Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees of David.

¹ ¶ I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

² Our feet stood within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

³ Jerusalem, that one which is built as a city that is well united together

⁴ Because the tribes went up there, the tribes of JAH, the testimony to Israel, to praise the name of the LORD.

⁵ For there are set thrones of the judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ ¶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; those that love thee shall be brought into rest.

⁷ Peace be within thy walls and rest within thy palaces.

⁸ For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

⁹ Because of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek thy good.

7 ¶ So the king and Haman came to the 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. What is thy request? And it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.

³ Then Esther, the queen, answered and said, If I have found grace in thy 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. If we had been sold for menslaves and womenslaves, I would remain silent, even though the enemy could not recompense the damage to the king.

⁵ And King Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther, the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that has filled his heart with the arrogance to do so?

⁶ Then Esther said, The man who is the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

⁷ ¶ And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath 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 had fallen upon the bed upon which Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? When this word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

⁹ Then said Harbonah, one of the eunuchs before the king, Behold also, the gallows {Heb. stake} fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him upon 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 participant in the tribulation and in the kingdom and in the patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ I was in the Spirit in the day of the Lord and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet,

¹¹ that said, I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and What thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the seven congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} which are in Asia: unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamos and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea.

¹² And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands

¹³ and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle.

¹⁴ His head and his hairs were white like white wool, as the snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire

¹⁵ and his feet like unto brilliant metal as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters.

¹⁶ And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun when it shines in its strength.

¹⁷ And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I AM the first and the last,

¹⁸ and he that lives and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of Hades and of death.

¹⁹ Write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which must be after these.

²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven congregations, {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} and the seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}