Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord the Shepherd

A song of David.

³⁹ “‘This is what the Lord God says: People of Israel, go serve your idols for now. But later you will listen to me. You will not continue to dishonor my holy name with your gifts and false gods. ⁴⁰ My holy mountain is the high mountain of Israel. There all Israel will serve me in the land, says the Lord God. There I will accept you. There I will look for your offerings. I will look for the first harvest of your offerings and all your holy gifts. ⁴¹ I will accept you like a pleasing smell. This will happen when I bring you out from the foreign nations. It will take place when I gather you from the lands where you are scattered. Then through you I will show how holy I am. The nations will see it. ⁴² When I bring you into the land of Israel, you will know that I am the Lord. I will bring you into the land I promised your ancestors. ⁴³ There you will remember everything you did that made you unclean. Then you will hate yourselves for all the evil things you have done. ⁴⁴ I will deal with you to show who I am. Then you will know I am the Lord, people of Israel. But it’s not because of your evil ways or unclean actions, says the Lord God.’”

6 Then I watched while the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. I heard one of the four living things speak with a voice like thunder. It said, “Come!” ² I looked and there before me was a white horse. The rider on the horse held a bow, and he was given a crown. And he rode out, defeating the enemy. He rode out to win the victory.

³ The Lamb opened the second seal. Then I heard the second living thing say, “Come!” ⁴ Then another horse came out. This was a red horse. Its rider was given power to take away peace from the earth. He was given power to make people kill each other. And he was given a big sword.

⁵ The Lamb opened the third seal. Then I heard the third living thing say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse. Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ Then I heard something that sounded like a voice. It came from where the four living things were. The voice said, “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay. And three quarts of barley for a day’s pay. And do not damage the olive oil and wine!”

⁷ The Lamb opened the fourth seal. Then I heard the voice of the fourth living thing say, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death. Hades^[a] was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth. They were given power to kill people by war, by starving them, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

⁹ The Lamb opened the fifth seal. Then I saw some souls under the altar. They were the souls of those who had been killed because they were faithful to God’s message and to the truth they had received. ¹⁰ These souls shouted in a loud voice, “Holy and true Lord, how long until you judge the people of the earth and punish them for killing us?” ¹¹ Then each one of these souls was given a white robe. They were told to wait a short time longer. There were still some of their brothers in the service of Christ who must be killed as they were. They were told to wait until all of this killing was finished.

¹² Then I watched while the Lamb opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun became black like rough black cloth. The full moon became red like blood. ¹³ The stars in the sky fell to the earth like figs falling from a fig tree when the wind blows. ¹⁴ The sky disappeared. It was rolled up like a scroll. And every mountain and island was moved from its place.

¹⁵ Then all people hid in caves and behind the rocks on the mountains. There were the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the rich people and the powerful people. Everyone, slave and free, hid himself. ¹⁶ They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us. Hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne. Hide us from the anger of the Lamb! ¹⁷ The great day for their anger has come. Who can stand against it?”

The 144,000 People of Israel

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. The angels were holding the four winds of the earth. They were stopping the wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. ² Then I saw another angel coming from the east. This angel had the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels. These were the four angels that God had given power to harm the earth and the sea. He said to the four angels, ³ “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees before we put the sign on the people who serve our God. We must put the sign on their foreheads.” ⁴ Then I heard how many people were marked with the sign. There were 144,000. They were from every tribe of the people of Israel.