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.

9 ¶ Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s commandment and his law drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, it was turned to the contrary; for the Jews took dominion over those that hated them.

² The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt; and no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.

³ And all the princes of the provinces and the lieutenants and the captains and officers of the king helped the Jews because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.

⁴ For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces, for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.

⁵ Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and slaughter and destruction and did what they would unto those that hated them.

¹⁸ But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of banquet and gladness.

¹⁹ Therefore, the Jews of the villages that dwelt in the unwalled towns made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and banquet and a good day and of sending portions one to another.

²⁰ ¶ And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

²¹ to establish this among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,

²² as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of banquet and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.

²³ And the Jews accepting this began to do as Mordecai had written unto them.

⁴ And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of those that kill the body and, after that, have no more that they can do.

⁵ But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who, after being killed, has power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?

⁷ But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows.

⁸ Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God;

⁹ but he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.

¹⁰ And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, there is forgiveness for him; but unto him that blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven.

¹¹ And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what ye shall say;

¹² for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.