Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God Implored to Confound His Enemies.
A Song, a Psalm of Asaph.
83 God, (A)do not remain quiet;
(B)Do not be silent and, God, do not be still.
2 For behold, Your enemies (C)make an uproar,
And (D)those who hate You have [a](E)exalted themselves.
3 They (F)make shrewd plans against Your people,
And [b]conspire together against (G)Your [c]treasured ones.
4 They have said, “Come, and (H)let’s wipe them out [d]as a nation,
So that the (I)name of Israel will no longer be remembered.”
Esther’s Plea
7 Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. 2 And the king said to Esther on the second day also [a]as they drank their wine at the banquet, “(A)What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your wish? (B)Up to half of the kingdom it shall be done.” 3 Then Queen Esther replied, “(C)If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my request, and my people as my wish; 4 for (D)we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, (E)killed, and eliminated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have kept silent, because the distress would not be sufficient reason to burden the king.” 5 Then King Ahasuerus [b]asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, [c]who would presume to do such a thing?” 6 And Esther said, “(F)A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.
Haman Is Hanged
7 The king then got up (G)in his anger from [d]drinking wine and went into (H)the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king. 8 Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the [e]place where they had been drinking wine, Haman was falling on (I)the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who stood before the king, said, “Indeed, behold, (J)the wooden gallows standing at Haman’s house [f]fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai (K)who spoke good in behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.” 10 (L)So they hanged Haman on the wooden gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, (M)and the king’s anger subsided.
45 “(A)Who then is the (B)faithful and (C)sensible slave whom his [a]master (D)put in charge of his household slaves, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his [b]master finds so doing when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that (E)he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My [c]master [d]is not coming for a long time,’ 49 and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and he eats and drinks with those habitually drunk; 50 then the [e]master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, 51 and he will [f]cut him in two and assign [g]him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be (F)weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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