Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A maskil by Asaph.

¹⁰ The people of Israel camped at Gilgal in the Jericho plain. There they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month. ¹¹ On the day after the Passover, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain. ¹² The day after that, the manna stopped. The people of Israel never had manna again. That year they began to eat the crops that grew in Canaan.

⁶ The seven angels who had the seven trumpets got ready to blow them.

The First Four Angels Blow Their Trumpets

⁷ When the first angel blew his trumpet, hail and fire were mixed with blood, and were thrown on the earth. One-third of the earth was burned up, one-third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

⁸ When the second angel blew his trumpet, something like a huge mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. One-third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹ one-third of the creatures that were living in the sea died, and one-third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ When the third angel blew his trumpet, a huge star flaming like a torch fell from the sky. It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs. ¹¹ That star was named Wormwood. One-third of the water turned into wormwood, and many people died from this water because it had turned bitter.

¹² When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, one-third of the sun, one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars were struck so that one-third of them turned dark. There was no light for one-third of the day and one-third of the night.

¹³ I saw an eagle flying overhead, and I heard it say in a loud voice, “Catastrophe, catastrophe, catastrophe for those living on earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts which the three angels are about to blow.”

The Fifth and Sixth Angels Blow Their Trumpets

9 When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky. The star was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. ² It opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and smoke came out of the shaft like the smoke from a large furnace. The smoke darkened the sun and the air. ³ Locusts came out of the smoke onto the earth, and they were given power like the power of earthly scorpions. ⁴ They were told not to harm any grass, green plant, or tree on the earth. They could harm only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were not allowed to kill them. They were only allowed to torture them for five months. Their torture was like the pain of a scorpion’s sting. ⁶ At that time people will look for death and never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They seemed to have crowns that looked like gold on their heads. Their faces were like human faces. ⁸ They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like lions’ teeth. ⁹ They had breastplates like iron. The noise from their wings was like the roar of chariots with many horses rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails and stingers like scorpions. They had the power to hurt people with their tails for five months. ¹¹ The king who ruled them was the angel from the bottomless pit. In Hebrew he is called Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

¹² The first catastrophe is over. After these things there are two more catastrophes yet to come.