Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

123 O God enthroned in heaven, I lift my eyes to you.

² We look to Jehovah our God for his mercy and kindness just as a servant keeps his eyes upon his master or a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.

^3-4 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. For we have had our fill of contempt and of the scoffing of the rich and proud.

⁶ When Joshua finally disbanded the armies of Israel, the tribes moved into their new territories and took possession of the land. ^7-9 Joshua, the man of God, died at the age of 110 and was buried at the edge of his property in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. The people had remained true to the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime, and as long afterward as the old men of his generation were still living—those who had seen the mighty miracles the Lord had done for Israel.

¹⁰ But finally all that generation died; and the next generation did not worship Jehovah as their God and did not care about the mighty miracles he had done for Israel. ¹¹ They did many things that the Lord had expressly forbidden, including the worshiping of heathen gods. ^12-14 They abandoned Jehovah, the God loved and worshiped by their ancestors—the God who had brought them out of Egypt. Instead, they were worshiping and bowing low before the idols of the neighboring nations. So the anger of the Lord flamed out against all Israel. He left them to the mercy of their enemies, for they had departed from Jehovah and were worshiping Baal and the Ashtaroth idols.

¹⁵ So now when the nation of Israel went out to battle against its enemies, the Lord blocked their path. He had warned them about this, and in fact had vowed that he would do it. But when the people were in this terrible plight,

16 And I heard a mighty voice shouting from the temple to the seven angels, “Now go your ways and empty out the seven flasks of the wrath of God upon the earth.”

² So the first angel left the temple and poured out his flask over the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the Creature and was worshiping his statue.

³ The second angel poured out his flask upon the oceans, and they became like the watery blood of a dead man; and everything in all the oceans died.

⁴ The third angel poured out his flask upon the rivers and springs and they became blood. ⁵ And I heard this angel of the waters declaring, “You are just in sending this judgment, O Holy One, who is and was, ⁶ for your saints and prophets have been martyred and their blood poured out upon the earth; and now, in turn, you have poured out the blood of those who murdered them; it is their just reward.”

⁷ And I heard the angel of the altar say,^[a] “Yes, Lord God Almighty, your punishments are just and true.”