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Psalm 140

1  Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers ♦︎
   and protect me from the violent,
2  Who devise evil in their hearts ♦︎
   and stir up strife all the day long.
3  They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; ♦︎
   adder’s poison is under their lips.
4  Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; ♦︎
   protect me from the violent
      who seek to make me stumble.
5  The proud have laid a snare for me
      and spread out a net of cords; ♦︎
   they have set traps along my path.
6  I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my God; ♦︎
   listen, O Lord, to the voice of my supplication.
7  ‘O Lord God, the strength of my salvation, ♦︎
   you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8  ‘Do not grant the desires of the wicked, O Lord, ♦︎
   do not prosper their wicked plans.
9  ‘Let not those who surround me lift up their heads; ♦︎
   let the evil of their own lips fall upon them.
10  ‘Let hot burning coals rain upon them; ♦︎
   let them be cast into the depths, that they rise not again.’
11  No slanderer shall prosper on the earth, ♦︎
   and evil shall hunt down the violent to overthrow them.
12  I know that the Lord will bring justice for the oppressed ♦︎
   and maintain the cause of the needy.
13  Surely, the righteous will give thanks to your name, ♦︎
   and the upright shall dwell in your presence.

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

4When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; ²he went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them. ⁵Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why. ⁶Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, ⁷and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.

9 Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, ¹¹‘All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.’ ¹²When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, ¹³Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.’ ¹⁵Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’ ¹⁷Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

A Living Hope

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice,^* even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, ⁷so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Although you have not seen^* him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.