◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 119:33-40 (Walking in the path of the law); Leviticus 24:10-23 (An eye for an eye); Matthew 7:1-12 (The golden rule) (New English Translation)

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February 18, 2017

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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 119:33-40

ה (He)

³³Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes,^[a]
so that I might observe it continually.^[b]
³⁴Give me understanding so that I might observe your law,
and keep it with all my heart.^[c]
³⁵Guide me^[d] in the path of your commands,
for I delight to walk in it.^[e]
³⁶Give me a desire for your rules,^[f]
rather than for wealth gained unjustly.^[g]
³⁷Turn my eyes away from what is worthless.^[h]
Revive me with your word.^[i]
³⁸Confirm to your servant your promise,^[j]
which you made to the one who honors you.^[k]
³⁹Take away the insults that I dread.^[l]
Indeed,^[m] your regulations are good.
⁴⁰Look, I long for your precepts.
Revive me with your deliverance.^[n]

Leviticus 24:10-23

A Case of Blaspheming the Name

¹⁰Now^[a] an Israelite woman’s son whose father was an Egyptian went out among the Israelites, and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man^[b] had a fight in the camp. ¹¹The Israelite woman’s son misused the Name and cursed,^[c] so they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹²So they placed him in custody until they were able^[d] to make a clear legal decision for themselves based on words from the mouth of the Lord.^[e]

¹³Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁴“Bring the one who cursed outside the camp, and all who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation is to stone him to death.^[f] ¹⁵Moreover,^[g] you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God^[h] he will bear responsibility for his sin, ¹⁶and one who misuses^[i] the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a resident foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.

¹⁷“‘If a man beats any person to death,^[j] he must be put to death. ¹⁸One who beats an animal to death^[k] must make restitution for it, life for life.^[l] ¹⁹If a man inflicts an injury on^[m] his fellow citizen,^[n] just as he has done it must be done to him— ²⁰fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth—just as he inflicts an injury on another person^[o] that same injury^[p] must be inflicted on him. ²¹One who beats an animal to death^[q] must make restitution for it, but^[r] one who beats a person to death must be put to death. ²²There will be one regulation^[s] for you, whether a resident foreigner^[t] or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”

²³Then Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Footnotes

Leviticus 24:10 tn Heb “And.”
Leviticus 24:10 tn Heb “the Israelite man,” but Smr has no article, and the point is that there was a conflict between the man of mixed background and a man of full Israelite descent.
Leviticus 24:11 tn The verb rendered “misused” means literally “to bore through, to pierce” (HALOT 719 s.v. נקב qal); it is from נָקַב (naqav), not קָבַב (qavav; see the participial form in v. 16a). Its exact meaning here is uncertain. The two verbs together may form a hendiadys, “he pronounced by cursing blasphemously” (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 166), the idea being one of the following: (1) he pronounced the name “Yahweh” in a way or with words that amounted to “some sort of verbal aggression against Yahweh himself” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 362), (2) he pronounced a curse against the man using the name “Yahweh” (N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers [NCBC], 110; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 311), or (3) he pronounced the name “Yahweh” and thereby blasphemed, since the “Name” was never to be pronounced (a standard Jewish explanation). In one way or another, the offense surely violated Exod 20:7, one of the ten commandments, and the same verb for cursing is used explicitly in Exod 22:28 (27 HT) for prohibition against “cursing” God. For a full discussion of these and related options for interpreting this verse see P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 335-36; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 408-9; and Levine, 166.
Leviticus 24:12 tn The words “until they were able” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
Leviticus 24:12 tn The Hebrew here is awkward. A literal reading would be something like the following: “And they placed him in custody to give a clear decision [HALOT 976 s.v. פרשׁ qal] for themselves on the mouth of the Lord.” In any case, they were apparently waiting for a direct word from the Lord regarding this matter (see vv. 13ff).
Leviticus 24:14 tn The words “to death” are supplied in the translation as a clarification; they are clearly implied from v. 16.
Leviticus 24:15 tn Heb “And.”
Leviticus 24:15 sn See the note on v. 11 above and esp. Exod 22:28 [27 HT].
Leviticus 24:16 sn See the note on v. 11 above.
Leviticus 24:17 tn Heb “And if a man strikes any soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] of mankind.” The idiom seems to derive from the idea of striking a fatal blow to the very “life” (literally, “soul”) of a human being, not just landing a blow on their body (HALOT 698 s.v. נכה hif.2). On the difficulty of the meaning and significance of the term נֶפֶשׁ see the notes on Lev 17:10-11.
Leviticus 24:18 tn Heb “And one who strikes a soul of an animal.”
Leviticus 24:18 tn Heb “soul under soul.” Cf. KJV “beast for beast”; NCV “must give…another animal to take its place.”
Leviticus 24:19 tn Heb “gives a flaw in”; KJV, ASV “cause a blemish in.”
Leviticus 24:19 tn Or “neighbor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); TEV, NLT “another person.”
Leviticus 24:20 tn Heb “in the man [אָדָם, ʾadam].”
Leviticus 24:20 tn Heb “just as he inflicts an injury…it must be inflicted on him.” The referent (“that same injury”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Leviticus 24:21 sn See the note on v. 18 above.
Leviticus 24:21 tn Heb “and,” but here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is adversative, contrasting the consequences of beating an animal to death with those of beating a person to death.
Leviticus 24:22 tn Heb “a regulation of one”; KJV, ASV “one manner of law”; NASB “one standard.”
Leviticus 24:22 sn On the Hebrew גֵּר (ger, “resident foreigner”) see notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11. Several passages emphasize equal standing under Mosaic Law (Exod 12:49; Lev 24:22; Num 9:14; 15:15, 16, 26, 29; 19:10; 35:15; Deut 1:16) or similar obligations (Exod 20:10; 23:12; Lev 16:29; 17:10, 12, 13; 18:26; 24:16; Num 15:14).

