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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 131

Psalm 131^[a]

A song of ascents,^[b] by David.

131 O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor do I have a haughty look.^[c]
I do not have great aspirations,
or concern myself with things that are beyond me.^[d]
²Indeed,^[e] I have calmed and quieted myself^[f]
like a weaned child with its mother;^[g]
I am content like a young child.^[h]
³O Israel, hope in the Lord
now and forevermore!

Proverbs 12:22-28

²²The Lord^[a] abhors a person who lies,^[b]
but those who deal truthfully^[c] are his delight.^[d]
²³The shrewd person^[e] conceals^[f] knowledge,
but foolish people^[g] proclaim folly.^[h]
²⁴The diligent^[i] person^[j] will rule,
but the slothful^[k] will be put to forced labor.^[l]
²⁵Anxiety^[m] in a person’s heart weighs him down,^[n]
but an encouraging^[o] word brings him joy.^[p]
²⁶The righteous person is cautious in his friendship,^[q]
but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
²⁷The lazy person does not roast^[r] his prey,
but personal possessions are precious to the diligent.^[s]
²⁸In the path of righteousness there is life,
but another path^[t] leads to death.^[u]

Footnotes

Proverbs 12:22 tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (y^ehvah, “the Lord”) is a subjective genitive.
Proverbs 12:22 tn Heb “lips of lying.” The genitive שָׁקֶר (shaqer, “lying”) functions as an attributive genitive: “lying lips.” The term “lips” functions as a synecdoche of part (= lips) for the whole (= person): “a liar.”
Proverbs 12:22 tn Heb “but doers of truthfulness.” The term “truthfulness” is an objective genitive, meaning: “those who practice truth” or “those who act in good faith.” Their words and works are reliable.
Proverbs 12:22 sn The contrast between “delight/pleasure” and “abomination” is emphatic. What pleases the Lord is acting truthfully or faithfully.
Proverbs 12:23 tn Heb “a shrewd man” (so NAB); KJV, NIV “a prudent man”; NRSV “One who is clever.” sn A shrewd person knows how to use knowledge wisely, and restrains himself from revealing all he knows.
Proverbs 12:23 sn The term כֹּסֶה (koseh, “covers; hides”) does not mean that he never shares his knowledge, but discerns when it is and is not appropriate to speak, cf. 10:14; 17:27.
Proverbs 12:23 tn Heb “the mind of fools.” The לֵב (lev, “mind, heart”) is the place of thinking and so it is the both source of what is said and the place of discernment for what to say aloud.
Proverbs 12:23 tn Or “speak out foolishly.” The noun may be a direct object (folly) or an adverbial accusative (foolishly).sn The noun אִוֶּלֶת (ʾivvelet, “foolishness; folly”) is the antithesis of perception and understanding. It is related to the noun אֱוִּיל (ʾevvil, “fool”), one who is morally bad because he despises wisdom and discipline, mocks at guilt, is licentious and quarrelsome, and is almost impossible to rebuke. W. McKane says that the more one speaks, the less he is able to speak effectively (Proverbs [OTL], 422). Cf. TEV “stupid people advertise their ignorance;” NLT “fools broadcast their folly.”
Proverbs 12:24 sn By their diligent work they succeed to management. The diligent rise to the top, while the lazy sink to the bottom.
Proverbs 12:24 tn Heb “the hand of the diligent.” The term “hand” is a synecdoche of part (= hand) for the whole (= person): diligent person. The hand is emphasized because it is the instrument of physical labor; it signifies the actions and the industry of a diligent person—what his hand does.
Proverbs 12:24 tn The term רְמִיָּה (r^emiyyah) can mean “slack, negligent, deceptive” (HALOT 1243 s.v.). By the feature of ellipsis and double duty we should probably understand it as “the hand of the negligent,” as a way of referring to a negligent person. The term refers to one who is not diligent, who perhaps tries deceive his employer about his work, which he has neglected.
Proverbs 12:24 tn The term מַס (mas) refers to forced or conscripted labor and is sometimes translated as “slave labor” (NIV, cf. NLT “slave”) but it is far from clear that it means slavery (see NIDOTTE 984 s.v.). The term certainly describes imposed work requirements. For Israelites within Israel it is elsewhere used only in connection to conscription to work on royal building projects making it like a form of taxation (forced labor has often been used in world history as taxation instead of money). The precise use of the term here is unclear because of general lack of information, but perhaps the lazy person will not earn enough money to meet obligations and be required to pay via forced labor.
Proverbs 12:25 tn The word “anxiety” (דְּאָגָה, d^eʾagah) combines anxiety and fear—anxious fear (e.g., Jer 49:23; Ezek 4:16; for the related verb see Ps 38:18; Jer 17:8).
Proverbs 12:25 tn Heb “bows it [= his heart] down.” Anxiety weighs heavily on the heart, causing depression. The spirit is brought low.
