Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The King Has Haman Executed
7 So the king and Haman came to dine[a] with Queen Esther. 2 On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask for up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done.”
3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval,[b] O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition. 4 For we have been sold[c]—both I and my people—to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation. If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”
5 Then King Ahasuerus responded[d] to Queen Esther, “Who is this individual? Where is this person to be found who is presumptuous enough[e] to act in this way?”
6 Esther replied, “The oppressor and enemy is this evil Haman!”
Then Haman became terrified in the presence of the king and queen.
9 Harbona,[a] one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Indeed, there is the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke out on the king’s behalf. It stands near Haman’s home and is 75 feet[b] high.”
The king said, “Hang him on it!” 10 So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.
20 Mordecai wrote these matters down and sent letters to all the Jews who were throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 to have them observe the fourteenth and the fifteenth days of the month of Adar each year 22 as the time when the Jews gave themselves rest from their enemies—the month when their trouble was turned to happiness and their mourning to a holiday. These were to be days of banqueting, happiness, sending gifts to one another, and providing for the poor.
Psalm 124[a]
A song of ascents;[b] by David.
124 “If the Lord had not been on our side”—
let Israel say this.—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side,
when men attacked us,[c]
3 they would have swallowed us alive,
when their anger raged against us.
4 The water would have overpowered us;
the current[d] would have overwhelmed[e] us.[f]
5 The raging water
would have overwhelmed us.[g]
6 The Lord deserves praise,[h]
for[i] he did not hand us over as prey to their teeth.
7 We escaped with our lives,[j] like a bird from a hunter’s snare.
The snare broke, and we escaped.
8 Our deliverer is the Lord,[k]
the Creator[l] of heaven and earth.
Prayer for the Sick
13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint[a] him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up—and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.[b] 16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.[c] 17 Elijah was a human being[d] like us, and he prayed earnestly[e] that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 18 Then[f] he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.
19 My brothers and sisters,[g] if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path[h] will save that person’s[i] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
On Jesus’ Side
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say anything bad about me. 40 For whoever is not against us is for us. 41 For I tell you the truth,[a] whoever gives you a cup of water because[b] you bear Christ’s[c] name will never lose his reward.
42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone[d] tied around his neck and to be thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have[e] two hands and go into hell,[f] to the unquenchable fire.[g] 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have[h] two feet and be thrown into hell.[i] 47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out![j] It is better to enter into the kingdom of God[k] with one eye than to have[l] two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. 49 Everyone will be salted with fire.[m] 50 Salt[n] is good, but if it loses its saltiness,[o] how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
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