Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

78 O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying. ^2-3 For I will show you lessons from our history, stories handed down to us from former generations. ⁴ I will reveal these truths to you so that you can describe these glorious deeds of Jehovah to your children and tell them about the mighty miracles he did. ⁵ For he gave his laws to Israel and commanded our fathers to teach them to their children, ⁶ so that they in turn could teach their children too. Thus his laws pass down from generation to generation. ⁷ In this way each generation has been able to obey his laws and to set its hope anew on God and not forget his glorious miracles.

¹⁰ While they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover during the evening of April first.^{[a] 11-12} The next day they began to eat from the gardens and grain fields which they invaded, and they made unleavened bread. The following day no manna fell, and it was never seen again! So from that time on they lived on the crops of Canaan.

⁶ Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts.

⁷ The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down upon the earth. One-third of the earth was set on fire so that one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass.

^8-9 Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and what appeared to be a huge burning mountain was thrown into the sea, destroying a third of all the ships; and a third of the sea turned red as blood;^[a] and a third of the fish were killed.

¹⁰ The third angel blew, and a great flaming star fell from heaven upon a third of the rivers and springs. ¹¹ The star was called “Bitterness”^[b] because it poisoned a third of all the water on the earth and many people died.

¹² The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and immediately a third of the sun was blighted and darkened, and a third of the moon and the stars so that the daylight was dimmed by a third, and the nighttime darkness deepened. ¹³ As I watched, I saw a solitary eagle flying through the heavens crying loudly, “Woe, woe, woe to the people of the earth because of the terrible things that will soon happen when the three remaining angels blow their trumpets.”

9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw one who had fallen to earth from heaven,^[c] and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. ² When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from some huge furnace, and the sun and air were darkened by the smoke.

³ Then locusts came from the smoke and descended onto the earth and were given power to sting like scorpions. ⁴ They were told not to hurt the grass or plants or trees, but to attack those people who did not have the mark of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were not to kill them, but to torture them for five months with agony like the pain of scorpion stings. ⁶ In those days men will try to kill themselves but won’t be able to—death will not come. They will long to die—but death will flee away!

⁷ The locusts looked like horses armored for battle. They had what looked like golden crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like men’s. ⁸ Their hair was long like women’s, and their teeth were those of lions. ⁹ They wore breastplates that seemed to be of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had stinging tails like scorpions, and their power to hurt, given to them for five months, was in their tails. ¹¹ Their king is the Prince of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon (and in English, the Destroyer).^[d]

¹² One terror now ends, but there are two more coming!