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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 57

Psalm 57^[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;^[b] a prayer^[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.^[d]

57 Have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me.
For in you I have taken shelter.^[e]
In the shadow of your wings^[f] I take shelter
until trouble passes.
²I cry out for help to God Most High,^[g]
to the God who vindicates^[h] me.
³May he send help from heaven and deliver me^[i]
from my enemies who hurl insults.^[j] (Selah)
May God send his loyal love and faithfulness.
⁴I am surrounded by lions;
I lie down^[k] among those who want to devour me,^[l]
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.^[m]
⁵Rise up^[n] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.^[o]
⁶They have prepared a net to trap me;^[p]
I am discouraged.^[q]
They have dug a pit for me.^[r]
They will fall^[s] into it. (Selah)
⁷I am determined,^[t] O God. I am determined.
I will sing and praise you.
⁸Awake, my soul!^[u]
Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!
I will wake up at dawn.^[v]
⁹I will give you thanks before the nations, O Lord.
I will sing praises to you before foreigners.^[w]
¹⁰For your loyal love extends beyond the sky,^[x]
and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.
¹¹Rise up^[y] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.^[z]

Footnotes

Psalm 57:1 sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.
Psalm 57:1 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 58-59, 75.
Psalm 57:1 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56, 58-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
Psalm 57:1 sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.
Psalm 57:1 tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.
Psalm 57:1 sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).
Psalm 57:2 sn The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ʿelyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.
Psalm 57:2 tn Or “avenges in favor of.”
Psalm 57:3 tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).
Psalm 57:3 tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”
Psalm 57:4 tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (ʾeshk^evah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).
Psalm 57:4 tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).
Psalm 57:4 tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”
Psalm 57:5 tn Or “be exalted.”
Psalm 57:5 tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “for my feet.”
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “before me.”
Psalm 57:6 tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.
Psalm 57:7 tn Or perhaps “confident”; Heb “my heart is steadfast.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and/or emotions.
Psalm 57:8 tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (k^evedi, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”
Psalm 57:8 tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.
Psalm 57:9 tn Or “the peoples.”
Psalm 57:10 tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”
Psalm 57:11 tn Or “be exalted.”
Psalm 57:11 tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)

1 Samuel 25:2-22

David Marries Abigail the Widow of Nabal

²There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy;^[a] he owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³The man’s name was Nabal,^[b] and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was both wise^[c] and beautiful, but the man was harsh and his deeds were evil. He was a Calebite.

⁴When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, ⁵he^[d] sent ten servants,^[e] saying to them,^[f] “Go up to Carmel to see Nabal and give him greetings in my name.^[g] ⁶Then you will say to my brother,^[h] ‘Peace to you and your house! Peace to all that is yours! ⁷Now I hear that they are shearing sheep for you. When your shepherds were with us, we neither insulted them nor harmed them the whole time they were in Carmel. ⁸Ask your own servants; they can tell you! May my servants find favor in your sight, for we have come^[i] at the time of a holiday. Please provide us—your servants^[j] and your son David—with whatever you can spare.’”^[k]

⁹So David’s servants went and spoke all these words to Nabal in David’s name. Then they paused. ¹⁰But Nabal responded to David’s servants, “Who is David, and who is this son of Jesse? This is a time when many servants are breaking away from their masters! ¹¹Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t even know where they came from!”

¹²So David’s servants went on their way. When they had returned, they came and told David^[l] all these things. ¹³Then David instructed his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So each one strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. About 400 men followed David, while 200 stayed behind with the equipment.

¹⁴But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet^[m] our lord, but he screamed at them. ¹⁵These men were very good to us. They did not insult us, nor did we sustain any loss during the entire time we were together^[n] in the field. ¹⁶Both night and day they were a protective wall for us the entire time we were with them, while we were tending our flocks. ¹⁷Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household.^[o] He is such a wicked person^[p] that no one tells him anything!”

¹⁸So Abigail quickly took 200 loaves of bread, two containers^[q] of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs^[r] of roasted grain, 100 bunches of raisins, and 200 lumps of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys ¹⁹and said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I will come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

²⁰Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them. ²¹Now David had been thinking,^[s] “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil. ²²God will severely punish David,^[t] if I leave alive until morning even one male^[u] from all those who belong to him!”

