Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise the Name of the Lord

⁸ “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. ^(A)Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and ^(B)eat what I give you.” ⁹ And when I looked, behold, ^(C)a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, ^(D)a scroll of a book was in it. ¹⁰ And he spread it before me. And it had writing ^(E)on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3 And he said to me, ^(F)“Son of man, eat whatever you find here. ^(G)Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” ^(H)Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth ^(I)as sweet as honey.

⁴ And he said to me, ^(J)“Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— ⁶ not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. ^(K)Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. ^7 (L)But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel ^(M)have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. ^8 (N)Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ Like ^(O)emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. ^(P)Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” ¹⁰ Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, ^(Q)all my words that I shall speak to you receive ^(R)in your heart, and hear with your ears. ¹¹ And go to the exiles, ^(S)to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ^(T)‘Thus says the Lord God’, ^(U)whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

The Angel and the Little Scroll

10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with ^(A)a rainbow over his head, and ^(B)his face was like the sun, and ^(C)his legs like pillars of fire. ^2 (D)He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, ³ and called out with a loud voice, ^(E)like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. ⁴ And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ^(F)“Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” ⁵ And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land ^(G)raised his right hand to heaven ⁶ and swore by ^(H)him who lives for ever and ever, ^(I)who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, ⁷ but that ^(J)in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, ^(K)just as he announced to his servants^[a] the prophets.

⁸ Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” ⁹ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, ^(L)“Take and ^(M)eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” ¹⁰ And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. ¹¹ And I was told, ^(N)“You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”