Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 122

A Prayer for Jerusalem

A Davidic song of ascents.

Victories of the Jews

9 The king’s command and law^(A) went into effect on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month,^(B) the month Adar.^[a] On the day when the Jews’ enemies^(C) had hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened. The Jews overpowered those who hated them.^{(D) 2} In each of King Ahasuerus’s provinces^(E) the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who intended to harm them.^[b] Not a single person could withstand them; terror of them^(F) fell on every nationality.^(G)

³ All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the royal civil administrators^[c](H) aided the Jews because they were afraid of Mordecai.^{(I) 4} For Mordecai exercised great power in the palace,^(J) and his fame spread throughout the provinces as he became more and more powerful.^(K)

⁵ The Jews put all their enemies to the sword, killing and destroying them.^(L) They did what they pleased to those who hated them.

¹⁸ But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the month. They rested on the fifteenth day of the month, and it became a day of feasting and rejoicing.^{(A) 19} This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.^(B)

²⁰ Mordecai^(C) recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Ahasuerus’s provinces, both near and far. ²¹ He ordered^(D) them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year ²² because during those days the Jews got rid of^[a](E) their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday.^(F) They were to be days of feasting,^(G) rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and the poor.

²³ So the Jews agreed to continue the practice they had begun, as Mordecai had written them to do.

Fear God

⁴ “And I say to you, My friends,^(A) don’t fear^(B) those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. ⁵ But I will show you the One to fear: Fear^(C) Him who has authority to throw people into hell^(D) after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the One to fear! ⁶ Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies?^[a] Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.^{(E) 7} Indeed, the hairs of your head are all counted. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows!

Acknowledging Christ

⁸ “And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges^(F) Me before men, the Son of Man^(G) will also acknowledge him before the angels of God,^{(H) 9} but whoever denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.^{(I) 10} Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,^(J) but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit^(K) will not be forgiven. ¹¹ Whenever^(L) they bring you before synagogues and rulers and authorities,^(M) don’t worry^(N) about how you should defend^(O) yourselves or what you should say. ¹² For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said.”^(P)