Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 78^[a]

God’s Goodness in the Face of Ingratitude

¹ A maskil^[b] of Asaph.

^10 [a]On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated Passover. ¹¹ The day after Passover, the very next day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and parched grain. ¹² The manna stopped the day after they had eaten the produce of the land. There was no more manna for the Israelites, but that same year they ate the produce of the land of Canaan.

⁶ The seven angels who held the seven trumpets now made ready to blow them.

The First Four Trumpets.^{[a] 7} When the first angel blew his trumpet, there was a storm of hail and fire, mixed with blood, and it fell upon the earth.^[b] A third of the earth was burned up, as well as a third of the trees and all the green grass.

^8 [c]When the second angel blew his trumpet, something that looked like a huge mountain ablaze with fire was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹ a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ When the third angel blew his trumpet, a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch. It came down on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ¹¹ This star was called “Wormwood,” and a third of the waters turned to wormwood.^[d] Great numbers of people died from the waters that had become bitter.

¹² When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars. As a result, a third of their light was darkened, and the day lost its illumination for a third of the time, and so did the night.^[e]

¹³ The Cry of the Eagle.^[f] In my vision, I heard an eagle cry out in a loud voice as it flew high overhead, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the other trumpet blasts that the three angels have not yet blown!”

Chapter 9

The Fifth Trumpet: the First Woe.^{[g] 1} Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. He was given the key to the shaft leading down to the abyss. ² When he unlocked the shaft of the abyss, smoke rose up from the abyss like smoke from a huge furnace, so that the sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. ³ And out of the smoke locusts dropped down onto the earth, and they were given the same powers that scorpions have on the earth. ⁴ They were commanded not to damage the grass or the earth or any plant or tree, and they were told to attack only those people who did not have God’s seal on their foreheads.

⁵ They were given permission to torture these people for five months, but they were not allowed to kill them, and the torment they were to inflict was to be like that of a scorpion when it stings someone. ⁶ During that time, these people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

⁷ In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads they wore what appeared to be gold crowns. Their faces were like human faces, ⁸ and their hair was like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth, ⁹ and their chests were like iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was like the rumble of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.

¹⁰ These locusts had tails and stings like those of scorpions, and in their tails they had the power to torment people for five months. ¹¹ They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.

¹² The first woe has passed, but two more are still to come.