Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer for Mercy

¹⁶ Then the Lord gave the Israelites leaders who saved them from the raiders. ¹⁷ But the Israelites paid no attention to their leaders. Israel was unfaithful to the Lord and worshiped other gods. Their fathers had obeyed the Lord's commands, but this new generation soon stopped doing so. ¹⁸ Whenever the Lord gave Israel a leader, the Lord would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The Lord would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression. ¹⁹ But when the leader died, the people would return to the old ways and behave worse than the previous generation. They would serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly continue their own evil ways. ²⁰ Then the Lord would become furious with Israel and say, “This nation has broken the covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep. Because they have not obeyed me, ²¹ I will no longer drive out any of the nations that were still in the land when Joshua died. ²² I will use them to find out whether or not these Israelites will follow my ways, as their ancestors did.” ²³ So the Lord allowed these nations to remain in the land; he did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did he drive them out soon after Joshua's death.

⁸ Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to burn people with its fiery heat. ⁹ They were burned by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God, who has authority over these plagues. But they would not turn from their sins and praise his greatness.

^10 (A)Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Darkness fell over the beast's kingdom, and people bit their tongues because of their pain, ¹¹ and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not turn from their evil ways.

^12 (B)Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River. The river dried up, to provide a way for the kings who come from the east. ¹³ Then I saw three unclean spirits that looked like frogs. They were coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ They are the spirits of demons that perform miracles. These three spirits go out to all the kings of the world, to bring them together for the battle on the great Day of Almighty God.

^15 (C)“Listen! I am coming like a thief! Happy is he who stays awake and guards his clothes, so that he will not walk around naked and be ashamed in public!”

^16 (D)Then the spirits brought the kings together in the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

¹⁷ Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl in the air. A loud voice came from the throne in the temple, saying, “It is done!” ^18 (E)There were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, and a terrible earthquake. There has never been such an earthquake since the creation of human beings; this was the worst earthquake of all! ^19 (F)The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of all countries were destroyed. God remembered great Babylon and made her drink the wine from his cup—the wine of his furious anger. ^20 (G)All the islands disappeared, all the mountains vanished. ^21 (H)Huge hailstones, each weighing as much as a hundred pounds, fell from the sky on people, who cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because it was such a terrible plague.