Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 122

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of David.

¹ I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!^(A)

² Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!—

³ Jerusalem, which is built as a city that is compacted together—

⁴ To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed and as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

⁵ For there the thrones of judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they prosper who love you [the Holy City]!

⁷ May peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces!

⁸ For my brethren and companions’ sake, I will now say, Peace be within you!

⁹ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek, inquire for, and require your good.

9 Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of Adar when the king’s command and his edict were about to be executed, on the [very] day that the enemies of the Jews had planned for a massacre of them, it was turned to the contrary and the Jews had rule over those who hated them.

² The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.

³ And all the princes of the provinces and the chief rulers and the governors and they who attended to the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

⁴ For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace; and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai became more and more powerful.

⁵ So the Jews smote all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering and destroying them, and did as they chose with those who hated them.

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Shushan [Susa] assembled on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day for sending choice portions to one another.

²⁰ And Mordecai recorded these things, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

²¹ To command them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth, yearly,

²² As the days on which the Jews got rest from their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a holiday—that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews undertook to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written to them—

⁴ I tell you, My friends, do not dread and be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do.

⁵ But I will warn you whom you should fear: fear Him Who, after killing, has power to hurl into hell (Gehenna); yes, I say to you, fear Him!

⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And [yet] not one of them is forgotten or uncared for in the presence of God.

⁷ But [even] the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be struck with fear or seized with alarm; you are of greater worth than many [flocks] of sparrows.

⁸ And I tell you, Whoever declares openly [speaking out freely] and confesses that he is My worshiper and acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man also will declare and confess and acknowledge him before the angels of God.

⁹ But he who disowns and denies and rejects and refuses to acknowledge Me before men will be disowned and denied and rejected and refused acknowledgement in the presence of the angels of God.

¹⁰ And everyone who makes a statement or speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit [that is, whoever ^[a]intentionally comes short of the reverence due the Holy Spirit], it will not be forgiven him [for him there is no forgiveness].

¹¹ And when they bring you before the synagogues and the magistrates and the authorities, do not be anxious [beforehand] how you shall reply in defense or what you are to say.

¹² For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour and ^[b]moment what [you] ought to say.