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.

¹⁶ Then the Lord gave them special men to judge between what was right or wrong. These men saved them from those who robbed them. ¹⁷ But the people did not listen to those chosen to judge. The people were not faithful to the Lord and they worshiped other gods. They were quick to turn aside from the way their fathers had walked in obeying the Laws of the Lord. They did not do as their fathers had done. ¹⁸ When the Lord gave them special men to judge them, the Lord was with the judge. And He saved them from those who hated them. For the Lord showed them pity because of their pain when others made it hard for them and hurt them. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, they would turn again and act worse than their fathers. They would follow other gods and serve them and worship them. They would not give up their sinful acts or their strong wills. ²⁰ So the anger of the Lord was against Israel. He said, “This nation has sinned against My agreement I made with their fathers. They have not listened to My voice. ²¹ I will stop driving away from them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. ²² I will use them to test Israel. I will see if Israel will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it like their fathers did, or not.” ²³ So the Lord let those nations stay. He was not quick to drive them out. And He did not give them into the power of Joshua.

The Fourth Jar—Burning Heat

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his jar of God’s anger onto the sun. It was allowed to burn men with its fire. ⁹ Men were burned with the heat of this fire and they called God bad names even when He had the power over these kinds of trouble. They were not sorry for their sins and did not turn from them and honor Him.

The Fifth Jar—Darkness

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his jar of God’s anger upon the throne of the wild animal. The whole nation of the wild animal was turned into darkness. Those who worshiped him bit their tongues because of the pain. ¹¹ They called the God of heaven bad names because of their pain and their sores. They were not sorry for what they had done.

The Sixth Jar—the Euphrates River Dries Up

¹² The sixth angel poured out his jar of God’s anger onto the great Euphrates River. The water dried up. In this way, the kings of the countries of the east could cross over. ¹³ Then I saw three demons that looked like frogs. They came out of the mouths of the dragon and the second wild animal and the false preacher. ¹⁴ These are demons that do powerful works. These demons go to all the kings of all the earth. They bring them together for the war of the great day of the All-powerful God.

¹⁵ (See! I will come like a robber. The man is happy who stays awake and keeps his clothes ready. He will not be walking around without clothes and be ashamed.) ¹⁶ Then the demons brought the kings together in the place called Armageddon in the Hebrew language.

The Seventh Jar—the Earth Shakes and Hail Falls

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his jar of God’s anger into the air. A loud voice came from the throne in the house of God, saying, “It is all done!” ¹⁸ Then there were voices and lightning and thunder and the earth shook. The earth shook much more than it had ever shaken before. ¹⁹ The big and strong city of Babylon was split in three parts. The cities of other nations fell to the ground. Then God remembered the strong city of Babylon. He made her drink the wine from His cup of much anger. ²⁰ Every island went down into the sea. No mountain could be found. ²¹ Large pieces of hail fell from heaven on men. These pieces were about as heavy as an older child. But men called God bad names because of so much trouble from the hail.