Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
7 And so the king and Haman went to eat with Esther 2 for a second time. Over the wine the king asked her again, “Now, Queen Esther, what do you want? Tell me and you shall have it. I'll even give you half the empire.”
3 Queen Esther answered, “If it please Your Majesty to grant my humble request, my wish is that I may live and that my people may live. 4 My people and I have been sold for slaughter. If it were nothing more serious than being sold into slavery, I would have kept quiet and not bothered you about it;[a] but we are about to be destroyed—exterminated!”
5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who dares to do such a thing? Where is this man?”
6 Esther answered, “Our enemy, our persecutor, is this evil man Haman!”
Haman faced the king and queen with terror.
9 Then one of them, who was named Harbonah, said, “Haman even went so far as to build a gallows at his house so that he could hang Mordecai, who saved Your Majesty's life. And it's seventy-five feet tall!”
“Hang Haman on it!” the king commanded.
10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.
The Festival of Purim
20 Mordecai had these events written down and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, throughout the Persian Empire, 21 telling them to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as holidays every year. 22 These were the days on which the Jews had rid themselves of their enemies; this was a month that had been turned from a time of grief and despair into a time of joy and happiness. They were told to observe these days with feasts and parties, giving gifts of food to one another and to the poor.
God the Protector of His People[a]
124 What if the Lord had not been on our side?
Answer, O Israel!
2 “If the Lord had not been on our side
when our enemies attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us alive
in their furious anger against us;
4 then the flood would have carried us away,
the water would have covered us,
5 the raging torrent would have drowned us.”
6 Let us thank the Lord,
who has not let our enemies destroy us.
7 We have escaped like a bird from a hunter's trap;
the trap is broken, and we are free!
8 Our help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
13 Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises. 14 (A)Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord. 15 This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven. 16 (B)So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. 17 (C)Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. 18 (D)Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops.
19 My friends, if any of you wander away from the truth and another one brings you back again, 20 (E)remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul[a] from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
Whoever Is Not against Us Is for Us(A)
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw a man who was driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he doesn't belong to our group.”
39 “Do not try to stop him,” Jesus told them, “because no one who performs a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say evil things about me. 40 (B)For whoever is not against us is for us. 41 (C)I assure you that anyone who gives you a drink of water because you belong to me will certainly receive a reward.
Temptations to Sin(D)
42 “If anyone should cause one of these little ones to lose faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied around the neck and be thrown into the sea. 43 (E)So if your hand makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than to keep both hands and go off to hell, to the fire that never goes out. 44 [a] 45 And if your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot than to keep both feet and be thrown into hell. 46 [b] 47 (F)And if your eye makes you lose your faith, take it out! It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into hell. 48 (G)There ‘the worms that eat them never die, and the fire that burns them is never put out.’
49 “Everyone will be purified by fire as a sacrifice is purified by salt.
50 (H)“Salt is good; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?
“Have the salt of friendship among yourselves, and live in peace with one another.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.