Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for Mercy
A song ·for going up to worship [of ascents; C perhaps sung while traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate an annual religious festival like Passover].
123 Lord, I ·look upward [L lift up my eyes] to you,
you who ·live [are enthroned; L sit] in heaven.
2 ·Slaves depend on their masters [L Like the eyes of servants/slaves to the hand of their master],
and ·a female servant depends on her mistress [L like the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress].
·In the same way, we depend on the Lord our God [L …thus our eyes are to the Lord our God as…];
we wait for him to show us ·mercy [grace].
3 ·Have mercy on [Be gracious to] us, Lord. ·Have mercy on [Be gracious to] us,
because we have been insulted.
4 We ·have suffered [are filled with the] ·many insults [much ridicule] from ·lazy [untroubled; unworried] people
and much ·cruelty [scorn] from the proud.
Joshua Dies
6 After Joshua ·dismissed [sent away] the people, the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] went to take possession of the land that they had been given. 7 The people ·served [worshiped; remained faithful to] the Lord during the lifetime of Joshua and during the lifetimes of the elders who ·lived after [outlived] Joshua and who had seen what great things the Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred ten. 9 They buried him in ·his own land [the territory of his inheritance] at Timnath Heres [C also known as Timnath Serah; Josh. 19:50; 24:30] in the ·mountains [hill country] of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
The People Disobey
10 After ·those people [L the whole generation] ·had died [L were gathered to their fathers/ancestors], ·their children [L another generation] grew up and did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel. 11 So ·they [L the sons/T children of Israel] did ·what the Lord said was wrong [L evil in the eyes/sight of the Lord], and they worshiped the ·Baal idols [L Baals; C Baal was the main god of the Canaanites, but had many local manifestations]. 12 They ·quit following [abandoned] the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them, and that made the Lord angry. 13 The Israelites ·quit following [abandoned] the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. 14 The Lord was angry with the people of Israel, so he ·handed them over to [gave them into the hand of] ·robbers [raiders; plunderers] who took their possessions. He ·let their enemies who lived around them defeat them [L sold them into the hand of their enemies around them]; they could not ·protect themselves [resist/L stand before them]. 15 When the Israelites went out to fight, ·they always lost, because the Lord was not with them [L the hand of the Lord was against them for harm/evil]. The Lord had sworn to them this would happen. So the Israelites ·suffered very much [were in great distress].
The Bowls of God’s Anger
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s ·anger [wrath] on the earth.”
2 The first angel left and poured out his bowl on the land. Then ·ugly [foul] and painful sores [C reminiscent of the sixth Egyptian plague; Ex. 9:9–11; Job 2] came upon all those who had the ·mark [brand] of the beast and who worshiped his ·idol [image].
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood like that of a ·dead man [corpse; C reminiscent of the first Egyptian plague; Ex. 7:14–21; see also 8:8–9], and 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 [C also similar to the first Egyptian plague]. 5 Then I heard the angel of the waters saying:
“[L O] Holy One, you are the One who is and who was.
You are ·right [just] ·to decide to punish [or because you judged] these ·evil people [L things].
6 [L Because] They have poured out the blood of your ·holy people [T saints] and your prophets.
So now you have given them blood to drink as they deserve [Is. 49:26].”
7 And I heard ·a voice coming from the altar [L the altar] saying:
“Yes, Lord God ·Almighty [All-powerful],
·the way you punish evil people is [L your judgments are] ·right [true] and ·fair [just; righteous].”
The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.