Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This psalm is a song that Asaph wrote.
Israel's enemies
83 God, do not continue to be silent!
Do not remain quiet.
Please do something!
2 Look! Your enemies are causing trouble.
The people who hate you are ready to attack.
3 They decide carefully how they will attack your people.
They want to hurt the people that you love.
4 They say, ‘Come now! We will destroy them.
They will no longer be a nation.
Nobody will remember the name of Israel any more.’
9 God, punish them as you punished Midian.
Do what you did to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon.[a]
10 You destroyed them at Endor.
Their bodies remained on the ground, like dirt.
17 May they always be ashamed and frightened.
Let them die with shame![a]
18 Then they will understand that you are the Lord.
They will know that you are the Most High God
who rules over all the earth.
Haman dies
7 King Xerxes and Haman went to the meal that Queen Esther had prepared. 2 This was the second day that they ate a special meal together. While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, ‘Queen Esther, what do you want me to do for you? I will give you whatever you want. Even if you want half of my kingdom, I will give it to you.’
3 Queen Esther replied, ‘Sir, I hope that you are pleased with me. If you agree, I ask you to save my life. Also save the lives of my people. That is what I ask you to do. 4 Someone has sold me and my people as if we are animals. Now they will kill us and completely destroy us all. If we had been sold to become slaves, I would not have spoken to the king. It would not have been important enough for that.’
5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is this man? Who would even think of anything like that? Where is he?’
6 Esther replied, ‘The enemy of our people is this wicked man Haman!’
Then Haman became very afraid, as he sat there with the king and the queen.[a]
7 The king was very angry and he stood up. He left his wine and he went into the palace garden. Haman realized that the king wanted to destroy him. So he stayed with Queen Esther and he asked her to save his life. 8 Queen Esther was lying down on a bed. Haman threw himself down beside her. At that moment, the king returned from the garden. The king shouted, ‘What is this man doing? He even attacks the queen when she is with me in my palace!’[b]
While the king was still saying this, his servants covered Haman's head.[c]
9 One of the king's eunuchs, Harbona, said, ‘There is a wooden tower near Haman's home. It is 22 metres high. His men built it so that he could hang Mordecai on it. Mordecai is the man who saved the king's life.’
The king said, ‘Hang Haman on the tower until he is dead.’
10 So they took Haman and they hanged him on the tower until he was dead. It was the same tower that Haman had wanted to kill Mordecai on. After that, the king did not feel so angry.
Jesus tells a story about two servants
45 Jesus then said, ‘You should be like a wise servant. Be someone that the master can trust. The master will choose a man like that. He will say to him, “Rule over my house and all my other servants. Give everyone their food to eat at the right time.” 46 That servant will be very happy when his master comes home. His master will see that he has done everything well. 47 Yes, I tell you this: The master will give that servant authority to rule over everything in his house. 48 But another servant might be bad. He might say to himself, “My master will not come yet.” 49 Then he begins to hit the other servants. He eats too much and he drinks too much. He meets with other people who become drunk. 50 Then the master of that servant will come home and he will surprise the servant. He did not think that his master would come home on that day or at that time. 51 Then the master will punish him a lot. He will put the servant with those people who do not obey him. The people in that place will cry and they will bite their teeth together.’
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