◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 31:1-5 19-24 (I commit my spirit); Amos 2:6-11 (Judgment on Israel); Matthew 7:1-6 (Do not judge) (New English Translation)

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May 31, 2008

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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 31:1-5

Psalm 31^[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

31 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter.
Never let me be humiliated.
Vindicate me by rescuing me.^[b]
²Listen to me.^[c]
Quickly deliver me.
Be my protector and refuge,^[d]
a stronghold where I can be safe.^[e]
³For you are my high ridge^[f] and my stronghold;
for the sake of your own reputation^[g] you lead me and guide me.^[h]
⁴You will free me^[i] from the net they hid for me,
for you are my place of refuge.
⁵Into your hand I entrust my life;^[j]
you will rescue^[k] me, O Lord, the faithful God.

Footnotes

Psalm 31:1 sn Psalm 31. The psalmist confidently asks the Lord to protect him. Enemies threaten him and even his friends have abandoned him, but he looks to the Lord for vindication. In vv. 19-24, which were apparently written after the Lord answered the prayer of vv. 1-18, the psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him.
Psalm 31:1 tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me.”
Psalm 31:2 tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”
Psalm 31:2 tn Heb “become for me a rocky summit of refuge.”
Psalm 31:2 tn Heb “a house of strongholds to deliver me.”
Psalm 31:3 sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
Psalm 31:3 tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)
Psalm 31:3 tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).
Psalm 31:4 tn Heb “bring me out.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form expresses the psalmist’s confidence about the future. Another option is to take the form as expressing a prayer, “free me.”
Psalm 31:5 tn Heb “my spirit.” The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) here refers to the animating spirit that gives the psalmist life.
Psalm 31:5 tn Or “redeem.” The perfect verbal form is understood here as anticipatory, indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer that he can describe his deliverance as if it had already happened. Another option is to take the perfect as precative, expressing a wish or request (“rescue me”; cf. NIV). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

Psalm 31:19-24

¹⁹How great is your favor,^[a]
which you store up for your loyal followers.^[b]
In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter^[c] in you.^[d]
²⁰You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks^[e] of men;^[f]
you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks.^[g]
²¹The Lord deserves praise^[h]
for he demonstrated his amazing faithfulness to me when I was besieged by enemies.^[i]
²²I jumped to conclusions and said,^[j]
“I am cut off from your presence!”^[k]
But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.
²³Love the Lord, all you faithful followers^[l] of his!
The Lord protects those who have integrity,
but he pays back in full the one who acts arrogantly.^[m]
²⁴Be strong and confident,^[n]
all you who wait on the Lord.

Amos 2:6-11

God Will Judge Israel

⁶This is what the Lord says:

“Because Israel has committed three covenant transgressions^[a]—
make that four^[b]—I will not revoke my decree of judgment.^[c]
They sold the innocent^[d] for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals.^[e]
⁷They trample^[f] on the dirt-covered heads of the poor;^[g]
they push the destitute away.^[h]
A man and his father go to the same girl;^[i]
in this way they show disrespect for^[j] my moral purity.^[k]
⁸They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral;
they do so right^[l] beside every altar!
They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied;
they do so right in the temple^[m] of their God!^[n]
⁹For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites.^[o]
They were as tall as cedars^[p]
and as strong as oaks,
but I destroyed the fruit on their branches^[q]
and their roots in the ground.^[r]
¹⁰I brought you up from the land of Egypt;
I led you through the wilderness for forty years
so you could take the Amorites’ land as your own.
¹¹I made some of your sons prophets
and some of your young men Nazirites.^[s]
Is this not true, you Israelites?”
The Lord is speaking.

