Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

For the music director. Of David. To bring to remembrance.^[a]

Israel’s Guilt and Punishment

3 Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole clan that I brought up from the land of Egypt:^{[a] 2} “You only have I chosen^[b] of all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. ³ Do two walk together unless they have met? ⁴ Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?^[c] Does a fierce, young lion cry out from his den unless he has caught something? ⁵ Does a bird fall into a trapping net on the earth when there is no snare for it? Does a trapping net spring up from the ground unless it has certainly caught something? ⁶ Or is a horn blown in a city and people are not afraid? Or does a disaster occur in the city and Yahweh has not done it? ⁷ Surely my Lord does not do anything unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets. ⁸ A lion has roared! Who is not afraid? My Lord Yahweh has spoken, who will not prophesy? ⁹ Proclaim to the citadel fortresses in Ashdod and the citadel fortresses in the land of Egypt and say: “Gather on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic in her midst and the oppression in her midst!” ¹⁰ “They do not know how to do right,” declares Yahweh,^[d] “those who store up violence and destruction in their citadel fortresses.” ¹¹ Therefore, thus says my Lord Yahweh, “A foe shall surround the land and bring down your strongholds, and your citadel fortresses shall be plundered.” ¹² Thus says Yahweh, “Just as the shepherd rescues two legs or a piece of an ear from the mouth of the lion, so shall the people^[e] of Israel who dwell in Samaria, with the corner of a couch and the damask of a bed.”

A Third of Humanity Killed by Plagues

¹³ And the sixth angel blew the trumpet, and I heard one voice from the horns^[a] of the golden altar that is before God ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel, the one who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who have been bound at the great river Euphrates!” ¹⁵ And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released, in order that they should kill a third of humanity. ¹⁶ And the number of the troops of the cavalry was two hundred million^[b]; I heard the number of them. ¹⁷ And in this way I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them, who had fiery red and hyacinth-colored and sulphurous yellow breastplates, and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and sulphur. ¹⁸ By these three plagues a third of humanity was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the sulphur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are similar in appearance to snakes, having heads, and with them they cause injury.^[c]

²⁰ And the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, in order not to worship^[d] the demons and the gold and silver and bronze and stone and wooden idols, which are able neither to see nor to hear nor to walk, ²¹ and they did not repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual immorality or of their thefts.