Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 148

Creation’s Praise of the Lord

⁸ “And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you: Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”^{(A) 9} So I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me,^(B) and there was a written scroll in it.^{(C) 10} When he unrolled it before me, it was written on the front and back; words of lamentation, mourning, and woe were written on it.

3 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find here. Eat this scroll,^(D) then go and speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. ³ “Son of man,” he said to me, “feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it,^(E) and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.^(F)

⁴ Then he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. ⁵ For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or a difficult language but to the house of Israel— ⁶ not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech or a difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{(G) 7} But the house of Israel will not want to listen to you because they do not want to listen to me.^(H) For the whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hardhearted. ⁸ Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.^{(I) 9} I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰ Next he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully to all my words that I speak to you and take them to heart. ¹¹ Go to your people, the exiles, and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”^(J)

The Mighty Angel and the Small Scroll

10 Then I saw another mighty angel^(A) coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow^(B) over his head.^[a] His face was like the sun, his legs^[b] were like pillars of fire,^{(C) 2} and he held a little scroll opened in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea, his left on the land, ³ and he called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he cried out, the seven thunders raised their voices. ⁴ And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders said,^(D) and do not write it down!”

⁵ Then the angel that I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. ⁶ He swore by the one who lives forever and ever,^(E) who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, “There will no longer be a delay, ⁷ but in the days when the seventh angel^(F) will blow his trumpet, then the mystery of God^(G) will be completed, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”^(H)

⁸ Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

⁹ So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”^(I)

¹⁰ Then I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter.^{(J) 11} And they said to me, “You must prophesy again about^[c] many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”^(K)