Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for Vindication and Protection

A prayer of David.^[a]

Zechariah’s Fourth Vision

3 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before^[a] the angel of Yahweh; and Satan^[b] was standing on his right to accuse him. ² But Yahweh said to Satan,^[c] “Yahweh rebukes you, O Satan!^[d] Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! Is this not a stick snatched from the fire?” ³ And Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and was standing before^[e] the angel. ⁴ And he answered and said to the ones standing before^[f] him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And he said to him, “See, I have taken away your guilt^[g] from you, and will clothe you with rich garments.” ⁵ And I said, “Let them put a clean headband^[h] on his head.” And they put a clean headband on his head, and they clothed him with garments. And the angel of Yahweh was standing by.

⁶ And the angel of Yahweh assured Joshua, saying, ⁷ “Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my requirements, then you will judge^[i] my house, and you will also guard my courtyards, and I will give to you passageways^[j] among these that are standing here. ⁸ Listen, please, O Joshua the high priest, you and your companions^[k] that are sitting before^[l] you. For the men are a sign that,^[m] look, I am going to bring my servant the Branch.^{[n] 9} For consider, the stone that I set before^[o] Joshua, on one stone are seven eyes.^[p] Look, I am going to engrave an inscription on it,’^[q] declares^[r] Yahweh of hosts, ‘and I will remove the guilt of that land in a single day. ¹⁰ On that day,’ declares^[s] Yahweh of hosts, ‘you will invite one another^[t] under the vine and under the fig tree.’”

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, ⁵ and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others^[a] when he^[b] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, ⁶ and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly, ⁷ and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness ⁸ (for that righteous man, as he^[c] lived among them day after day, was tormenting his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he was seeing and hearing), ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at^[d] the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust^[e] and who despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they do not tremble in awe as they^[f] blaspheme majestic beings, ¹¹ whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.^{[g] 12} But these persons, like irrational animals born only with natural instincts for capture and killing, blaspheming about things^[h] they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, ¹³ being harmed as the wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, they are stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures when they^[i] feast together with you, ¹⁴ having eyes full of desire for an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, and^[j] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! ¹⁵ By^[k] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, because they^[l] followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor,^[m] who loved the wages of unrighteousness, ¹⁶ but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet’s madness^[n].

¹⁷ These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸ For by speaking high-sounding but empty words^[o], they entice with desires of the flesh and with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, ¹⁹ promising them freedom although they^[p] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also^[q] enslaved. ²⁰ For if, after they^[r] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord^[s] and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these things and succumb to them, the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.