Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees. Of David.

122 I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah.

² Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

³ Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together,

⁴ Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of Jah, a testimony to Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah.

⁵ For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

⁷ Peace be within thy bulwarks, prosperity within thy palaces.

⁸ For my brethren and companions' sakes I will say, Peace be within thee!

⁹ Because of the house of Jehovah our God I will seek thy good.

9 And in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day thereof, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them (but it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had power over them that hated them),

² the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout the provinces of king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt. And no man could withstand them; for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.

³ And all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors and officers of the king, helped the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

⁴ For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout the provinces; for the man Mordecai became continually greater.

⁵ And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and slaughter and destruction, and did what they would to those that hated them.

¹⁸ But the Jews that were at Shushan gathered themselves together on the thirteenth [day] thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and joy.

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages that dwell in the country towns make the fourteenth of the month Adar a day of joy and feasting, and a good day, and on which they send portions one to another.

²⁰ And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews near and far that were in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus,

²¹ to establish [this] among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,

²² as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was turned to 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.

²³ And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them.

⁴ But I say to you, my friends, Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do.

⁵ But I will shew you whom ye shall fear: Fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell; yea, I say to you, Fear *him*.

⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two assaria? and one of them is not forgotten before God.

⁷ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are better than many sparrows.

⁸ But I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, the Son of man will confess him also before the angels of God;

⁹ but he that shall have denied me before men shall be denied before the angels of God;

¹⁰ and whoever shall say a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him; but to him that speaks injuriously against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven.

¹¹ But when they bring you before the synagogues and rulers and the authorities, be not careful how or what ye shall answer, or what ye shall say;

¹² for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the hour itself what should be said.