Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

76 God’s reputation is very great in Judah and in Israel. ² His home is in Jerusalem. He lives upon Mount Zion. ³ There he breaks the weapons of our enemies.

⁴ The everlasting mountains cannot compare with you in glory! ⁵ The mightiest of our enemies are conquered. They lie before us in the sleep of death; not one can lift a hand against us. ⁶ When you rebuked them, God of Jacob, steeds and riders fell. ⁷ No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before an angry God? ⁸ You pronounce sentence on them from heaven; the earth trembles and stands silently before you. ⁹ You stand up to punish the evildoers and to defend the meek of the earth. ¹⁰ Man’s futile wrath will bring you glory. You will use it as an ornament!

¹¹ Fulfill all your vows that you have made to Jehovah your God. Let everyone bring him presents. He should be reverenced and feared, ¹² for he cuts down princes and does awesome things to the kings of the earth.

29 Late in December of the tenth year (of the imprisonment of King Jehoiachin), this message came to me from the Lord:

² “Son of dust, face toward Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh her king and all her people. ³ Tell them that the Lord God says: ‘I am your enemy, Pharaoh, king of Egypt—mighty dragon lying in the middle of your rivers. For you have said, “The Nile is mine; I have made it for myself!” ⁴ I will put hooks into your jaws and drag you out onto the land with fish sticking to your scales. ⁵ And I will leave you and all the fish stranded in the desert to die, and you won’t be buried, for I have given you as food to the wild animals and birds.

⁶ “‘Because of the way your might collapsed when Israel called on you for aid instead of trusting me,^[a] all of you shall know I am the Lord. ⁷ Israel leaned on you but, like a cracked staff, you snapped beneath her hand and wrenched her shoulder out of joint and made her stagger with the pain. ⁸ Therefore the Lord God says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt, and destroy both men and herds. ⁹ The land of Egypt shall become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I, the Lord, have done it.

¹⁰ “‘Because you said: “The Nile is mine! I made it!” therefore I am against you and your river, and I will utterly destroy the land of Egypt, from Migdol to Syene, as far south as the border of Ethiopia. ¹¹ For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither men nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited. ¹² I will make Egypt desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities will lie as wastelands for forty years. I will exile the Egyptians to other lands.

¹⁵ For just then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting down from heaven, “The Kingdom of this world now belongs to our Lord, and to his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.”^[a]

¹⁶ And the twenty-four Elders sitting on their thrones before God threw themselves down in worship, saying, ¹⁷ “We give thanks, Lord God Almighty, who is and was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign. ¹⁸ The nations were angry with you, but now it is your turn to be angry with them. It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants—prophets and people alike, all who fear your Name, both great and small—and to destroy those who have caused destruction upon the earth.”

¹⁹ Then, in heaven, the temple of God was opened and the ark of his covenant could be seen inside. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed and roared, and there was a great hailstorm, and the world was shaken by a mighty earthquake.