Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

138 Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:

² Thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up.

³ Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.

⁴ And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.

⁵ Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.

⁶ Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it.

⁷ Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face?

⁸ If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present.

⁹ If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:

¹⁰ Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me.

¹¹ And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.

¹² But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to thee.

¹³ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵ My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.

¹⁷ But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.

¹⁸ I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand: I rose up and am still with thee.

¹⁹ If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart from me:

²⁰ Because you say in thought: They shall receive thy cities in vain.

²¹ Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee: and pine away because of thy enemies?

²² I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they are become enemies to me.

²³ Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.

²⁴ And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.

4 Now when Mardochai had heard these things, he rent his garments, and put on sackcloth, strewing ashes on his head: and he cried with a loud voice in the street in the midst of the city, shewing the anguish of his mind.

² And he came lamenting in this manner even to the gate of the palace: for no one clothed with sackcloth might enter the king's court.

³ And in all provinces, towns, and places, to which the king's cruel edict was come, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, wailing, and weeping, many using sackcloth and ashes for their bed.

⁴ Then Esther's maids and her eunuchs went in, and told her. And when she heard it she was in a consternation: and she sent a garment, to clothe him, and to take away the sackcloth: but he would not receive it.

⁵ And she called for Athach the eunuch, whom the king had appointed to attend upon her, and she commanded him to go to Mardochai, and learn of him why he did this.

⁶ And Athach going out went to Mardochai, who was standing in the street of the city, before the palace gate:

⁷ And Mardochai told him all that had happened, how Aman had promised to pay money into the king's treasures, to have the Jews destroyed.

⁸ He gave him also a copy of the edict which was hanging up in Susan, that he should shew it to the queen, and admonish her to go in to the king, and to entreat him for her people.

⁹ And Athach went back and told Esther all that Mardochai had said.

¹⁰ She answered him, and bade him say to Mardochai:

¹¹ All the king's servants, and all the provinces that are under his dominion, know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, cometh into the king's inner court, who is not called for, is immediately to be put to death without any delay: except the king shall hold out the golden sceptre to him, in token of clemency, that so he may live. How then can I go in to the king, who for these thirty days now have not been called unto him?

¹² And when Mardochai had heard this,

¹³ He sent word to Esther again, saying: Think not that thou mayst save thy life only, because thou art in the king a house, more than all the Jews:

¹⁴ For if thou wilt now hold thy peace, the Jews shall be delivered by some other occasion: and thou, and thy father's house shall perish. And who knoweth whether thou art not therefore come to the kingdom, that thou mightest be ready in such a time as this?

¹⁵ And again Esther sent to Mardochai in these words:

¹⁶ Go, and gather together all the Jews whom thou shalt find in Susan, and pray ye for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days and three nights: and I with my handmaids will fast in like manner, and then I will go in to the king, against the law, not being called, and expose myself to death and to danger.

¹⁷ So Mardochai went, and did all that Esther had commanded him.

²² And it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a little ship with his disciples, and he said to them: Let us go over to the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.

²³ And when they were sailing, he slept; and there came down a storm of wind upon the lake, and they were filled, and were in danger.

²⁴ And they came and awaked him, saying: Master, we perish. But he arising, rebuked the wind and the rage of the water; and it ceased, and there was a calm.

²⁵ And he said to them: Where is your faith? Who being afraid, wondered, saying one to another: Who is this, (think you), that he commandeth both the winds and the sea, and they obey him?