Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Song of Praise and Prayer for Jerusalem

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

Destruction of the Enemies of the Jews

9 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to get the mastery over them, but which had been changed to a day when the Jews should get the mastery over their foes, ² the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasu-e′rus to lay hands on such as sought their hurt. And no one could make a stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples. ³ All the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal officials also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mor′decai had fallen upon them. ⁴ For Mor′decai was great in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for the man Mor′decai grew more and more powerful. ⁵ So the Jews smote all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.

¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting and holiday-making, and a day on which they send choice portions to one another.

²⁰ And Mor′decai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasu-e′rus, both near and far, ²¹ enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, ²² as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mor′decai had written to them.

Exhortation to Fearless Confession

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell;^[a] yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

⁸ “And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; ⁹ but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. ¹⁰ And every one who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. ¹¹ And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”