Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²⁴ There is so much here, O Eternal One, so much You have made.
    By the wise way in which You create, riches and creatures fill the earth.
²⁵ Of course, the sea is vast and stretches like the heavens beyond view,
    and numberless creatures inhabit her.
    From the tiny to the great, they swarm beneath her waves.
²⁶ Our ships skim her surface
    while the monsters of the sea play beneath.

²⁷ And all of these look to You
    to give them food when the time is right.
²⁸ When You feed, they gather what You supply.
    When You open Your hand, they are filled with good food.
²⁹ When You withdraw Your presence, they are dismayed.
    When You revoke their breath, the life goes out of them,
    and they become, again, the dust of the earth from which You formed them at the start.
³⁰ When You send out Your breath, life is created,
    and the face of the earth is made beautiful and is renewed.

³¹ May the glorious presence of the Eternal linger among us forever.
    And may He rejoice in the greatness of His own works—
³² He, who rattles the earth with a glance;
    He, who sets mountains to smoking with a touch.
³³ I will sing to the Eternal all of my life;
    I will call my God good as long as I live.

³⁴ May the thoughts of my mind be pleasing to Him,
    for the Eternal has become my happiness.

¹⁸ But wait—the Eternal One has become possessive of His land;
    He will restore us in compassion, His people!
¹⁹ In response to our prayers, the Eternal will answer:

Eternal One: Listen! I am sending you a great harvest of grain, wine, and oil.
        You will be completely satisfied and no longer
    Will I make you a people held in contempt by the nations.

²⁰     I will remove My armies who attack from the north far from your borders,
        driving them into a parched and lonely desert.
    Then I will separate them: the front line to the Dead Sea,
        the rear guard into the Mediterranean Sea
        with the vile stench of their rotting corpses rising up.

Surely the Eternal One has done great things!

²¹ Do not fear, O land. You have been revived.
    Celebrate and rejoice, for the Eternal One has done great things!
²² Do not fear, you wild beasts: You will eat again,
    for the desert pastures are green again!
And so will we: the trees bear their fruit;
    the fig trees and the vines produce their bounty once again.

²³ People of Zion, shout with joy
    and happiness in the Eternal, your God;
The drought is over; He has sent the early autumn rain as a sign of His faithfulness.
    He has poured down heavy rain, autumn and spring, as before.
²⁴ The threshing floors will be covered in grain;
    the vats will spill over with new wine and fresh oil.

²⁵ Eternal One: I will compensate you for the years
        that the locusts have eaten—the swarming locusts,
    The creeping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts—^[a]
        My great army that I unleashed against you.

²⁶     In that day, you will eat plenty of food and always have enough,
        so you will praise My name,
    The Eternal One, your God who is merciful to you.
        Never again will My people be shamed among the nations.
²⁷     Return to Me and you will know that I live among My people Israel
        and that I, the Eternal One, am your God and there is no other.
    Never again will My people be shamed among the nations.

²⁸     Then in those days I will pour My Spirit to all humanity;
        your children will boldly and prophetically speak the word of God.
    Your elders will dream dreams;
        your young warriors will see visions.
²⁹     No one will be left out. In those days I will offer My spirit
        to all servants, both male and female.