Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for Mercy
A song for going up to worship.
123 Lord, I look up to you.
You live in heaven.
2 Slaves depend on their masters.
And a female servant depends on her mistress.
In the same way, we depend on our God.
We wait for him to show us mercy.
3 Be kind to us, Lord. Be kind to us
because we have been insulted.
4 We have suffered many insults from lazy people
and much cruelty from the proud.
Joshua Dies
6 Then Joshua told the people they could go home. So each one went to take his own share of the land. 7 The people of Israel served the Lord as long as Joshua was alive. They continued serving the Lord during the lifetimes of the elders who lived on after Joshua. These men had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun was the servant of the Lord. Joshua died at the age of 110. 9 So the Israelites buried him in the land he had been given. That land was at Timnath Heres. It was in the mountains of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
The People Disobey
10 After those people had died, their children grew up. They did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel. 11 So they did evil and worshiped the Baal idols. They did what the Lord said was wrong. 12 The Lord had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. And the ancestors of these people had worshiped the Lord. But the Israelites quit following the Lord. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them. That made the Lord angry. 13 The Israelites quit following the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. 14 The Lord was angry with the people of Israel. So he let robbers attack them and take their possessions. He let their enemies who lived around them defeat them. They could not protect themselves from their enemies. 15 When the Israelites went out to fight, they always lost. They lost because the Lord was not on their side. The Lord had sworn to them this would happen. So the Israelites suffered very much.
The Bowls of God’s Anger
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple. The voice said to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s anger on the earth.”
2 The first angel left. He poured out his bowl on the land. Then ugly and painful sores came upon all those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his idol.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. Then the sea became blood like that of a dead man. Every living thing in the sea died.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water. And they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel of the waters say to God:
“Holy One, you are the One who is and who was.
You are right to decide to punish these evil people.
6 They have spilled the blood of your holy people and your prophets.
Now you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
7 And I heard the altar say:
“Yes, Lord God All-Powerful,
the way you punish evil people is right and fair.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.