Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for going up to the Temple.

¹⁶ Then the Lord chose leaders called judges. These leaders saved the Israelites from the enemies who took their possessions. ¹⁷ But the Israelites did not listen to their judges. The Israelites were not faithful to God—they followed other gods.^[a] In the past, the ancestors of the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s commands. But now the Israelites changed and stopped obeying the Lord.

¹⁸ Many times the enemies of Israel did bad things to the people, so the Israelites would cry for help. And each time the Lord felt sorry for the people and sent a judge to save them from their enemies. The Lord was always with those judges. Each time the Israelites were saved from their enemies. ¹⁹ But when each judge died, the Israelites again sinned and started worshiping the false gods. They acted worse than their ancestors did. The Israelites were very stubborn and refused to change their evil ways.

²⁰ So the Lord became angry with the Israelites, and he said, “This nation has broken the agreement that I made with their ancestors. They have not listened to me. ²¹ So I will no longer defeat the nations and clear the way for the Israelites. Those nations were still in this land when Joshua died, and I will let them stay in this land. ²² I will use them to test the Israelites. I will see if the Israelites can keep the Lord’s commands as their ancestors did.” ²³ The Lord allowed those nations to stay in the land. He did not quickly force them to leave the country. He did not help Joshua’s army defeat them.

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. The sun was given power to burn the people with fire. ⁹ The people were burned by the great heat. They cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues. But they refused to change their hearts and lives and give glory to God.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. And darkness covered the beast’s kingdom. People bit their tongues because of the pain. ¹¹ They cursed the God of heaven because of their pain and the sores they had. But they refused to change their hearts and turn away from the evil things they did.

¹² The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. The water in the river was dried up. This prepared the way for the rulers from the east to come. ¹³ Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs. They came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ These evil spirits are the spirits of demons. They have power to do miracles.^[a] They go out to the rulers of the whole world to gather them for battle on the great day of God All-Powerful.

¹⁵ “Listen! I will come at a time you don’t expect, like a thief. Great blessings belong to those who stay awake and keep their clothes with them. They will not have to go without clothes and be ashamed for people to see them.”

¹⁶ Then the evil spirits gathered the rulers together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. Then a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne. It said, “It is finished!” ¹⁸ Then there were flashes of lightning, noises, thunder, and a big earthquake. This was the worst earthquake that has ever happened since people have been on earth. ¹⁹ The great city split into three parts. The cities of the nations were destroyed. And God did not forget to punish Babylon the Great. He gave that city the cup filled with the wine of his terrible anger. ²⁰ Every island disappeared and there were no more mountains. ²¹ Giant hailstones fell on the people from the sky. These hailstones weighed almost 100 pounds^[b] each. People cursed God because of this plague of the hail. It was terrible.