Book of Common Prayer

7 After this, I saw four angels standing at four different places on the earth. They were holding back the winds coming from every way. They did this so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.

² Then I saw another angel coming up from the place where the sun rises. He had something to put the mark of the living God on people. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels. They had been given power to hurt the earth and the sea.

³ The angel said, `Do not hurt the earth, the sea, or the trees until we have put a mark on the foreheads of God's servants.'

⁴ And I heard that one hundred and forty-four thousand people were marked. They were from every tribe of Israel.

^5-8 welve thousand people were marked from each of these tribes: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin .

⁵¹ The time was near for Jesus to be taken up to heaven. Then he started off for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of him.

⁵² They went to one of the towns of the Samaritan people to get ready for him.

⁵³ But the people would not take him in because he was going to Jerusalem.

⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw that, they said, `Lord, do you want us to ask for fire to come down from the sky and burn them up?'

⁵⁵ But he turned and said to them, `Stop that! You do not think about what kind of spirit you are showing.

⁵⁶ The Son of Man did not come to kill people, but to save them.' And they went on to another town.

⁵⁷ As they went along on the road, a man said to him, `I will go anywhere you go.'

⁵⁸ Jesus said, `Foxes have holes to live in. Birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lie down to rest.'

⁵⁹ Jesus said to another man who followed him, `Come with me.' But the man said, `Lord, let me go first and bury my father.'

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, `Let those who are dead bury their own dead people. As for you, go and tell people about God's kingdom.'

⁶¹ Another man said to Jesus, `Sir, I will go with you. But let me go first to my home and tell them I am going.'

⁶² Jesus said to him, `Any person who starts doing something and then keeps looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God.'