Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 123
The Eyes of a Servant
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Eyes of a Servant
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are seated in heaven.
2 Indeed, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his grace.
3 Show grace to us, O Lord.
Show grace to us,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 Our souls have had their fill of the scorn of the smug
and of the contempt of the arrogant.
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, each of the descendants of Israel went to his own inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, those who had seen all the great deeds that the Lord had done for Israel.
8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred ten years. 9 They buried him within the borders of his inheritance, in Timnath Heres,[a] in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Ga’ash.
The Cycle
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them, who did not know the Lord or the deeds that he had done for Israel. 11 The people of Israel committed evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals, 12 and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them. They bowed down to them, and they angered the Lord. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtartes.[b]
14 So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of raiders, who plundered them. He sold them into the hand of their enemies around them, and they were not able to stand up in the face of their enemies. 15 Whenever the men of Israel went out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring disaster on them, just as the Lord had said to them and just as the Lord had sworn to them. So they were greatly distressed.
The First Five Bowls
16 I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible and painful sores came on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they[a] turned into blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say:
You are righteous, the one who is and who was, the Holy One,[b]
because you have made these judgments.
6 Because they poured out the blood of saints and prophets,
you have given them blood to drink.
They deserve it.
7 And I heard the incense altar, saying,[c] “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.