Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 122

Song of Praise and Prayer for Jerusalem

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

Destruction of the Enemies of the Jews

9 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain power over them but that had been changed to a day when the Jews would gain power over their foes,^{(A) 2} the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to kill^[a] those who had sought their ruin, and no one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.^{(B) 3} All the officials of the provinces, the satraps and the governors, and the royal officials were supporting the Jews because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.^{(C) 4} For Mordecai was powerful in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, because the man Mordecai was growing more and more powerful.^{(D) 5} So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.

The Feast of Purim Inaugurated

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.^{(A) 19} Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, a holiday on which they send gifts of food to one another.^(B)

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, ²² as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.^{(C) 23} So the Jews adopted as a custom what they had begun to do, as Mordecai had written to them.

Exhortation to Fearless Confession

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that can do nothing more.^{(A) 5} But I will show you whom to fear: fear the one who, after killing, has authority^[a] to cast into hell.^[b] Yes, I tell you, fear that one!^{(B) 6} Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. ⁷ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.^(C)

⁸ “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,^{(D) 9} but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. ¹⁰ And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.^{(E) 11} When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how or what^[c] you will answer or what you are to say,^{(F) 12} for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”