Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Ascents. By David.

7 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. ² The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”

³ Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. ⁴ For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.”

⁵ Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?”

⁶ Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!”

Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. ⁷ The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. ⁸ Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in front of 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 were with the king, said, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits^[a] high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman’s house.”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.

⁹ I John, your brother and partner with you in the oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet ¹¹ saying,^[a] “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies:^[b] to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

¹² I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands. ¹³ And among the lamp stands was one like a son of man,^(A) clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters. ¹⁶ He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest. ¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.

He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.^{[c] 19} Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter. ²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands is this: The seven stars are the angels^[d] of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies.