Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Prayer to Frustrate Conspiracy Against Israel
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
83 Do(A) not keep silent, O God!
Do not hold Your peace,
And do not be still, O God!
2 For behold, (B)Your enemies make a [a]tumult;
And those who hate You have [b]lifted up their head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together (C)against Your sheltered ones.
4 They have said, “Come, and (D)let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”
Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai
7 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, (A)at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your 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 have been (B)sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as (C)male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”
5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”
6 And Esther said, “The adversary and (D)enemy is this wicked Haman!”
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. 8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across (E)the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”
As the word left the king’s mouth, they (F)covered Haman’s face. 9 Now (G)Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! (H)The [a]gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke (I)good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”
Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”
10 So (J)they (K)hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.
The Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant(A)
45 (B)“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food [a]in due season? 46 (C)Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that (D)he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master (E)is delaying [b]his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is (F)not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. (G)There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.