Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 123
A pilgrimage song.
123 I raise my eyes to you—
you who rule heaven.
2 Just as the eyes of servants attend to their masters’ hand,
just as the eyes of a female servant attend to her mistress’ hand—
that’s how our eyes attend to the Lord our God
until he has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, Lord! Have mercy
because we’ve had more than enough shame.
4 We’ve had more than enough mockery from the self-confident,
more than enough shame from the proud.
Death of Joshua and his generation
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites each went to settle on their own family property in order to take possession of the land. 7 The people served the Lord throughout the rest of Joshua’s life and throughout the next generation of elders who outlived him, those who had seen all the great things that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua, Nun’s son and the Lord’s servant, died when he was 110 years old. 9 They buried him within the boundaries of his family property in Timnath-heres in the highlands of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. 10 When that whole generation had passed away, another generation came after them who didn’t know the Lord or the things that he had done for Israel.
Israel’s pattern of sin and punishment
11 Then the Israelites did things that the Lord saw as evil: They served the Baals; 12 and they went away from the Lord, their ancestors’ God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the surrounding peoples, they worshipped them, and they angered the Lord. 13 They went away from the Lord and served Baal and the Astartes. 14 So the Lord became angry with Israel, and he handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He let them be defeated by their enemies around them, so that they were no longer able to stand up to them. 15 Whenever the Israelites marched out, the Lord’s power worked against them, just as the Lord had warned them. And they were very distressed.
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s anger on the earth.” 2 So the first angel poured his bowl on the earth, and a nasty and terrible sore appeared on the people who had the beast’s mark and worshipped its image. 3 The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and the sea turned into blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died. 4 The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned into blood. 5 Then I heard the angel of the waters say,
“You are just, holy one, who is and was,
because you have given these judgments.
6 They poured out the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it!”
7 And I heard the altar say,
“Yes, Lord God Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible