther sat. Therefore, the King said, “Will he also force himself on the queen before me in the house?!” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

⁹ And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said in the presence of the king, “Behold, a hanging tree still stands at Haman’s house, 75 feet high, which Haman had prepared for Mordecai, who spoke well of the king.” Then the King said, “Hang him on it.”

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

⁹ I, John, even your brother and companion in tribulation - and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ - was on the Isle called Patmos for the Word of God and for the witnessing of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ And I was ravished in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice, as if it had been of a trumpet,

¹¹ Saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And write that which you see in a book and send it to the seven Churches which are in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned back to see the voice that spoke with me. And when I had turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks,

¹³ And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and His chest wrapped with a golden girdle.

¹⁴ His head and hairs were white as white wool, and as snow. And His eyes were as a flame of fire,

¹⁵ And His feet were like fine brass, burning as in a furnace. And His voice as the sound of many waters.

¹⁶ And He had in His right hand seven stars. And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And His face shone as the Sun shines in His strength.

¹⁷ And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. Then He laid His right hand upon me, saying to me, “Fear not. I am the first and the last.

¹⁸ And I am alive, but I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hell and of death.

¹⁹ “Write these things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall come hereafter.

²⁰ “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand - and the seven golden candlesticks - is this: ‘The seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches. And the seven candlesticks which you saw are the seven Churches.