Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for Mercy
A song for going up to worship.
123 Lord, I look upward to you,
you who live in heaven.
2 Slaves depend on their masters,
and a female servant depends on her mistress.
In the same way, we depend on the Lord our God;
we wait for him to show us mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy on 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 sent the people back to their land. 7 The people served the Lord during the lifetime of Joshua and during the lifetimes of the elders who lived after 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 at Timnath Serah in the mountains of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
The People Disobey
10 After those people had died, their children grew up and did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel. 11 So they did what the Lord said was wrong, and they worshiped the Baal idols. 12 They quit following 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 the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. 14 The Lord was angry with the people of Israel, so he handed them over to robbers who took their possessions. He let their enemies who lived around them defeat them; they could not protect themselves. 15 When the Israelites went out to fight, they always lost, because the Lord was not with them. 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 saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s anger on the earth.”
2 The first angel left and 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, and it became blood like that of a dead man, 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. 5 Then I heard the angel of the waters saying:
“Holy One, you are the One who is and who was.
You are right to decide to punish these evil people.
6 They have poured out the blood of your holy people and your prophets.
So now you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
7 And I heard a voice coming from the altar saying:
“Yes, Lord God Almighty,
the way you punish evil people is right and fair.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.