Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song or Psalm of Asaph.

¹ ¶ Do not keep silence, O God; do not hold thy peace, and do not be still, O God.

² For, behold, thine enemies make a tumult, and those that hate thee have lifted up their head.

³ They have taken prudent counsel in secret against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones.

⁴ They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a people that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

⁹ ¶ Do unto them as unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison,

¹⁰ who perished at Endor; they became as dung for the earth.

¹⁷ Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; let them be put to shame and perish

¹⁸ That they may know that thou, whose name alone is LORD, art the most high over all the earth.

7 ¶ So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther, the queen.

² And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee. What is thy request? And it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.

³ Then Esther, the queen, answered and said, If I have found grace in thy sight, O king and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request.

⁴ For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. If we had been sold for menslaves and womenslaves, I would remain silent, even though the enemy could not recompense the damage to the king.

⁵ And King Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther, the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that has filled his heart with the arrogance to do so?

⁶ Then Esther said, The man who is the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

⁷ ¶ And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden, and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther, the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

⁸ Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman had fallen upon the bed upon which Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? When this word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

⁹ Then said Harbonah, one of the eunuchs before the king, Behold also, the gallows {Heb. stake} fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him upon it.

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.

⁴⁵ Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom his lord has made ruler over his household to give them food in due season?

⁴⁶ Blessed is that slave whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing.

⁴⁷ Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

⁴⁸ But and if that evil slave shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming,

⁴⁹ and shall begin to smite his fellowslaves and even to eat and drink with the drunken,

⁵⁰ the lord of that slave shall come in a day when he does not look for him and in an hour that he is not aware of

⁵¹ and shall cut him off and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.