Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

7 And the king cometh in, and Haman, to drink with Esther the queen,

² and the king saith to Esther also on the second day, during the banquet of wine, `What [is] thy petition, Esther, O queen? and it is given to thee; and what thy request? unto the half of the kingdom -- and it is done.'

³ And Esther the queen answereth and saith, `If I have found grace in thine eyes, O king, and if to the king [it be] good, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request;

⁴ for we have been sold, I and my people, to cut off, to slay, and to destroy; and if for men-servants and for maid-servants we had been sold I had kept silent -- but the adversity is not equal to the loss of the king.'

⁵ And the king Ahasuerus saith, yea, he saith to Esther the queen, `Who [is] he -- this one? and where [is] this one? -- he whose heart hath filled him to do so?'

⁶ And Esther saith, `The man -- adversary and enemy -- [is] this wicked Haman;' and Haman hath been afraid at the presence of the king and of the queen.

⁹ And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, saith before the king, `Also lo, the tree that Haman made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, is standing in the house of Haman, in height fifty cubits;' and the king saith, `Hang him upon it.'

¹⁰ And they hang Haman upon the tree that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the fury of the king hath lain down.

²⁰ And Mordecai writeth these things, and sendeth letters unto all the Jews who [are] in all provinces of the king Ahasuerus, who are near and who are far off,

²¹ to establish on them, to be keeping the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of it, in every year and year,

²² as days on which the Jews have rested from their enemies, and the month that hath been turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a good day, to make them days of banquet and of joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the needy.

124 A Song of the Ascents, by David. Save [for] Jehovah -- who hath been for us, (Pray, let Israel say),

² Save [for] Jehovah -- who hath been for us, In the rising up of man against us,

³ Then alive they had swallowed us up, In the burning of their anger against us,

⁴ Then the waters had overflowed us, The stream passed over our soul,

⁵ Then passed over our soul had the proud waters.

⁶ Blessed [is] Jehovah who hath not given us, A prey to their teeth.

⁷ Our soul as a bird hath escaped from a snare of fowlers, The snare was broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help [is] in the name of Jehovah, Maker of the heavens and earth!

¹³ Doth any one suffer evil among you? let him pray; is any of good cheer? let him sing psalms;

¹⁴ is any infirm among you? let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil, in the name of the Lord,

¹⁵ and the prayer of the faith shall save the distressed one, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if sins he may have committed, they shall be forgiven to him.

¹⁶ Be confessing to one another the trespasses, and be praying for one another, that ye may be healed; very strong is a working supplication of a righteous man;

¹⁷ Elijah was a man like affected as we, and with prayer he did pray -- not to rain, and it did not rain upon the land three years and six months;

¹⁸ and again he did pray, and the heaven did give rain, and the land did bring forth her fruit.

¹⁹ Brethren, if any among you may go astray from the truth, and any one may turn him back,

²⁰ let him know that he who did turn back a sinner from the straying of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.

³⁸ And John did answer him, saying, `Teacher, we saw a certain one in thy name casting out demons, who doth not follow us, and we forbade him, because he doth not follow us.'

³⁹ And Jesus said, `Forbid him not, for there is no one who shall do a mighty work in my name, and shall be able readily to speak evil of me:

⁴⁰ for he who is not against us is for us;

⁴¹ for whoever may give you to drink a cup of water in my name, because ye are Christ's, verily I say to you, he may not lose his reward;

⁴² and whoever may cause to stumble one of the little ones believing in me, better is it for him if a millstone is hanged about his neck, and he hath been cast into the sea.

⁴³ `And if thy hand may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee maimed to enter into the life, than having the two hands, to go away to the gehenna, to the fire -- the unquenchable --

⁴⁴ where there worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched.

⁴⁵ `And if thy foot may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into the life lame, than having the two feet to be cast to the gehenna, to the fire -- the unquenchable --

⁴⁶ where there worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched.

⁴⁷ And if thine eye may cause thee to stumble, cast it out; it is better for thee one-eyed to enter into the reign of God, than having two eyes, to be cast to the gehenna of the fire --

⁴⁸ where their worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched;

⁴⁹ for every one with fire shall be salted, and every sacrifice with salt shall be salted.

⁵⁰ The salt [is] good, but if the salt may become saltless, in what will ye season [it]? Have in yourselves salt, and have peace in one another.'