Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Lord’s Righteous Judgments

To the Chief Musician. To the tune of ^[a]“Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David.

Vision of the Horses

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet: ⁸ I saw by night, and behold, ^(A)a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow; and behind him were ^(B)horses: red, sorrel, and white. ⁹ Then I said, ^(C)“My lord, what are these?” So the angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”

¹⁰ And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, ^(D)“These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”

^11 (E)So they answered the Angel of the Lord, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is ^[a]resting quietly.”

The Lord Will Comfort Zion

¹² Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, ^(F)how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry ^(G)these seventy years?”

¹³ And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me, with ^(H)good and comforting words. ¹⁴ So the angel who spoke with me said to me, ^[b]“Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:

¹⁶ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord:

¹⁷ “Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:

God’s Righteous Judgment

2 Therefore you are ^(A)inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, ^(B)for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. ² But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. ³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise ^(C)the riches of His goodness, ^(D)forbearance, and ^(E)longsuffering, ^(F)not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your ^[a]impenitent heart ^(G)you are ^[b]treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who ^(H)“will render to each one according to his deeds”: ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and ^(I)do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew ^(J)first and also of the ^[c]Greek; ^10 (K)but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹¹ For ^(L)there is no partiality with God.