Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God’s Kindness to Rebellious Israel
A (A)Contemplation[a] of Asaph.
78 Give ear, O my people, to my law;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a (B)parable;
I will utter [b]dark sayings of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
4 (C)We will not hide them from their children,
(D)Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 For (E)He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers,
That (F)they should make them known to their children;
6 (G)That the generation to come might know them,
The children who would be born,
That they may arise and declare them to their children,
7 That they may set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments;
Joshua Renews the Covenant(A)
30 Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel (B)in Mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: (C)“an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And (D)they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, (E)he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, (F)who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, (G)the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, (H)as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward (I)he read all the words of the law, (J)the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the (K)Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, (L)with the women, the little ones, (M)and the strangers who were living among them.
Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates
13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the (A)golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound (B)at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a (C)third of mankind. 16 Now (D)the number of the army (E)of the horsemen was two hundred million; (F)I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; (G)and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For [a]their power is in their mouth and in their tails; (H)for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, (I)did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship (J)demons, (K)and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders (L)or their [b]sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.