Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer for the Lord’s Help

123 I lift up my eyes to You, O You Whose throne is in the heavens. ² See, the eyes of servants look to the hand of their owner. The eyes of a woman servant look to the hand of her owner. So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He shows us loving-kindness.

³ Show loving-kindness to us, O Lord. Show loving-kindness to us. For we have had our fill of hate. ⁴ The proud have laughed at us too long. We have had more than enough of their hate.

The Death of Joshua

⁶ When Joshua sent the people of Israel away, each one went home to his own land. ⁷ The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the leaders who lived longer than Joshua and who had seen all the great works the Lord had done for Israel. ⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was 110 years old. ⁹ They buried him within his land in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ All the people of that day died. The children who came after them did not know the Lord. They did not know about the things He had done for Israel.

Israel Is No Longer Faithful to the Lord

¹¹ Then the people of Israel sinned in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals, the gods of the Canaanites. ¹² They turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, Who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods of the nations around them, and worshiped them. So they made the Lord angry. ¹³ They turned away from the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ The Lord was angry with Israel. He gave them into the hands of angry men who robbed them. He sold them into the hands of those around them who hated them. The people of Israel could no longer stand in front of those who hated them. ¹⁵ The Lord punished them everywhere they went. The Lord did what He had told them and promised them He would do. The people were very troubled.

The First Jar—Painful Sores

16 Then I heard a loud voice coming from the house of God. The voice said to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven jars of God’s anger onto the earth!”

² The first angel poured out his jar of God’s anger onto the earth. Painful sores were given to everyone who had the mark of the wild animal and who worshiped his god.

The Second Jar—Death in the Sea

³ The second angel poured out his jar of God’s anger onto the sea. The water became like the blood of a dead man. Every living thing in the sea died.

The Third Jar—Water Turns to Blood

⁴ The third angel poured out his jar of God’s anger onto the rivers and places where water comes out of the earth. The water turned to blood. ⁵ I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are right in punishing by sending this trouble. You are the Holy One Who was and is and will be. ⁶ They have poured out the blood of God’s people and of the early preachers. You have given them blood to drink. They are getting the pay that is coming to them.” ⁷ I heard a voice from the altar saying, “Lord God, the All-powerful One! What You decide about people is right and true.”