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Psalm 120

1  When I was in trouble I called to the Lord; ♦︎
   I called to the Lord and he answered me.
2  Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips ♦︎
   and from a deceitful tongue.
3  What shall be given to you? ♦︎
   What more shall be done to you, deceitful tongue?
4  The sharp arrows of a warrior, ♦︎
   tempered in burning coals!
5  Woe is me, that I must lodge in Meshech ♦︎
   and dwell among the tents of Kedar.
6  My soul has dwelt too long ♦︎
   with enemies of peace.
7  I am for making peace, ♦︎
   but when I speak of it, they make ready for war.

Psalm 121

1  I lift up my eyes to the hills; ♦︎
   from where is my help to come?
2  My help comes from the Lord, ♦︎
   the maker of heaven and earth.
3  He will not suffer your foot to stumble; ♦︎
   he who watches over you will not sleep.
4  Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel ♦︎
   shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5  The Lord himself watches over you; ♦︎
   the Lord is your shade at your right hand,
6  So that the sun shall not strike you by day, ♦︎
   neither the moon by night.
7  The Lord shall keep you from all evil; ♦︎
   it is he who shall keep your soul.
8  The Lord shall keep watch over your going out
      and your coming in, ♦︎
   from this time forth for evermore.

Psalm 122

1  I was glad when they said to me, ♦︎
   ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’
2  And now our feet are standing ♦︎
   within your gates, O Jerusalem;
3  Jerusalem, built as a city ♦︎
   that is at unity in itself.
4  Thither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, ♦︎
   as is decreed for Israel,
      to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5  For there are set the thrones of judgement, ♦︎
   the thrones of the house of David.
6  O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ♦︎
   ‘May they prosper who love you.
7  ‘Peace be within your walls ♦︎
   and tranquillity within your palaces.’
8  For my kindred and companions’ sake, ♦︎
   I will pray that peace be with you.
9  For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, ♦︎
   I will seek to do you good.

Psalm 123

1  To you I lift up my eyes, ♦︎
   to you that are enthroned in the heavens.
2  As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, ♦︎
   or the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
3  So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, ♦︎
   until he have mercy upon us.
4  Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, ♦︎
   for we have had more than enough of contempt.
5  Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of the arrogant, ♦︎
   and of the contempt of the proud.

Esther Saves the Jews

8On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. ²Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. So Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

3 Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet, weeping and pleading with him to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. ⁴The king held out the golden sceptre to Esther, ⁵and Esther rose and stood before the king. She said, ‘If it pleases the king, and if I have won his favour, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I have his approval, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote giving orders to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. ⁶For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming on my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?’ ⁷Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to the Jew Mordecai, ‘See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he plotted to lay hands on the Jews. ⁸You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.’

15 Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king, wearing royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a mantle of fine linen and purple, while the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honour. ¹⁷In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a festival and a holiday. Furthermore, many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

24 Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur—that is, ‘the lot’—to crush and destroy them; ²⁵but when Esther came before the king, he gave orders in writing that the wicked plot that he had devised against the Jews should come upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Thus because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, ²⁷the Jews established and accepted as a custom for themselves and their descendants and all who joined them, that without fail they would continue to observe these two days every year, as it was written and at the time appointed. ²⁸These days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every family, province, and city; and these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

Judith Offers Her Hymn of Praise

14 Judith began this thanksgiving before all Israel, and all the people loudly sang this song of praise. 16¹And Judith said,
Begin a song to my God with tambourines,
   sing to my Lord with cymbals.
Raise to him a new psalm;^*
   exalt him, and call upon his name.
² For the Lord is a God who crushes wars;
   he sets up his camp among his people;
   he delivered me from the hands of my pursuers.
³ The Assyrian came down from the mountains of the north;
   he came with myriads of his warriors;
their numbers blocked up the wadis,
   and their cavalry covered the hills.
⁴ He boasted that he would burn up my territory,
   and kill my young men with the sword,
and dash my infants to the ground,
   and seize my children as booty,
   and take my virgins as spoil.

