Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
7 So the king and Haman came to 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. And 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 favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please 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. But if we had been sold as bondmen and bondwomen, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could not compensate for the king’s damage.”
5 Then King Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he, who dared presume in his heart to do so?”
6 And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
9 And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, “Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him thereon!”
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
21 to establish this among them: that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day of the same yearly,
22 as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.
124 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side”—now may Israel say—
2 “if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us,
3 then would they have swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us;
4 then would the waters have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
5 then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.”
6 Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
7 Our soul has 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 the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
13 Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you err from the truth and one convert him,
20 let him know that he who converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
38 And John answered Him, saying, “Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, but he followeth us not, so we forbad him because he followeth not us.”
39 But Jesus said, “Forbid him not, for there is no man who shall do a miracle in My name that can lightly speak evil of Me.
40 For he that is not against us is on our side.
41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in My name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
42 And whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe in Me to fall, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea.
43 And if thy hand cause thee to fall, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than, having two hands, to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched,
44 where ‘their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’
45 And if thy foot cause thee to fall, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter halt into life than, having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched,
46 where ‘their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’
47 And if thine eye cause thee to fall, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire,
48 where ‘their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’
49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost his saltness, with what will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.