Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees. Of David.

124 If it had not been Jehovah who was for us—oh let Israel say—

² If it had not been Jehovah who was for us, when men rose up against us,

³ Then they had swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;

⁴ Then the waters had overwhelmed us, a torrent had gone over our soul;

⁵ Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

⁶ Blessed be Jehovah, who gave us not up a prey to their teeth!

⁷ Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of Jehovah, the maker of heavens and earth.

1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (that is, the Ahasuerus that reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces),

² in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the fortress,

³ in the third year of his reign, he made a feast to all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the provinces being before him;

⁴ when he shewed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the splendid magnificence of his grandeur many days, a hundred and eighty days.

⁵ And when these days were expired, the king made a feast to all the people that were present in Shushan the fortress, both to great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace.

⁶ White, green, and blue [hangings] were fastened with cords of byssus and purple to silver rings and pillars of white marble; couches of gold and silver [lay] upon a pavement of red and white marble, and alabaster, and black marble.

⁷ And they gave drink in vessels of gold (the vessels being diverse one from another), and royal wine in abundance, according to the king's bounty.

⁸ And the drinking was, according to commandment, without constraint; for so the king had appointed to all the magnates of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure.

⁹ Also the queen Vashti made a feast for the women of the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.

¹⁰ On the seventh day, when the king's heart was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of king Ahasuerus,

¹¹ to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown to shew the peoples and the princes her beauty; for she was of beautiful countenance.

¹² But the queen Vashti refused to come at the word of the king which was [sent] by the chamberlains; and the king was very wroth, and his fury burned in him.

¹³ And the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for so was the king's business [conducted] before all that knew law and judgment;

¹⁴ and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, [and] Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and who sat first in the kingdom),

¹⁵ What shall be done to the queen Vashti according to law, because she has not performed the word of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?

¹⁶ Then said Memucan before the king and the princes, The queen Vashti has not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus.

¹⁷ For the act of the queen will come abroad to all women, so as to render their husbands contemptible in their eyes, when they shall say, The king Ahasuerus commanded the queen Vashti to be brought in before him, and she came not!

¹⁸ And the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's act, will say it this day to all the king's princes, and there will be contempt and anger enough.

¹⁹ If it please the king, let a royal order go forth from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it may not pass, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another that is better than she;

²⁰ and when the king's edict which he shall make shall be heard throughout his realm—for it is great—all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, from the greatest to the least.

²¹ And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan.

¹³ But seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and perceiving that they were unlettered and uninstructed men, they wondered; and they recognised them that they were with Jesus.

¹⁴ And beholding the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to reply;

¹⁵ but having commanded them to go out of the council they conferred with one another,

¹⁶ saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed an evident sign has come to pass through their means is manifest to all that inhabit Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷ But that it be not further spread among the people, let us threaten them severely no longer to speak to any man in this name.

¹⁸ And having called them, they charged [them] not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹ But Peter and John answering said to them, If it be righteous before God to listen to you rather than to God, judge ye;

²⁰ for as for us *we* cannot refrain from speaking of the things which we have seen and heard.

²¹ But they, having further threatened them, let them go, finding no way how they might punish them, on account of the people, because all glorified God for what had taken place;

²² for the man on whom this sign of healing had taken place was above forty years old.

²³ And having been let go, they came to their own [company], and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

²⁴ And they, having heard [it], lifted up [their] voice with one accord to God, and said, Lord, *thou* art the God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them;

²⁵ who hast said by the mouth of thy servant David, Why have [the] nations raged haughtily and [the] peoples meditated vain things?

²⁶ The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.

²⁷ For in truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hadst anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with [the] nations, and peoples of Israel, have been gathered together in this city

²⁸ to do whatever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before should come to pass.

²⁹ And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word,

³⁰ in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders take place through the name of thy holy servant Jesus.

³¹ And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness.