Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Prayer for Relief from Adversaries(A)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. (B)To bring to remembrance.
70 Make haste, (C)O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord!
2 (D)Let them be ashamed and confounded
Who seek my life;
Let them be [a]turned back and confused
Who desire my hurt.
3 (E)Let them be turned back because of their shame,
Who say, [b]“Aha, aha!”
4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified!”
Authority of the Prophet’s Message
3 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:
2 “You(A) only have I known of all the families of the earth;
(B)Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?
Will a young lion [a]cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?
5 Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no [b]trap for it?
Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all?
6 If a [c]trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?
(C)If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless (D)He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
8 A lion has roared!
Who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken!
(E)Who can but prophesy?
Punishment of Israel’s Sins
9 “Proclaim in the palaces at [d]Ashdod,
And in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say:
‘Assemble on the mountains of Samaria;
See great tumults in her midst,
And the [e]oppressed within her.
10 For they (F)do not know to do right,’
Says the Lord,
‘Who store up violence and [f]robbery in their palaces.’ ”
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“An adversary shall be all around the land;
He shall sap your strength from you,
And your palaces shall be plundered.”
12 Thus says the Lord:
Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates
13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the (A)golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound (B)at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a (C)third of mankind. 16 Now (D)the number of the army (E)of the horsemen was two hundred million; (F)I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; (G)and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For [a]their power is in their mouth and in their tails; (H)for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, (I)did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship (J)demons, (K)and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders (L)or their [b]sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.