Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 130

A pilgrimage song.

First vision

1 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, I was with the exiles at the Chebar River when the heavens opened and I saw visions of God. ² (It happened on the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year after King Jehoiachin’s deportation. ³ The Lord’s word burst in on the priest Ezekiel, Buzi’s son, in the land of Babylon at the Chebar River. There the Lord’s power overcame him.)

⁸ As for you, human one, listen to what I say to you. Don’t become rebellious like that household of rebels. Open your mouth and eat what I give you. ⁹ Then I looked, and there in a hand stretched out to me was a scroll. ¹⁰ He spread it open in front of me, and it was filled with writing on both sides, songs of mourning, lamentation, and doom.

3 Then he said to me: Human one, eat this thing that you’ve found. Eat this scroll and go, speak to the house of Israel. ² So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. ³ He said to me: Human one, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. So I ate it, and in my mouth it became as sweet as honey.

John receives the open scroll

10 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven. He was robed with a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet were like fiery pillars. ² He held an open scroll in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. ³ He called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring, and when he called out, the seven thunders raised their voices. ⁴ When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and don’t write it down.”

⁵ Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. ⁶ He swore by the one who lives forever and always, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, and said, “The time is up. ⁷ In the days when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious purpose will be accomplished, fulfilling the good news he gave to his servants the prophets.”

⁸ Then the voice I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the opened scroll from the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” ⁹ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will make you sick to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” ¹⁰ So I took the scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. And it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it made my stomach churn. ¹¹ I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”