Footnotes

Amos 2:6 tn For this translation see the note at 2:4.
Amos 2:6 tn Heb “Because of three violations of Israel, even because of four.”sn On the three…four style that introduces each of the judgment oracles of chaps. 1-2 see the note on the word “four” in 1:3. Only in this last oracle against Israel does one find the list of four specific violations expected based on the use of a similar formula elsewhere in wisdom literature (see Prov 30:18-19, 29-31). This adaptation of the normal pattern indicates the Lord’s focus on Israel here (he is too bent on judging Israel to dwell very long on her neighbors) and emphasizes Israel’s guilt with respect to the other nations (Israel’s list fills up before the others’ lists do). See R. B. Chisholm, “‘For three sins…even for four’: the numerical sayings in Amos,” BSac 147 (1990) 188-97.
Amos 2:6 tn Heb “I will not bring it [or “him”] back.” The translation understands the pronominal object to refer to the decree of judgment that follows; the referent (the decree) has been specified in the translation for clarity. For another option see the note on the word “judgment” in 1:3.
Amos 2:6 tn Or “honest” (CEV, NLT). The Hebrew word sometimes has a moral-ethical connotation, “righteous, godly,” but the parallelism (note “poor”) suggests a socio-economic or legal sense here. The practice of selling debtors as slaves is in view (Exod 21:2-11; Lev 25:35-55; Deut 15:12-18). See the note at Exod 21:8 and G. C. Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery in Israel and the Ancient Near East (JSOTSup). Probably the only “crime” the victim had committed was being unable to pay back a loan or an exorbitant interest rate on a loan. Some have suggested that this verse refers to bribery in legal proceedings: the innocent are “sold” in the sense that those in power pay off the elders or judges for favorable decisions (5:12; cf. Exod 23:6-7).
Amos 2:6 tn Perhaps the expression “for a pair of sandals” indicates a relatively small price or debt. Some suggest that the sandals may have been an outward token of a more substantial purchase price. Others relate the sandals to a ritual attached to the transfer of property, signifying here that the poor would be losing their inherited family lands because of debt (Ruth 4:7; cf. Deut 25:8-10). Still others emend the Hebrew form slightly to נֶעְלָם (neʿlam, “hidden thing”; from the root עָלַם, ʿalam, “to hide”) and understand this as referring to a bribe.
Amos 2:7 tn Most scholars now understand this verb as derived from the root II שָׁאַף (shaʾaf, “to crush; to trample”), an alternate form of שׁוּף (shuf), rather than from I שָׁאַף (shaʾaf, “to pant, to gasp”; cf. KJV, ASV, NASB).
Amos 2:7 tn Heb “those who stomp on the dirt of the ground on the head of the poor.” It is possible to render the line as “they trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the ground,” thereby communicating that the poor are being stepped on in utter contempt (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 79-80). The participial form הַשֹּׁאֲפִים (hashoʾafim) is substantival and stands in apposition to the pronominal suffix on מִכְרָם (mikhram, v. 6b).sn The picture of the poor having dirt-covered heads suggests their humiliation before their oppressors and/or their sorrow (see 2 Sam 1:2; 15:32).
Amos 2:7 tn Heb “they turn aside the way of the destitute.” Many interpreters take “way” to mean “just cause” and understand this as a direct reference to the rights of the destitute being ignored. The injustice done to the poor is certainly in view, but the statement is better taken as a word picture depicting the powerful rich pushing the “way of the poor” (i.e., their attempt to be treated justly) to the side. An even more vivid picture is given in Amos 5:12, where the rich are pictured as turning the poor away from the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).
Amos 2:7 tn Heb “go to the girl.” sn Most interpreters see some type of sexual immorality here (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT), even though the Hebrew phrase הָלַךְ אֶל (halakh ʾel, “go to”) never refers elsewhere to sexual intercourse. (The usual idiom is בוֹא אֶל [boʾ ʾel]. However, S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 82) attempts to develop a linguistic case for a sexual connotation here.) The precise identification of the “girl” in question is not clear. Some see the referent as a cultic prostitute (cf. NAB; v. 8 suggests a cultic setting), but the term נַעֲרָה (naʿarah) nowhere else refers to a prostitute. Because of the contextual emphasis on social oppression, some suggest the exploitation of a slave girl is in view. H. Barstad argues that the “girl” is the hostess at a pagan מַרְזֵחַ (marzeakh) banquet (described at some length in 6:4-7). In his view the sin described here is not sexual immorality, but idolatry (see H. Barstad, The Religious Polemics of Amos [VTSup], 33-36). In this case, one might translate, “Father and son go together to a pagan banquet.” In light of this cultic context, F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman argue that this is a reference to a specific female deity (“the Girl”) and correlate this verse with 8:14 (Amos [AB], 318-19).
Amos 2:7 tn Or “pollute”; “desecrate”; “dishonor.”
Amos 2:7 tn Heb “my holy name.” Here “name” is used metonymically for God’s moral character or reputation, while “holy” has a moral and ethical connotation.
Amos 2:8 tn The words “They do so right” are supplied twice in the translation of this verse for clarification.
Amos 2:8 tn Heb “house.”
Amos 2:8 tn Or “gods.” The Hebrew term אֱלֹהֵיהֶם (ʾelohehem) may be translated “their gods” (referring to pagan gods), “their god” (referring to a pagan god, cf. NAB, NIV, NLT), or “their God” (referring to the God of Israel, cf. NASB, NRSV).
Amos 2:9 tn Heb “I destroyed the Amorites from before them.” The translation takes מִפְּנֵי (mipp^eney) in the sense of “for the sake of.” See BDB 818 s.v. פָּנֻה II.6.a and H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia), 134. Another option is to take the phrase in a spatial sense, “I destroyed the Amorites, [clearing them out] from before them [i.e., Israel]” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
Amos 2:9 tn Heb “whose height was like the height of cedars.”
Amos 2:9 tn Heb “his fruit from above.”
Amos 2:9 tn Heb “and his roots from below.”
Amos 2:11 tn Or perhaps “religious devotees” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) refers to one who is “consecrated” or “devoted” to God (see Num 6:1-21).

Matthew 7:1-6

Do Not Judge

7 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.^[a] ²For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.^[b] ³Why^[c] do you see the speck^[d] in your brother’s eye, but fail to see^[e] the beam of wood^[f] in your own? ⁴Or how can you say^[g] to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? ⁵You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ⁶Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.^[h]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 31[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

God Will Judge Israel

Footnotes

Do Not Judge

Footnotes

Psalm 31^[a]