◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 121 (My help is from the Lord); Genesis 32:3-21 (Jacob sends gifts to Esau); Mark 10:46-52 (A man who would not be silenced) (New English Translation)

Prev Day

October 19, 2019

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

October 2019
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Return to today's reading

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 121

Psalm 121^[a]

A song of ascents.^[b]

121 I look up^[c] toward the hills.
From where^[d] does my help come?
²My help comes from the Lord,^[e]
the Creator^[f] of heaven and earth.
³May he not allow your foot to slip.
May your Protector^[g] not sleep.^[h]
⁴Look! Israel’s Protector^[i]
does not sleep or slumber.
⁵The Lord is your protector;
the Lord is the shade at your right hand.
⁶The sun will not harm you by day,
or the moon by night.^[j]
⁷The Lord will protect you from all harm;
he will protect your life.
⁸The Lord will protect you in all you do,^[k]
now and forevermore.

Footnotes

Psalm 121:1 sn Psalm 121. The psalm affirms that the Lord protects his people Israel. Unless the psalmist addresses an observer (note the second person singular forms in vv. 3-8), it appears there are two or three speakers represented in the psalm, depending on how one takes v. 3. The translation assumes that speaker one talks in vv. 1-2, that speaker two responds to him with a prayer in v. 3 (this assumes the verbs are true jussives of prayer), and that speaker three responds with words of assurance in vv. 4-8. If the verbs in v. 3 are taken as a rhetorical use of the jussive, then there are two speakers. Verses 3-8 are speaker two’s response to the words of speaker one. See the note on the word “sleep” at the end of v. 3.
Psalm 121:1 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
Psalm 121:1 tn Heb “I lift my eyes.”
Psalm 121:1 tn The Hebrew term מֵאַיִן (meʾayin) is interrogative, not relative, in function. Rather than directly stating that his source of help descends from the hills, the psalmist is asking, “From where does my help come?” Nevertheless, the first line does indicate that he is looking toward the hills for help, probably indicating that he is looking up toward the sky, or up toward the temple, in anticipation of supernatural intervention. The psalmist assumes the dramatic role of one needing help. He answers his own question in v. 2.
Psalm 121:2 tn Heb “my help [is] from with the Lord.”
Psalm 121:2 tn Or “Maker.”
Psalm 121:3 tn Heb “the one who guards you.”
Psalm 121:3 tn The prefixed verbal forms following the negative particle אַל (ʾal) appear to be jussives. As noted above, if they are taken as true jussives of prayer, then the speaker in v. 3 would appear to be distinct from both the speaker in vv. 1-2 and the speaker in vv. 4-8. However, according to GKC 322 §109.e), the jussives are used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one should probably translate, “he will not allow your foot to slip, your protector will not sleep,” and understand just one speaker in vv. 4-8. But none of the examples in GKC for this use of the jussive are compelling.
Psalm 121:4 tn Heb “the one who guards Israel.”
Psalm 121:6 sn One hardly thinks of the moon’s rays as being physically harmful, like those of the sun. The reference to the moon may simply lend poetic balance to the verse, but it is likely that the verse reflects an ancient, primitive belief that the moon could have an adverse effect on the mind (note the English expression “moonstruck,” which reflects such a belief). Another possibility is that the sun and moon stand by metonymy for harmful forces characteristic of the day and night, respectively.
Psalm 121:8 tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.”

Genesis 32:3-21

³Jacob sent messengers on ahead^[a] to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region^[b] of Edom. ⁴He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant^[c] Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.^[d] ⁵I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent^[e] this message^[f] to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has 400 men with him.” ⁷Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels. ⁸“If Esau attacks one camp,”^[g] he thought,^[h] “then the other camp will be able to escape.”^[i]

⁹Then Jacob prayed,^[j] “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said^[k] to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’^[l] ¹⁰I am not worthy of all the faithful love^[m] you have shown^[n] your servant. With only my walking stick^[o] I crossed the Jordan,^[p] but now I have become two camps. ¹¹Rescue me,^[q] I pray, from the hand^[r] of my brother Esau,^[s] for I am afraid he will come^[t] and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.^[u] ¹²But you^[v] said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper^[w] and will make^[x] your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”^[y]

¹³Jacob^[z] stayed there that night. Then he sent^[aa] as a gift^[ab] to his brother Esau ¹⁴200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, ¹⁵30 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, and 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. ¹⁶He entrusted them to^[ac] his servants, who divided them into herds.^[ad] He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.” ¹⁷He instructed the servant leading the first herd,^[ae] “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong?^[af] Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’^[ag] ¹⁸then you must say,^[ah] ‘They belong^[ai] to your servant Jacob.^[aj] They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau.^[ak] In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’”^[al]

