◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 45:6-17 (A marriage song); Hosea 14:1-9 (A plea for repentance); 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 (Christians a chaste bride to Christ) (New American Bible (Revised Edition))

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 45:6-17

⁶Your arrows are sharp;
    peoples will cower at your feet;
    the king’s enemies will lose heart.
⁷Your throne, O God,^[a] stands forever;^(A)
    your royal scepter is a scepter for justice.
⁸You love justice and hate wrongdoing;
    therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.
⁹With myrrh, aloes, and cassia
    your robes are fragrant.
From ivory-paneled palaces^[b]
    stringed instruments bring you joy.
¹⁰Daughters of kings are your lovely wives;
    a princess arrayed in Ophir’s gold^[c]
    comes to stand at your right hand.

III

¹¹Listen, my daughter, and understand;
    pay me careful heed.
Forget your people and your father’s house,^[d]
¹²    that the king might desire your beauty.
He is your lord;
¹³    ^(B)honor him, daughter of Tyre.
Then the richest of the people
    will seek your favor with gifts.
¹⁴All glorious is the king’s daughter as she enters,^(C)
    her raiment threaded with gold;
¹⁵In embroidered apparel she is led to the king.
    The maids of her train are presented to the king.
¹⁶They are led in with glad and joyous acclaim;
    they enter the palace of the king.

IV

¹⁷The throne of your fathers your sons will have;
you shall make them princes through all the land.^(D)

Hosea 14

Chapter 14

¹Samaria^[a] has become guilty,
    for she has rebelled against her God.
They shall fall by the sword,
    their infants shall be dashed to pieces,^(A)
    their pregnant women shall be ripped open.^(B)

Sincere Conversion and New Life

²Return, Israel, to the Lord, your God;
    you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
³Take with you words,
    and return to the Lord;
Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity,
    and take what is good.
    Let us offer the fruit of our lips.^(C)
⁴^[b]Assyria will not save us,
    nor will we mount horses;^(D)
We will never again say, ‘Our god,’
    to the work of our hands;
    for in you the orphan finds compassion.”^(E)
⁵I will heal their apostasy,
    I will love them freely;
    for my anger is turned away from them.
⁶I will be like the dew for Israel:^(F)
    he will blossom like the lily;
He will strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
⁷    and his shoots will go forth.^(G)
His splendor will be like the olive tree
    and his fragrance like Lebanon cedar.^(H)
⁸Again they will live in his shade;
    they will raise grain,
They will blossom like the vine,
    and his renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁹Ephraim! What more have I to do with idols?^(I)
I have humbled him, but I will take note of him.
I am like a verdant cypress tree.^[c]
From me fruit will be found for you!

Epilogue

¹⁰^[d]Who is wise enough to understand these things?^(J)
    Who is intelligent enough to know them?
Straight are the paths of the Lord,^(K)
    the just walk in them,^(L)
    but sinners stumble in them.

2 Corinthians 11:1-15

Chapter 11

Preaching Without Charge.^[a] ¹If only you would put up with a little foolishness from me!^[b] Please put up with me.^(A) ²^[c]For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.^(B) ³But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve^[d] by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere [and pure] commitment to Christ.^(C) ⁴For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus^[e] than the one we preached,^(D) or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough. ⁵^[f]^(E)For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these “superapostles.” ⁶Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge;^(F) in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.^[g]

⁷^[h]Did I make a mistake when I humbled myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?^(G) ⁸I plundered other churches by accepting from them in order to minister to you. ⁹And when I was with you and in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.^(H) ¹⁰By the truth of Christ in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.^(I) ¹¹^[i]And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!^(J)

¹²And what I do I will continue to do, in order to end this pretext of those who seek a pretext for being regarded as we are in the mission of which they boast. ¹³^[j]For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, who masquerade as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵So it is not strange that his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Footnotes

