Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer for Help^{[a] (A)}

3 People of Israel, listen to this message which the Lord has spoken about you, the entire nation that he brought out of Egypt: ² “Of all the nations on earth, you are the only one I have known and cared for. That is what makes your sins so terrible, and that is why I must punish you for them.”

The Prophet's Task

³ Do two people start traveling together without arranging to meet?

⁴ Does a lion roar in the forest unless he has found a victim?

Does a young lion growl in his den unless he has caught something?

⁵ Does a bird get caught in a trap if the trap has not been baited?

Does a trap spring unless something sets it off?

⁶ Does the war trumpet sound in a city without making the people afraid?

Does disaster strike a city unless the Lord sends it?

⁷ The Sovereign Lord never does anything without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.

⁸ When a lion roars, who can keep from being afraid?

When the Sovereign Lord speaks, who can keep from proclaiming his message?

The Doom of Samaria

⁹ Announce to those who live in the palaces of Egypt and Ashdod: “Gather together in the hills around Samaria and see the great disorder and the crimes being committed there.”

¹⁰ The Lord says, “These people fill their mansions with things taken by crime and violence. They don't even know how to be honest. ¹¹ And so an enemy will surround their land, destroy their defenses, and plunder their mansions.”

¹² The Lord says, “As a shepherd recovers only two legs or an ear of a sheep that a lion has eaten, so only a few will survive of Samaria's people, who now recline on luxurious couches.^[a]

^13 (A)Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God. ¹⁴ The voice said to the sixth angel, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River!” ¹⁵ The four angels were released; for this very hour of this very day of this very month and year they had been kept ready to kill a third of all the human race. ¹⁶ I was told the number of the mounted troops: it was two hundred million. ^17 (B)And in my vision I saw the horses and their riders: they had breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulfur. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and from their mouths came out fire, smoke, and sulfur. ¹⁸ A third of the human race was killed by those three plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur coming out of the horses' mouths. ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.

^20 (C)The rest of the human race, all those who had not been killed by these plagues, did not turn away from what they themselves had made. They did not stop worshiping demons, nor the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or their stealing.