◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Isaiah 49:8-16a (God’s motherly compassion); Psalm 131 (A child upon its mother’s breast); 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 (Servants accountable to God); Matthew 6:24-34 (The teaching of Christ: trust in God) (New English Translation)

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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

Isaiah 49:8-16

⁸This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;
in the day of deliverance I will help you;
I will protect you^[a] and make you a covenant mediator for people,^[b]
to rebuild^[c] the land^[d]
and to reassign the desolate property.
⁹You will say^[e] to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons,^[f] ‘Emerge.’^[g]
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
¹⁰They will not be hungry or thirsty;
the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,^[h]
for one who has compassion on them will guide them;
he will lead them to springs of water.
¹¹I will make all my mountains into a road;
I will construct my roadways.”
¹²Look, they come from far away!
Look, some come from the north and west,
and others from the land of Sinim.^[i]
¹³Shout for joy, O sky!^[j]
Rejoice, O earth!
Let the mountains give a joyful shout!
For the Lord consoles his people
and shows compassion to the^[k] oppressed.

The Lord Remembers Zion

¹⁴“Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the Lord^[l] has forgotten me.’
¹⁵Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast?^[m]
Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne?^[n]
Even if mothers^[o] were to forget,
I could never forget you!^[p]
¹⁶Look, I have inscribed your name^[q] on my palms;
your walls are constantly before me.

Footnotes

Isaiah 49:8 tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).
Isaiah 49:8 tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (b^erit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (ʿam, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.
Isaiah 49:8 tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”
Isaiah 49:8 tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.
Isaiah 49:9 tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.
Isaiah 49:9 tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”
Isaiah 49:9 tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).
Isaiah 49:10 tn Heb “and the heat and the sun will not strike them.” In Isa 35:7, its only other occurrence in the OT, שָׁרָב (sharav) stands parallel to “parched ground” and in contrast to “pool.” In later Hebrew and Aramaic it refers to “dry heat, heat of the sun” (Jastrow 1627 s.v.). Here it likely has this nuance and forms a hendiadys with “sun.”
Isaiah 49:12 tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).sn The precise location of the land of Sinim is uncertain, but since the north and west are mentioned in the previous line, it was a probably located in the distant east or south.
Isaiah 49:13 tn Or “O heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
Isaiah 49:13 tn Heb “his” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
Isaiah 49:14 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”
Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”
Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).
Isaiah 49:15 sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.
Isaiah 49:16 tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.

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!

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

The Apostles’ Ministry

4 One^[a] should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. ²Now what is sought in stewards is that one be found faithful. ³So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. ⁴For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not acquitted because of this. The one who judges me is the Lord. ⁵So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will^[b] bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition^[c] from God.

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate^[a] the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise^[b] the other. You cannot serve God and money.^[c]

Do Not Worry

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry^[d] about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds in the sky:^[e] They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds^[f] them. Aren’t you more valuable^[g] than they are? ²⁷And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life?^[h] ²⁸Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers^[i] of the field grow; they do not work^[j] or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! ³⁰And if this is how God clothes the wild grass,^[k] which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven,^[l] won’t he clothe you even more,^[m] you people of little faith? ³¹So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For the unconverted^[n] pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But above all pursue his kingdom^[o] and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.^[p]

Footnotes

Matthew 6:24 sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.
Matthew 6:24 tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”
Matthew 6:24 tn Grk “God and mammon.”sn The term money is used to translate mammon, the Aramaic term for wealth or possessions. The point is not that money is inherently evil, but that it is often misused so that it is a means of evil; see 1 Tim 6:6-10, 17-19. Here “money” is personified as a potential master and thus competes with God for the loyalty of the disciple. The passage is ultimately not a condemnation of wealth (there is no call here for absolute poverty) but a call for unqualified discipleship. God must be first, not money or possessions.
Matthew 6:25 tn Or “do not be anxious,” and so throughout the rest of this paragraph.
Matthew 6:26 tn Or “the wild birds”; Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).
Matthew 6:26 tn Or “your heavenly Father gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”
Matthew 6:26 tn Grk “of more value.”
Matthew 6:27 tn Or “one cubit to his height.” A cubit (πῆχυς, pēchus) can measure length (normally about 45 cm or 18 inches) or time (a small unit, “hour” is usually used [BDAG 812 s.v.] although “day” has been suggested [L&N 67.151]). The term ἡλικία (hēlikia) is ambiguous in the same way as πῆχυς (pēchus). Most scholars take the term ἡλικία (hēlikia) to describe age or length of life here, although a few refer it to bodily stature (see BDAG 435-36 s.v. 1.a for discussion). Worry about length of life seems a more natural figure than worry about height. However, the point either way is clear: Worrying adds nothing to life span or height.
Matthew 6:28 tn Traditionally, “lilies.” According to L&N 3.32, “Though traditionally κρίνον has been regarded as a type of lily, scholars have suggested several other possible types of flowers, including an anemone, a poppy, a gladiolus, and a rather inconspicuous type of daisy.” In view of the uncertainty, the more generic “flowers” has been used in the translation.
Matthew 6:28 tn Or, traditionally, “toil.” Although it might be argued that “work hard” would be a more precise translation of κοπιάω (kopiaō) here, the line in English reads better in terms of cadence with a single syllable.
Matthew 6:30 tn Grk “grass of the field.”
Matthew 6:30 tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.sn The oven was most likely a rounded clay oven used for baking bread, which was heated by burning wood and dried grass.
Matthew 6:30 sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.
Matthew 6:32 tn Or “unbelievers”; Grk “Gentiles.”
Matthew 6:33 tc ‡ Most mss (L N W Δ Θ 0233 ƒ^{1, 13} 33 565 579 700 1241 1424 M lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (tēn basileian tou theou kai tēn dikaiosunēn autou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία—especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranōn), the latter attested by Clement of Alexandria—but this argument cuts both ways: Although the evangelist might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be the initial text. NA²⁸ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.sn God’s kingdom is a major theme of Jesus’ teaching. The nature of the kingdom of God in the NT and in Jesus’ teaching has long been debated by interpreters and scholars, with discussion primarily centering around the nature of the kingdom (earthly, heavenly, or both) and the kingdom’s arrival (present, future, or both). An additional major issue concerns the relationship between the kingdom of God and the person and work of Jesus himself.
Matthew 6:34 tn Grk “Sufficient for the day is its evil.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord Remembers Zion

Footnotes

Psalm 131[a]

A song of ascents,[b] by David.

Footnotes

The Apostles’ Ministry

Footnotes

Do Not Worry

Footnotes

Psalm 131^[a]

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