¹⁹He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying, “You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.^[am] ²⁰You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’”^[an] Jacob thought,^[ao] “I will first appease him^[ap] by sending a gift ahead of me.^[aq] After that I will meet him.^[ar] Perhaps he will accept me.”^[as] ²¹So the gifts were sent on ahead of him^[at] while he spent that night in the camp.^[au]

Footnotes

Genesis 32:3 tn Heb “before him.”
Genesis 32:3 tn Heb “field.”
Genesis 32:4 sn Your servant. The narrative recounts Jacob’s groveling in fear before Esau as he calls his brother his “lord,” as if to minimize what had been done twenty years ago.
Genesis 32:4 tn Heb “Laban and have lingered until now.”
Genesis 32:5 tn Or “I am sending.” The form is a preterite with the vav consecutive; it could be rendered as an English present tense—as the Hebrew perfect/preterite allows—much like an epistolary aorist in Greek. The form assumes the temporal perspective of the one who reads the message.
Genesis 32:5 tn The words “this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
Genesis 32:8 tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”
Genesis 32:8 tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (ʾamar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
Genesis 32:8 tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.
Genesis 32:9 tn Heb “said.”
Genesis 32:9 tn Heb “the one who said.”
Genesis 32:9 tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.
Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).
Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “you have done with.”
Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.
Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “this Jordan.”
Genesis 32:11 tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.
Genesis 32:11 tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”
Genesis 32:11 tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”
Genesis 32:11 tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”
Genesis 32:11 sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.
Genesis 32:12 tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.sn Some commentators have thought this final verse of the prayer redundant, but it actually follows the predominant form of a lament in which God is motivated to act. The primary motivation Jacob can offer to God is God’s promise, and so he falls back on that at the end of the prayer.
Genesis 32:12 tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.
Genesis 32:12 tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.
Genesis 32:12 tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.
Genesis 32:13 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Genesis 32:13 tn Heb “and he took from that which was going into his hand,” meaning that he took some of what belonged to him.
Genesis 32:13 sn The Hebrew noun translated gift can in some contexts refer to the tribute paid by a subject to his lord. Such a nuance is possible here, because Jacob refers to Esau as his lord and to himself as Esau’s servant (v. 4).
Genesis 32:16 tn Heb “and he put them in the hand of.”
Genesis 32:16 tn Heb “a herd, a herd, by itself,” or “each herd by itself.” The distributive sense is expressed by repetition.
Genesis 32:17 tn Heb “the first”; this has been specified as “the servant leading the first herd” in the translation for clarity.
Genesis 32:17 tn Heb “to whom are you?”
Genesis 32:17 tn Heb “and to whom are these before you?”
Genesis 32:18 tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it has the nuance of an imperfect of instruction.
Genesis 32:18 tn The words “they belong” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
Genesis 32:18 tn Heb “to your servant, to Jacob.”
Genesis 32:18 tn Heb “to my lord, to Esau.”
Genesis 32:18 tn Heb “and look, also he [is] behind us.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Genesis 32:19 tn Heb “And he commanded also the second, also the third, also all the ones going after the herds, saying: ‘According to this word you will speak when you find him.’”
Genesis 32:20 tn Heb “and look, your servant Jacob [is] behind us.”
Genesis 32:20 tn Heb “for he said.” The referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew verb אָמַר (ʾamar), traditionally represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “thought.”
Genesis 32:20 tn Heb “I will appease his face.” The cohortative here expresses Jacob’s resolve. In the Book of Leviticus the Hebrew verb translated “appease” has the idea of removing anger due to sin or guilt, a nuance that fits this passage very well. Jacob wanted to buy Esau off with a gift of more than 550 animals.
Genesis 32:20 tn Heb “with a gift going before me.”
Genesis 32:20 tn Heb “I will see his face.”
Genesis 32:20 tn Heb “Perhaps he will lift up my face.” In this context the idiom refers to acceptance.
Genesis 32:21 tn Heb “and the gift passed over upon his face.”
Genesis 32:21 tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial/temporal.

Mark 10:46-52

Healing Blind Bartimaeus

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. As Jesus^[a] and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. ⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout,^[b] “Jesus, Son of David,^[c] have mercy^[d] on me!” ⁴⁸Many scolded^[e] him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So^[f] they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up! He is calling you.” ⁵⁰He threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus. ⁵¹Then^[g] Jesus said to him,^[h] “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied, “Rabbi,^[i] let me see again.”^[j] ⁵²Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has healed you.” Immediately he regained^[k] his sight and followed him on the road.

New English Translation (NET)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 121[a]

A song of ascents.[b]

Footnotes

Footnotes

Healing Blind Bartimaeus

Footnotes

Psalm 121^[a]

A song of ascents.^[b]