Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for help against persecutors.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; ^[a]to bring to remembrance.

3 Hear this word that Jehovah hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, ² You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities. ³ Shall two walk together, except they have ^[a]agreed? ⁴ Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? ⁵ Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is set for him? shall a snare spring up from the ground, and have taken nothing at all? ⁶ Shall the trumpet be blown in a city, and the people not be afraid? shall evil befall a city, and Jehovah hath not done it? ⁷ Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except he reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets. ⁸ The lion hath roared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?

⁹ Publish ye ^[b]in the palaces at Ashdod, and ^[c]in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold what great tumults are therein, and what oppressions in the midst thereof. ¹⁰ For they know not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. ¹¹ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: An adversary there shall be, even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be plundered. ¹² Thus saith Jehovah: As the shepherd rescueth out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued that sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and ^[d]on the silken cushions of a bed.

¹³ And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard ^[a]a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ one saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, Loose the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates. ¹⁵ And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men. ¹⁶ And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: I heard the number of them. ¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone: and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceedeth fire and smoke and brimstone. ¹⁸ By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails are like unto serpents, and have heads; and with them they hurt. ²⁰ And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not ^[b]worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk: ²¹ and they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.