Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Haman Is Hanged
7 So the king and Haman went to eat with Queen Esther. 2 Then as they were drinking wine on the second day of the party, the king again asked Esther a question, “Queen Esther, what is it you want to ask for? Ask anything and it will be given to you. What do you want? I will give you anything, even half my kingdom.”
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “King, if you like me and it pleases you, please let me live. And I ask you to let my people live too. This is what I ask for. 4 I ask this because my people and I have been sold to be destroyed—to be killed and wiped out completely. If we had just been sold as slaves, I would have kept quiet, because that would not be enough of a problem to bother the king.”
5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who did this to you? Where is the man who dared to do such a thing to your people?”
6 Esther said, “The man against us, our enemy, is this wicked Haman.”
Then Haman was filled with terror before the king and queen.
9 One of the eunuchs who served the king was named Harbona. He said, “A hanging post 75 feet[a] tall has been built near Haman’s house. Haman had it made so that he could hang Mordecai on it. Mordecai is the man who helped you when he told about the evil plans to kill you.”
The king said, “Hang Haman on that post!”
10 So they hanged Haman on the hanging post he had built for Mordecai. Then the king stopped being angry.
20 Mordecai wrote everything down that had happened, and then he sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Xerxes’ provinces. He sent letters far and near. 21 He did this to tell the Jews to celebrate Purim every year on the 14th and 15th days of the month of Adar. 22 They were to celebrate those days because on those days the Jews got rid of their enemies. And they were also to celebrate that month as the month when their sadness was turned into joy. It was a month when their crying was changed into a day of celebration. Mordecai wrote letters to all the Jews and told them to celebrate those days as a happy day of feasting. They should have parties, give gifts to each other, and give presents to the poor.
A song of David for going up to the Temple.
124 What would have happened to us if the Lord had not been on our side?
Tell us about it, Israel.
2 What would have happened to us if the Lord had not been on our side
when people attacked us?
3 They would have swallowed us alive
when they became angry with us.
4 Their armies would have been
like a flood washing over us,
like a river drowning us.
5 Those proud people would have been
like water rising up to our mouth and drowning us.
6 Praise the Lord!
He did not let our enemies tear us apart.
7 We escaped like a bird from the net of a hunter.
The net broke, and we escaped!
8 Our help came from the Lord,
the one who made heaven and earth!
The Power of Prayer
13 Are you having troubles? You should pray. Are you happy? You should sing. 14 Are you sick? Ask the elders of the church to come and rub oil on you[a] in the name of the Lord and pray for you. 15 If such a prayer is offered in faith, it will heal anyone who is sick. The Lord will heal them. And if they have sinned, he will forgive them.
16 So always tell each other the wrong things you have done. Then pray for each other. Do this so that God can heal you. Anyone who lives the way God wants can pray, and great things will happen. 17 Elijah was a person just like us. He prayed that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three and a half years! 18 Then Elijah prayed that it would rain. And the rain came down from the sky, and the land grew crops again.
Helping People When They Sin
19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone wanders away from the truth and someone helps that person come back, 20 remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that person from eternal death and cause many sins to be forgiven.
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us(A)
38 Then John said, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of someone. He is not one of us. So we told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”
39 Jesus said, “Don’t stop him. Whoever uses my name to do powerful things will not soon say bad things about me. 40 Whoever is not against us is with us. 41 I can assure you that anyone who helps you by giving you a drink of water because you belong to the Messiah will definitely get a reward.
Jesus Warns About Causes of Sin(B)
42 “If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, it will be very bad for that person. It would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and be drowned in the sea. 43 If your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body and have eternal life than to have two hands and go to hell. There the fire never stops. 44 [a] 45 If your foot makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body and have eternal life than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 46 [b] 47 If your eye makes you sin, take it out. It is better for you to have only one eye and enter God’s kingdom than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. 48 The worms that eat the people in hell never die. The fire there is never stopped.
49 “Everyone will be salted with fire.[c]
50 “Salt is good. But if it loses its salty taste, you can’t make it good again. So, don’t lose that good quality of salt you have. And live in peace with each other.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International