⁵ But the Lord Almighty has foiled them
   by the hand of a woman.^*
6 For their mighty one did not fall by the hands of the young men,
   nor did the sons of the Titans strike him down,
   nor did tall giants set upon him;
but Judith daughter of Merari
   with the beauty of her countenance undid him.

⁷ For she put away her widow’s clothing
   to exalt the oppressed in Israel.
She anointed her face with perfume;
⁸   she fastened her hair with a tiara
   and put on a linen gown to beguile him.
⁹ Her sandal ravished his eyes,
   her beauty captivated his mind,
   and the sword severed his neck!
¹⁰ The Persians trembled at her boldness,
   the Medes were daunted at her daring.

¹¹ Then my oppressed people shouted;
   my weak people cried out,^* and the enemy^* trembled;
   they lifted up their voices, and the enemy^* were turned back.
¹² Sons of slave-girls pierced them through
   and wounded them like the children of fugitives;
   they perished before the army of my Lord.

¹³ I will sing to my God a new song:
O Lord, you are great and glorious,
   wonderful in strength, invincible.
¹⁴ Let all your creatures serve you,
   for you spoke, and they were made.
You sent forth your spirit,^* and it formed them;^*
   there is none that can resist your voice.
¹⁵ For the mountains shall be shaken to their foundations with the waters;
   before your glance the rocks shall melt like wax.
But to those who fear you
   you show mercy.
¹⁶ For every sacrifice as a fragrant offering is a small thing,
   and the fat of all whole burnt-offerings to you is a very little thing;
but whoever fears the Lord is great for ever.

¹⁷ Woe to the nations that rise up against my people!
   The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgement;
he will send fire and worms into their flesh;
   they shall weep in pain for ever.

18 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they worshipped God. As soon as the people were purified, they offered their burnt-offerings, their freewill-offerings, and their gifts. ¹⁹Judith also dedicated to God all the possessions of Holofernes, which the people had given her; and the canopy that she had taken for herself from his bedchamber she gave as a votive offering. ²⁰For three months the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary, and Judith remained with them.

The Renown and Death of Judith

21 After this they all returned home to their own inheritances. Judith went to Bethulia, and remained on her estate. For the rest of her life she was honoured throughout the whole country. ²²Many desired to marry her, but she gave herself to no man all the days of her life after her husband Manasseh died and was gathered to his people. ²³She became more and more famous, and grew old in her husband’s house, reaching the age of one hundred and five. She set her maid free. She died in Bethulia, and they buried her in the cave of her husband Manasseh; ²⁴and the house of Israel mourned her for seven days. Before she died she distributed her property to all those who were next of kin to her husband Manasseh, and to her own nearest kindred. ²⁵No one ever again spread terror among the Israelites during the lifetime of Judith, or for a long time after her death.

Paul Goes to Macedonia and Greece

20After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples; and after encouraging them and saying farewell, he left for Macedonia. ²When he had gone through those regions and had given the believers^* much encouragement, he came to Greece, ³where he stayed for three months. He was about to set sail for Syria when a plot was made against him by the Jews, and so he decided to return through Macedonia. ⁴He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Beroea, by Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, by Gaius from Derbe, and by Timothy, as well as by Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia. ⁵They went ahead and were waiting for us in Troas; ⁶but we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we joined them in Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

Paul’s Farewell Visit to Troas

7 On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight. ⁸There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting. ⁹A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead. ¹⁰But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, ‘Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.’ ¹¹Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left. ¹²Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.

The Voyage from Troas to Miletus

13 We went ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there; for he had made this arrangement, intending to go by land himself. ¹⁴When he met us in Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. ¹⁵We sailed from there, and on the following day we arrived opposite Chios. The next day we touched at Samos, and^* the day after that we came to Miletus. ¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; he was eager to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.