Proverbs 12:25 tn Heb “good.” The Hebrew word “good” (טוֹב, tov) refers to what is beneficial for life, promotes life, creates life or protects life. The “good word” here would include encouragement, kindness, and insight—the person needs to regain the proper perspective on life and renew his confidence.
Proverbs 12:25 tn Heb “makes it [= his heart] glad.” The similarly sounding terms יַשְׁחֶנָּה (yashkhennah, “weighs it down”) and יְשַׂמְּחֶנָּה (y^esamm^ekhennah, “makes it glad”) create a wordplay (paronomasia) that dramatically emphasizes the polar opposite emotional states: depression versus joy.
Proverbs 12:26 tn The line has several possible translations: (1) The verb יָתֵר (yater) can mean “to spy out; to examine,” which makes a good contrast to “lead astray” in the parallel colon. So perhaps, it means “searches out his neighbor/friend,” though this bypasses the preposition “from.” (2) יָתֵר could be the Hophal of נָתַר (natar, Hiphil “to set free”; Hophal “to be set free”): “the righteous is delivered from harm” [reading מֵרָעָה, meraʿah] (J. A. Emerton, “A Note on Proverbs 12:26, ” ZAW 76 [1964]: 191-93). (3) Another option is, “the righteous guides his friend aright” (cf. NRSV, NLT).
Proverbs 12:27 tc The MT reads יַחֲרֹךְ (yakharokh) from II חָרַךְ (kharakh, “to roast”?). On the other hand, several versions (LXX, Syriac, Vulgate) reflect a Hebrew Vorlage of יַדְרִיךְ (yadrikh) from דָרַךְ (darakh, “to gain”), meaning: “a lazy person cannot catch his prey” (suggested by Gemser; cf. NAB). The MT is the more difficult reading, being a hapax legomenon, and therefore should be retained; the versions are trying to make sense out of a rare expression.tn The verb II חָרַךְ (kharakh) is a hapax legomenon, appearing in the OT only here. BDB suggests that it means “to start; to set in motion” (BDB 355 s.v.). The related Aramaic and Syriac verb means “to scorch; to parch,” and the related Arabic verb means “to roast; to scorch by burning”; so it may mean “to roast; to fry” (HALOT 353 s.v. I חרך). The lazy person can’t be bothered cooking what he has hunted. The Midrash sees an allusion to Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25. M. Dahood translates it: “the languid man will roast no game for himself, but the diligent will come on the wealth of the steppe” (“The Hapax harak in Proverbs 12:27, ” Bib 63 [1982]: 60-62). This hyperbole means that the lazy person does not complete a project.
Proverbs 12:27 tn Heb “the precious possession of a man, diligent.” The LXX reads “but a valuable possession [is] a pure man” while Rashi, a highly esteemed 11th century Rabbi, interpreted it as “a precious possession of a man is to be diligent” (R. Murphy, Proverbs [WBC] 88). The translation assumes that the word יָקָר (yaqar, “precious”) should either be a construct form or transposed into predicate position. The implication is not to desire or overvalue possessions themselves but to take care of what one has.
Proverbs 12:28 tc The MT has דֶרֶך נְתִיבָה (derekh n^etivah) “a way, a path.” The duplication of meaning is awkward. If the first word is repointed as a Qal participle (דֹּרֵך, dorekh) it could be understood as “treading a path [that leads to…].” The editors of BHS propose that the second word be emended to מְשׁוּבָה (m^eshuvah, “[way of] apostacy”) or תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, “[way of] abomination”). The LXX reads “the ways of the revengeful [lead] to death.”
Proverbs 12:28 tc The consonants אל־מות (ʾl mvt) are vocalized by the MT as אַל־מָוֶת (ʾal mavet, “no death”), perhaps meaning immortality (“the journey of [her] path is no-death”). M. Dahood suggests that it means permanence (“Immortality in Proverbs 12:28, ” Bib 41 [1960]: 176-81). However, many medieval Hebrew mss and all the versions vocalize it as אֶל־מָוֶת (ʾel mavet), meaning “leads to death” (cf. NAB, NCV). W. McKane adopts this reading, and suggests that MT is a scribal change toward eternal life (Proverbs [OTL], 451-52). Others adopt this reading because they do not find the term “life” used in Proverbs for eternal life, nor do they find references to immortality elsewhere in Proverbs.

Philippians 2:19-24

Models for Ministry

¹⁹Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be encouraged by hearing news about you. ²⁰For there is no one here like him who will readily demonstrate his deep concern for you.^[a] ²¹Others are busy with their own concerns, not those of Jesus Christ. ²²But you know his qualifications, that like a son working with his father, he served with me in advancing the gospel. ²³So I hope to send him as soon as I know more about my situation, ²⁴though I am confident in the Lord that I too will be coming to see you^[b] soon.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 131[a]

A song of ascents,[b] by David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Models for Ministry

Footnotes

Psalm 131^[a]

A song of ascents,^[b] by David.