Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God and His People^[a]

^10 (A)While the Israelites were camping at Gilgal on the plain near Jericho, they observed Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month. ¹¹ The next day was the first time they ate food grown in Canaan: roasted grain and bread made without yeast. ^12 (B)The manna stopped falling then, and the Israelites no longer had any. From that time on they ate food grown in Canaan.

The Trumpets

^6 (A)Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

^7 (B)The first angel blew his trumpet. Hail and fire, mixed with blood, came pouring down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees, and every blade of green grass.

⁸ Then the second angel blew his trumpet. Something that looked like a huge mountain on fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea was turned into blood, ⁹ a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

^10 (C)Then the third angel blew his trumpet. A large star, burning like a torch, dropped from the sky and fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ^11 (D)(The name of the star is “Bitterness.”) A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from drinking the water, because it had turned bitter.

^12 (E)Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet. A third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that their light lost a third of its brightness; there was no light during a third of the day and a third of the night also.

¹³ Then I looked, and I heard an eagle that was flying high in the air say in a loud voice, “O horror! horror! How horrible it will be for all who live on earth when the sound comes from the trumpets that the other three angels must blow!”

9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star which had fallen down to the earth, and it was given the key to the abyss.^{[a] 2 (F)}The star opened the abyss, and smoke poured out of it, like the smoke from a large furnace; the sunlight and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. ^3 (G)Locusts came down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they were given the same kind of power that scorpions have. ^4 (H)They were told not to harm the grass or the trees or any other plant; they could harm only the people who did not have the mark of God's seal on their foreheads. ⁵ The locusts were not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months. The pain caused by the torture is like the pain caused by a scorpion's sting. ^6 (I)During those five months they will seek death, but will not find it; they will want to die, but death will flee from them.

^7 (J)The locusts looked like horses ready for battle; on their heads they had what seemed to be crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces. ^8 (K)Their hair was like women's hair, their teeth were like lions' teeth. ^9 (L)Their chests were covered with what looked like iron breastplates, and the sound made by their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months. ¹¹ They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning “The Destroyer”).

¹² The first horror is over; after this there are still two more horrors to come.