Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for the peace of Jerusalem.

A Song of Ascents; of David.

7 So the king and Haman came ^[a]to banquet with Esther the queen. ² And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. ³ Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please 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 bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, ^[b]although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s damage. ⁵ Then spake the king Ahasuerus and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? ⁶ And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. ⁷ And the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden: and 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 was fallen upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. ⁹ Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains that were before the king, Behold also, the ^[c]gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him thereon. ¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

⁹ I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and ^[a]patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet ¹¹ saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. ¹² And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden ^[b]candlesticks; ¹³ and in the midst of the ^[c]candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. ¹⁴ And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; ¹⁵ and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters. ¹⁶ And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. ¹⁷ And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the Living one; and I ^[d]was dead, and behold, I am alive ^[e]for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. ¹⁹ Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; ²⁰ the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest ^[f]in my right hand, and the seven golden ^[g]candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven ^[h]candlesticks are seven churches.