Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

(By David.)

Praise the Lord with All Your Heart

⁷ It was now the twelfth year of the rule of King Xerxes. During Nisan,^[a] the first month of the year, Haman said, “Find out the best time for me to do this.”^[b] The time chosen was Adar,^[c] the twelfth month.

^8 (A) Then Haman went to the king and said:

Your Majesty, there are some people who live all over your kingdom and won't have a thing to do with anyone else. They have customs that are different from everyone else's, and they refuse to obey your laws. We would be better off to get rid of them! ⁹ Why not give orders for all of them to be killed? I can promise that you will get tons of silver for your treasury.

¹⁰ The king handed his official ring to Haman, who hated the Jews, and the king told him, ¹¹ “Do what you want with those people! You can keep their money.”

¹² On the thirteenth day of Nisan, Haman called in the king's secretaries and ordered them to write letters in every language used in the kingdom. The letters were written in the name of the king and sealed by using the king's own ring.^[d] At once they were sent to the king's highest officials, the governors of each province, and the leaders of the different nations in the kingdom of Xerxes.

¹³ The letters were taken by messengers to every part of the kingdom, and this is what was said in the letters:

On the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, all Jewish men, women, and children are to be killed. And their property is to be taken.

^14-15 King Xerxes gave orders for these letters to be posted where they could be seen by everyone all over the kingdom. The king's command was obeyed, and one of the letters was read aloud to the people in the walled city of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink together, but no one in the city^[e] could figure out what was going on.

²² Now, listen to what I have to say about Jesus from Nazareth. God proved he sent Jesus to you by having him work miracles, wonders, and signs. All of you know this. ^23 (A) God had already planned and decided that Jesus would be handed over to you. So you took him and had evil men put him to death on a cross. ^24 (B) But God set him free from death and raised him to life. Death could not hold him in its power. ^25 (C) What David said are really the words of Jesus,

²⁹ My friends, it is right for me to speak to you about our ancestor David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is still here. ^30 (D) But David was a prophet, and he knew that God had made a promise he would not break. He had told David someone from his own family would someday be king.

³¹ David knew this would happen, and so he told us Christ would be raised to life. He said God would not leave him in the grave or let his body decay. ³² All of us can tell you that God has raised Jesus to life!

³³ Jesus was taken up to sit at the right side^[a] of God, and he was given the Holy Spirit, just as the Father had promised. Jesus is also the one who has given the Spirit to us, and this is what you are now seeing and hearing.

^34 (E) David didn't go up to heaven. So he wasn't talking about himself when he said, “The Lord told my Lord to sit at his right side, ³⁵ until he made my Lord's enemies into a footstool for him.” ³⁶ Everyone in Israel should then know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ, even though you put him to death on a cross.