Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
7:1 So the king and
Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.
7:2 On the second day, as they
were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen
Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of
my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."
7:3 Then Queen Esther answered, "If I
have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me
-- that is my petition -- and the lives of my people -- that is my
request.
7:4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to
be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and
women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage
to the king."
7:5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he,
and where is he, who has presumed to do this?"
7:6 Esther said, "A foe
and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the
queen.
7:9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king,
said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word
saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said,
"Hang him on that."
7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had
prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
9:20 Mordecai
recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the
provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
9:21 enjoining them that
they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day
of the same month, year by year,
9:22 as the days on which the Jews
gained 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 gifts of food to one
another and presents to the poor.
Psalm 124
124:1 If it had
not been the LORD who was on our side -- let Israel now say --
124:2 if
it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when our enemies attacked us,
124:3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was
kindled against us;
124:4 then the flood would have swept us away, the
torrent would have gone over us;
124:5 then over us would have gone the
raging waters.
124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to
their teeth.
124:7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the
fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
124:8 Our help is in
the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