11:1–15 Although these verses continue to reveal information about Paul’s opponents and the differences he perceives between them and himself, 2 Cor 11:1 signals a turn in Paul’s thought. This section constitutes a prologue to the boasting that he will undertake in 2 Cor 11:16–12:10, and it bears remarkable similarities to the section that follows the central boast, 2 Cor 12:11–18.
11:1 Put up with a little foolishness from me: this verse indicates more clearly than the general statement of intent in 2 Cor 10:13 the nature of the project Paul is about to undertake. He alludes ironically to the Corinthians’ toleration for others. Foolishness: Paul qualifies his project as folly from beginning to end; see note on 2 Cor 11:16–12:10.
11:2 Paul gives us a sudden glimpse of the theological values that are at stake. The jealousy of God: the perspective is that of the covenant, described in imagery of love and marriage, as in the prophets; cf. 1 Cor 10:22. I betrothed you: Paul, like a father (cf. 2 Cor 12:14), betroths the community to Christ as his bride (cf. Eph 5:21–33) and will present her to him at his second coming. Cf. Mt 25:1–13 and the nuptial imagery in Rev 21.
11:3 As the serpent deceived Eve: before Christ can return for the community Paul fears a repetition of the primal drama of seduction. Corruption of minds is satanic activity (see 2 Cor 2:11; 4:4). Satanic imagery recurs in 2 Cor 11:13–15, 20; 12:7b, 16–17; see notes on these passages.
11:4 Preaches another Jesus: the danger is specified, and Paul’s opponents are identified with the cunning serpent. The battle for minds has to do with the understanding of Jesus, the Spirit, the gospel; the Corinthians have flirted with another understanding than the one that Paul handed on to them as traditional and normative.
11:5 These “superapostles”: this term, employed again in 2 Cor 12:11b, designates the opponents of whom Paul has spoken in 2 Cor 10 and again in 2 Cor 11:4. They appear to be intruders at Corinth. Their preaching is marked at least by a different emphasis and style, and they do not hesitate to accept support from the community. Perhaps these itinerants appeal to the authority of church leaders in Jerusalem and even carry letters of recommendation from them. But it is not those distant leaders whom Paul is attacking here. The intruders are “superapostles” not in the sense of the “pillars” at Jerusalem (Gal 2), but in their own estimation. They consider themselves superior to Paul as apostles and ministers of Christ, and they are obviously enjoying some success among the Corinthians. Paul rejects their claim to be apostles in any superlative sense (hyperlian), judging them bluntly as “false apostles,” ministers of Satan masquerading as apostles of Christ (2 Cor 11:13–15). On the contrary, he himself will claim to be a superminister of Christ (hyper egō, 2 Cor 11:23).
11:6 Apparently found deficient in both rhetorical ability (cf. 2 Cor 10:10) and knowledge (cf. 2 Cor 10:5), Paul concedes the former charge but not the latter. In every way: in all their contacts with him revelation has been taking place. Paul, through whom God reveals the knowledge of himself (2 Cor 2:14), and in whom the death and life of Jesus are revealed (2 Cor 4:10–11; cf. 2 Cor 6:4), also demonstrates his own role as the bearer of true knowledge. Cf. 1 Cor 1:18–2:16.
11:7–10 Abruptly Paul passes to another reason for complaints: his practice of preaching without remuneration (cf. 1 Cor 9:3–18). He deftly defends his practice by situating it from the start within the pattern of Christ’s own self-humiliation (cf. 2 Cor 10:1) and reduces objections to absurdity by rhetorical questions (cf. 2 Cor 12:13).
11:11–12 Paul rejects lack of affection as his motive (possibly imputed to him by his opponents) and states his real motive, a desire to emphasize the disparity between himself and the others (cf. 2 Cor 11:19–21). The topic of his gratuitous service will be taken up once more in 2 Cor 12:13–18. 1 Cor 9:15–18 gives a different but complementary explanation of his motivation.
11:13–15 Paul picks up again the imagery of 2 Cor 11:3 and applies it to the opponents: they are false apostles of Christ, really serving another master. Deceitful…masquerade: deception and simulation, like cunning (2 Cor 11:3), are marks of the satanic. Angel of light: recalls the contrast between light and darkness, Christ and Beliar at 2 Cor 6:14–15. Ministers of righteousness: recalls the earlier contrast between the ministry of condemnation and that of righteousness (2 Cor 3:9). Their end: the section closes with another allusion to the judgment, when all participants in the final conflict will be revealed or unmasked and dealt with as they deserve.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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Chapter 14

Sincere Conversion and New Life

Epilogue

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Chapter 11

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

III

IV

Footnotes

Cross references

Chapter 14

Sincere Conversion and New Life

Epilogue

Footnotes

Cross references

Chapter 11

Footnotes

Cross references