Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
70 (0) For the leader. By David. As a reminder:
2 (1) God, rescue me!
Adonai, hurry and help me!
3 (2) May those who seek my life
be disgraced and humiliated.
May those who take pleasure in doing me harm
be turned back and put to confusion.
4 (3) May those who jeer, “Aha! Aha!”
withdraw because of their shame.
5 (4) But may all those who seek you
be glad and take joy in you.
May those who love your salvation say always,
“God is great and glorious!”
6 (5) But I am poor and needy;
God, hurry for me.
You are my helper and rescuer;
Adonai, don’t delay!
3 “Listen to this word which Adonai has spoken against you, people of Isra’el, against the entire family that I brought up from the land of Egypt:
2 “Of all the families on earth,
only you have I intimately known.
This is why I will punish you
for all your crimes.”
3 Do two people travel together
without having so agreed?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl in his lair
if it has caught nothing?
5 Does a bird get caught in a trap on the ground
if it hasn’t been baited?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
when it has taken nothing?
6 When the shofar is blown in the city,
don’t the people tremble?
Can disaster befall a city
without Adonai’s having done it?
7 Adonai, God, does nothing without
revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared. Who will not fear?
Adonai, God, has spoken. Who will not prophesy?
9 “Proclaim it on the palaces in Ashdod
and on the palaces in the land of Egypt; say:
‘Assemble yourselves on the hills of Shomron!
See what great tumult is seething within it,
how much oppression is being done there.’
10 For they don’t know how to do right,” says Adonai.
“They store up violence and robbery in their palaces.”
11 Therefore, here is what Adonai Elohim says:
“An enemy will surround the land.
He will strip you of your strength,
and plunder your palaces.”
12 This is what Adonai says:
13 The sixth angel sounded his shofar, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the gold altar before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel, the one with the shofar, “Release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates!” 15 And they were released. These four angels had been kept ready for this moment, for this day and month and year, to kill a third of mankind; 16 and the number of cavalry soldiers was two hundred million! — I heard the number.
17 Here is how the horses looked in the vision: the riders had breastplates that were fire-red, iris-blue and sulfur-yellow; the horses’ heads were like lions’ heads; and from their mouths issued fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 It was these three plagues that killed a third of mankind — the fire, smoke and sulfur issuing from the horses’ mouths. 19 For the power of the horses was in their mouths — and also in their tails, for their tails were like snakes with heads, and with them they could cause injury.
20 The rest of mankind, those who were not killed by these plagues, even then did not turn from what they had made with their own hands — they did not stop worshipping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.[a] 21 Nor did they turn from their murdering, their involvement with the occult and with drugs, their sexual immorality or their stealing.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.