Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Haman Is Hanged
7 So the king and Haman went in to eat with Queen Esther. 2 As they were drinking wine on the second day, the king asked Esther again, “What are you asking for? I will give it to you. What is it you want? I will give you as much as half of my kingdom.”
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “My king, if you are pleased with me, and if it pleases you, let me live. This is what I ask. And let my people live, too. This is what I want. 4 My people and I have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed and completely wiped out. If we had been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because that would not be enough of a problem to bother the king.”
5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he? Who has done such a thing?”
6 Esther said, “Our enemy and foe is this wicked Haman!”
Then Haman was filled with terror before the king and queen.
9 Harbona, one of the eunuchs there serving the king, said, “Look, a seventy-five foot platform stands near Haman’s house. This is the one Haman had prepared for Mordecai, who gave the warning that saved the king.”
The king said, “Hang Haman on it!” 10 So they hanged Haman on the platform he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king was not so angry anymore.
20 Mordecai wrote down everything that had happened. Then he sent letters to all the Jewish people in all the empire of King Xerxes, far and near. 21 He told them to celebrate every year on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, 22 because that was when the Jewish people got rid of their enemies. They were also to celebrate it as the month their sadness was turned to joy and their crying for the dead was turned into celebration. He told them to celebrate those days as days of joyful feasting and as a time for giving food to each other and presents to the poor.
The Lord Saves His People
A song for going up to worship. Of David.
124 What if the Lord had not been on our side?
(Let Israel repeat this.)
2 What if the Lord had not been on our side
when we were attacked?
3 When they were angry with us,
they would have swallowed us alive.
4 They would have been like a flood drowning us;
they would have poured over us like a river.
5 They would have swept us away like a mighty stream.
6 Praise the Lord,
who did not let them chew us up.
7 We escaped like a bird
from the hunter’s trap.
The trap broke,
and we escaped.
8 Our help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
The Power of Prayer
13 Anyone who is having troubles should pray. Anyone who is happy should sing praises. 14 Anyone who is sick should call the church’s elders. They should pray for and pour oil on the person[a] in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer that is said with faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will heal that person. And if the person has sinned, the sins will be forgiven. 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen. 17 Elijah was a human being just like us. He prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years! 18 Then Elijah prayed again, and the rain came down from the sky, and the land produced crops again.
Saving a Soul
19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you wanders away from the truth, and someone helps that person come back, 20 remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner’s soul from death and will cause many sins to be forgiven.
Anyone Not Against Us Is for Us
38 Then John said, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to force demons out of a person. We told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”
39 But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him, because anyone who uses my name to do powerful things will not easily say evil things about me. 40 Whoever is not against us is with us. 41 I tell you the truth, whoever gives you a drink of water because you belong to the Christ will truly get his reward.
42 “If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, it would be better for that person to have a large stone tied around his neck and be drowned in the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body and live forever than to have two hands and go to hell, where the fire never goes out. [ 44 In hell the worm does not die; the fire is never put out.][a] 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body and to live forever than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [ 46 In hell the worm does not die; the fire is never put out.][b] 47 If your eye causes you to sin, take it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. 48 In hell the worm does not die; the fire is never put out. 49 Every person will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good, but if the salt loses its salty taste, you cannot make it salty again. So, be full of salt, and have peace with each other.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.