Today's Reading

¹Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly.

²He came even before the king's gate, for no one is allowed inside the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

³In every province, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he did not receive it.

⁵Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was.

⁶So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to city square which was before the king's gate.

⁷Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

⁸He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.

⁹Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai:

¹¹"All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days."

¹²They told to Mordecai Esther's words.

¹³Then Mordecai asked them return answer to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that you will escape in the king's house any more than all the Jews.

¹⁴For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

¹⁵Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai,

¹⁶"Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

¹⁷So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

¹Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, next to the king's house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house.

²When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter.

³Then the king asked her, "What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom."

⁴Esther said, "If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."

⁵Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said." So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

⁶The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, "What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed."

⁷Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and my request is this.

⁸If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said."

⁹Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he did not stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.

¹⁰Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home. There, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife.

¹¹Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

¹²Haman also said, "Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king.

¹³Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

¹⁴Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet." This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.

¹On that night, the king couldn't sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.

²It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus.

³The king said, "What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" Then the king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him."

⁴The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king's house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

⁵The king's servants said to him, "Behold, Haman stands in the court." The king said, "Let him come in."

⁶So Haman came in. The king said to him, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?" Now Haman said in his heart, "Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?"

⁷Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king delights to honor,

⁸let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set.

⁹Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!'"

¹⁰Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken."

¹¹Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!"

¹²Mordecai came back to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.

¹³Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him."

¹⁴While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs came, and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

¹Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

²Now I praise you, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.

³But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

⁴Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

⁵But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.

⁶For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

⁷For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

⁸For man is not from woman, but woman from man;

⁹for neither was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

¹⁰For this cause the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.

¹¹Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.

¹²For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.

¹³Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?

¹⁴Doesn't even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

¹⁵But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

¹⁶But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God's churches.

¹⁷But in giving you this command, I do not praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

¹⁸For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.

¹⁹For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

²⁰When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.

²¹For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

²²What, do you not have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God's church, and put them to shame who do not have? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you.

²³For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

²⁴When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me."

²⁵In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me."

²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

²⁷Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord's cup in a manner unworthy will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

²⁸But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

²⁹For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not discern the body.

³⁰For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

³¹For if we discerned ourselves, we would not be judged.

³²But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

³³Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait one for another.

³⁴But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

¹ Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle:

²my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge; who subdues my people under me.

³Lord, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him?

⁴Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

⁵Part your heavens, Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.

⁶Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.

⁷Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners;

⁸whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.

¹⁰You are he who gives salvation to kings, who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.

¹¹Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

¹³Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields.

¹⁴Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, and no outcry in our streets.

¹⁵Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

¹Wine is a mocker, and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.

³It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool will be quarreling.

⁴The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.

⁵Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

⁶Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?

⁷A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.

⁸A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, "I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?"

¹⁰Differing weights and differing measures, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

¹¹Even a child makes himself known by his doings, whether his work is pure, and whether it is right.

¹²The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, The Lord has made even both of them.

¹³Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.

¹⁴"It's no good, it's no good," says the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold and abundance of rubies; but the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.

¹⁶Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.

¹⁷Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.

¹⁸Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!

¹⁹He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; therefore do not keep company with him who opens wide his lips.

²⁰Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.

²¹An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, won't be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, "I will pay back evil." Wait for the Lord, and he will save you.

²³The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales are not pleasing.

²⁴A man's steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?

²⁵It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication, then later to consider his vows.

²⁶A wise king winnows out the wicked, and drives the threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of man is the Lord's lamp, searching all his innermost parts.

²⁸Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength. The splendor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Wounding blows cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the innermost parts.