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Psalm 116

1  I love the Lord,
      for he has heard the voice of my supplication; ♦︎
   because he inclined his ear to me
      on the day I called to him.
2  The snares of death encompassed me;
      the pains of hell took hold of me; ♦︎
   by grief and sorrow was I held.
3  Then I called upon the name of the Lord: ♦︎
   ‘O Lord, I beg you, deliver my soul.’
4  Gracious is the Lord and righteous; ♦︎
   our God is full of compassion.
5  The Lord watches over the simple; ♦︎
   I was brought very low and he saved me.
6  Turn again to your rest, O my soul, ♦︎
   for the Lord has been gracious to you.
7  For you have delivered my soul from death, ♦︎
   my eyes from tears and my feet from falling.
8  I will walk before the Lord ♦︎
   in the land of the living.
9  I believed that I should perish
      for I was sorely troubled; ♦︎
   and I said in my alarm,
      ‘Everyone is a liar.’
10  How shall I repay the Lord ♦︎
   for all the benefits he has given to me?
11  I will lift up the cup of salvation ♦︎
   and call upon the name of the Lord.
12  I will fulfil my vows to the Lord ♦︎
   in the presence of all his people.
13  Precious in the sight of the Lord ♦︎
   is the death of his faithful servants.
14  O Lord, I am your servant, ♦︎
   your servant, the child of your handmaid;
      you have freed me from my bonds.
15  I will offer to you a sacrifice of thanksgiving ♦︎
   and call upon the name of the Lord.
16  I will fulfil my vows to the Lord ♦︎
   in the presence of all his people,
17  In the courts of the house of the Lord, ♦︎
   in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
      Alleluia.

Esther

King Ahasuerus Deposes Queen Vashti

1This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.^{* 2}In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, ³in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were present, ⁴while he displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendour and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred and eighty days in all.

5 When these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet lasting for seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. ⁶There were white cotton curtains and blue hangings tied with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings^* and marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and coloured stones. ⁷Drinks were served in golden goblets, goblets of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished in accordance with the bounty of the king. ⁸Drinking was by flagons, without restraint; for the king had given orders to all the officials of his palace to do as each one desired. ⁹Furthermore, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the palace of King Ahasuerus.

10 On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who attended him, ¹¹to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing the royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the officials her beauty; for she was fair to behold. ¹²But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.

13 Then the king consulted the sages who knew the laws^* (for this was the king’s procedure towards all who were versed in law and custom, ¹⁴and those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven officials of Persia and Media, who had access to the king, and sat first in the kingdom): ¹⁵‘According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs?’ ¹⁶Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, ‘Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but also to all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. ¹⁷For this deed of the queen will be made known to all women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands, since they will say, “King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.” ¹⁸This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behaviour will rebel against^* the king’s officials, and there will be no end of contempt and wrath! ¹⁹If it pleases the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be altered, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. ²⁰So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, vast as it is, all women will give honour to their husbands, high and low alike.’

21 This advice pleased the king and the officials, and the king did as Memucan proposed; ²²he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house.^*

Ministers of the New Covenant

3Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? ²You yourselves are our letter, written on our^* hearts, to be known and read by all; ³and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. ⁵Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, ⁶who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry of death, chiselled in letters on stone tablets,^* came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, ⁸how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? ⁹For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! ¹⁰Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; ¹¹for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!

12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, ¹³not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that^* was being set aside. ¹⁴But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. ¹⁵Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; ¹⁶but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.