Footnotes

1 Samuel 25:2 tn Heb “great.”
1 Samuel 25:3 sn The name נָבָל (Nabal) means “foolish” or “senseless” in Hebrew, and as an adjective the word is used especially of persons who have no perception of ethical or religious claims. It is an apt name for this character, who certainly typifies such behavior.
1 Samuel 25:3 tn Heb “good of insight”; KJV “of good understanding”; NAB, NIV, TEV “intelligent”; NRSV “clever.”
1 Samuel 25:5 tn Heb “David”; for stylistic reasons the pronoun has been used in the translation.
1 Samuel 25:5 tn Or “young men.”
1 Samuel 25:5 tn Heb “and David said to the young men.”
1 Samuel 25:5 tn Heb “and inquire concerning him in my name in regard to peace.”
1 Samuel 25:6 tc The text is difficult here. The MT and most of the early versions support the reading לֶחָי (lekhai, “to life,” or “to the one who lives”). Some of the older English versions (KJV, ASV; cf. NKJV) took the expression to mean “to him who lives (in prosperity),” but this translation requires reading a good deal into the words. While the expression could have the sense of “Long life to you!” (cf. NIV, NJPS) or perhaps “Good luck to you!” this seems somewhat redundant in light of the salutation that follows in the context. The Latin Vulgate has fratribus meis (“to my brothers”), which suggests that Jerome understood the Hebrew word to have an ʾalef that is absent in the MT (i.e., לֶאֱחָי, leʾekhay). Jerome’s plural, however, remains a problem, since in the context David is addressing a single individual, namely Nabal, and not a group. However, it is likely that the Vulgate witnesses to a consonantal Hebrew text that is to be preferred here, especially if the word were to be revocalized as a singular rather than a plural. While it is impossible to be certain about this reading, the present translation essentially follows the Vulgate in reading “my brother” (so also NJB; cf. NAB, RSV, NRSV).
1 Samuel 25:8 tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בָּאנוּ (baʾnu, “we have come”) rather than the MT’s בָּנוּ (banu, “we have built”).
1 Samuel 25:8 tn This refers to the ten servants sent by David.
1 Samuel 25:8 tn Heb “whatever your hand will find.”
1 Samuel 25:12 tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 25:14 tn Heb “bless.”
1 Samuel 25:15 tn Heb “all the days we walked about with them when we were.”
1 Samuel 25:17 tn Heb “all his house” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “his whole family.”
1 Samuel 25:17 tn Heb “he is a son of worthlessness.”
1 Samuel 25:18 tn Heb “skins.”
1 Samuel 25:18 sn The seah was a dry measure equal to one-third of an ephah, or not quite eleven quarts.
1 Samuel 25:21 tn Heb “said.”
1 Samuel 25:22 tc Heb “Thus God will do to the enemies of David and thus he will add.” Most of the Old Greek ms tradition has simply “David,” with no reference to his enemies. In OT imprecations such as the one found in v. 22 it is common for the speaker to direct malediction toward himself as an indication of the seriousness with which he regards the matter at hand. In other words, the speaker invites on himself dire consequences if he fails to fulfill the matter expressed in the oath. However, in the situation alluded to in v. 22 the threat actually does not come to fruition due to the effectiveness of Abigail’s appeal to David on behalf of her husband Nabal. Instead, David is placated through Abigail’s intervention. It therefore seems likely that the reference to “the enemies of David” in the MT of v. 22 is the result of a scribal attempt to deliver David from the implied consequences of this oath. The present translation follows the LXX rather than the MT here.
1 Samuel 25:22 tn Heb “one who urinates against a wall” (also in v. 34); KJV “any that pisseth against the wall.” At first this may seem to be a vulgar phrase because it refers to a bodily function and David is angry. But David uses the same phrase when he speaks in a conciliatory way to Abigail in v. 34. There is no clear point to his using a vulgar phrase in that context. Similarly for the narrator in 1 Kgs 16:11 and the Lord’s oracles in 1 Kgs 14:10; 21:21; 2 Kgs 9:8, any rhetorical reason for vulgarity is unclear. The phrase refers to males, is not with certainty crude, and the addition of the phrase “at a wall” does not communicate well in the modern setting. We we have chosen to simply use “male” for this phrase.