Matthew 7:1-12

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]

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷“Ask^[i] and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door^[j] will be opened for you. ⁸For everyone who asks^[k] receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹Is^[l] there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?^[m] ¹¹If you then, although you are evil,^[n] know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts^[o] to those who ask him! ¹²In^[p] everything, treat others as you would want them^[q] to treat you,^[r] for this fulfills^[s] the law and the prophets.

Footnotes

Matthew 7:1 sn The point of the statement do not judge so that you will not be judged is that the standards we apply to others God applies to us. The passive verb will not be judged has God is the unstated performer of the action. Such usage is generally thought to have arisen within Judaism out of the tendency to minimize the mention of God’s name out of reverence for God, and carried over into early Christian tradition, although in this particular verse the agent may be left unstated more for rhetorical effect. See also ExSyn 437-38.
Matthew 7:2 tn Grk “by the measure with which you measure it will be measured to you.”
Matthew 7:3 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 7:3 sn The term translated speck (KJV, ASV “mote”; NAB “splinter”) refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.
Matthew 7:3 tn Or “do not notice.”
Matthew 7:3 sn The term beam of wood refers to a very big piece of wood, the main beam of a building, in contrast to the speck in the other’s eye (L&N 7.78).
Matthew 7:4 tn Grk “how will you say?”
Matthew 7:6 tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).
Matthew 7:7 tn The three present imperatives in this verse are best viewed as iterative (Wallace, ExSyn 722, lists the verse as an example of this usage), calling for repeated action.sn Many interpreters see the three present imperatives (Ask…seek…knock) as mainly limited to persistence in prayer (cf. v. 11), though others see them referring more generally to taking the initiative with God in various ways.
Matthew 7:7 tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.
Matthew 7:8 sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the additional encouragement that God does respond to such requests/actions.
Matthew 7:9 tn Grk “Or is there.”
Matthew 7:10 sn The two questions of vv. 9-10 use a construction in Greek that expects a negative answer: “No parent would do this!”
Matthew 7:11 tn The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated as a concessive adverbial participle: in spite of the fact that the hearers are “evil,” they still know how to give “good gifts” to their own children (see also ExSyn 634).
Matthew 7:11 sn The provision of the good gifts is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. The teaching as a whole stresses not that we get everything we want, but that God gives the good that we need.
Matthew 7:12 tn Grk “Therefore in.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.
Matthew 7:12 tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos), referring to both males and females.
Matthew 7:12 sn Jesus’ teaching as reflected in the phrase treat others as you would want them to treat you, known generally as the Golden Rule, is not completely unique in the ancient world, but here it is stated in its most emphatic, selfless form. It is stated negatively in Tobit 4:15, and can also be found in the Talmud in a story about the great rabbi Hillel, who is said to have told a Gentile who asked to be taught the Torah, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it” (b. Shabbat 31a).
Matthew 7:12 tn Grk “is”; cf. CEV “This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about”; NIV “for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

ה (He)

Footnotes

A Case of Blaspheming the Name

Footnotes

Do Not Judge

Ask, Seek, Knock

Footnotes