Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

78 An Instruction of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law, Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth.

² I open with a simile my mouth, I bring forth hidden things of old,

³ That we have heard and do know, And our fathers have recounted to us.

⁴ We do not hide from their sons, To a later generation recounting praises of Jehovah, And His strength, and His wonders that He hath done.

⁵ And He raiseth up a testimony in Jacob, And a law hath placed in Israel, That He commanded our fathers, To make them known to their sons.

⁶ So that a later generation doth know, Sons who are born, do rise and recount to their sons,

⁷ And place in God their confidence, And forget not the doings of God, But keep His commands.

³⁰ Then doth Joshua build an altar to Jehovah, God of Israel, in mount Ebal,

³¹ as Moses, servant of Jehovah, commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses -- an altar of whole stones, over which he hath not waved iron -- and they cause to go up upon it burnt-offerings to Jehovah, and sacrifice peace-offerings;

³² and he writeth there on the stones the copy of the law of Moses, which he hath written in the presence of the sons of Israel.

³³ And all Israel, and its elders, and authorities, and its judges, are standing on this side and on that of the ark, over-against the priests, the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the sojourner as the native, half of them over-against mount Gerizim, and the half of them over-against mount Ebal, as Moses servant of Jehovah commanded to bless the people of Israel at the first.

³⁴ And afterwards he hath proclaimed all the words of the law, the blessing and the reviling, according to all that is written in the book of the law;

³⁵ there hath not been a thing of all that Moses commanded which Joshua hath not proclaimed before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the infants, and the sojourner who is going in their midst.

¹³ And the sixth messenger did sound, and I heard a voice out of the four horns of the altar of gold that is before God,

¹⁴ saying to the sixth messenger who had the trumpet, `Loose the four messengers who are bound at the great river Euphrates;'

¹⁵ and loosed were the four messengers, who have been made ready for the hour, and day, and month, and year, that they may kill the third of men;

¹⁶ and the number of the forces of the horsemen [is] two myriads of myriads, and I heard the number of them.

¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those sitting upon them, having breastplates of fire, and jacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of the horses [are] as heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceedeth fire, and smoke, and brimstone;

¹⁸ by these three were the third of men killed, from the fire, and from the smoke, and from the brimstone, that is proceeding out of their mouth,

¹⁹ for their authorities are in their mouth, and in their tails, for their tails [are] like serpents, having heads, and with them they do injure;

²⁰ and the rest of men, who were not killed in these plagues, neither did reform from the works of their hands, that they may not bow before the demons, and idols, those of gold, and those of silver, and those of brass, and those of stone, and those of wood, that are neither able to see, nor to hear, nor to walk,

²¹ yea they did not reform from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their whoredoms, nor from their thefts.