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Lawsuits

6 When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints? ²Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits? ³Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters! ⁴So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?^[a] ⁵I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians?^[b] ⁶Instead, does a Christian sue a Christian,^[c] and do this before unbelievers? ⁷The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves demonstrates that you have already been defeated. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸But you yourselves wrong and cheat, and you do this to your brothers and sisters!^[d]

⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners,^[e] practicing homosexuals,^[f] ¹⁰thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive,^[g] and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹Some of you once lived this way.^[h] But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ^[i] and by the Spirit of our God.

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 6:4 tn Or “if you have ordinary lawsuits, appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church!” This alternative reading (cf. KJV, NIV) takes the Greek verb καθίζετε (kathizete) as an ironic imperative instead of a question. This verb comes, however, at the end of the sentence. It is not impossible that Paul meant for it to be understood this way, but its placement in the sentence does not make this probable.
1 Corinthians 6:5 tn Grk “to decide between his brother (and his opponent),” but see the note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.
1 Corinthians 6:6 tn Grk “does a brother sue a brother,” but see the note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.
1 Corinthians 6:8 tn Grk “brothers.” The Greek term “brother” literally refers to family relationships, but here it is used in a broader sense to connote familial relationships within the family of God (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a). See also the note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
1 Corinthians 6:9 tn This term is sometimes rendered “effeminate,” although in contemporary English usage such a translation could be taken to refer to demeanor rather than behavior. BDAG 613 s.v. μαλακός 2 has “pert. to being passive in a same-sex relationship, effeminate esp. of catamites, of men and boys who are sodomized by other males in such a relationship.” L&N 88.281 states, “the passive male partner in homosexual intercourse—‘homosexual.’…As in Greek, a number of other languages also have entirely distinct terms for the active and passive roles in homosexual intercourse.” See also the discussion in G. D. Fee, First Corinthians (NICNT), 243-44. A number of modern translations have adopted the phrase “male prostitutes” for μαλακοί in 1 Cor 6:9 (NIV, NRSV, NLT) but this could be misunderstood by the modern reader to mean “males who sell their services to women,” while the term in question appears, at least in context, to relate to homosexual activity between males. Furthermore, it is far from certain that prostitution as commonly understood (the selling of sexual favors) is specified here, as opposed to a consensual relationship. Thus the translation “passive homosexual partners” has been used here.
1 Corinthians 6:9 tn On this term BDAG 135 s.v. ἀρσενοκοίτης states, “a male who engages in sexual activity w. a pers. of his own sex, pederast 1 Cor 6:9…of one who assumes the dominant role in same-sex activity, opp. μαλακός…1 Ti 1:10; Pol 5:3. Cp. Ro 1:27.” L&N 88.280 states, “a male partner in homosexual intercourse—‘homosexual.’…It is possible that ἀρσενοκοίτης in certain contexts refers to the active male partner in homosexual intercourse in contrast with μαλακός, the passive male partner.” Since there is a distinction in contemporary usage between sexual orientation and actual behavior, the qualification “practicing” was supplied in the translation, following the emphasis in BDAG.
1 Corinthians 6:10 tn Or “revilers”; BDAG 602 s.v. λοίδορος defines the term as “reviler, abusive person.” Because the term “abusive” without further qualification has become associated in contemporary English with both physical and sexual abuse, the qualifier “verbally” has been supplied in the translation.
1 Corinthians 6:11 tn Grk “and some [of you] were these.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 tc The external evidence in support of the reading ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Iēsou Christou, “Jesus Christ”) is quite impressive: P^11vid,46 א B C^vid D* P 33 81 104 365 629 630 1739 1881 2464 al lat bo as well as several fathers, while the reading with merely ᾿Ιησοῦ has significantly poorer support (A D² Ψ M sa). Although the wording of the original could certainly have been expanded, it is also possible that Χριστοῦ as a nomen sacrum could have accidentally dropped out. Although the latter is not as likely under normal circumstances, in light of the early and widespread witnesses for the fuller expression, the wording of the Ausgangstext seems to have been ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 57[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;[b] a prayer[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.[d]

Footnotes

David Marries Abigail the Widow of Nabal

Footnotes

Lawsuits

Footnotes

Psalm 57^[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;^[b] a prayer^[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.^[d]