◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 124 (We have escaped like a bird); Isaiah 54:1-10 (God will save the people); Matthew 24:23-35 (The end is coming) (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

Psalm 124

Psalm 124^[a]

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

124 “If the Lord had not been on our side”—
let Israel say this.—
²if the Lord had not been on our side,
when men attacked us,^[c]
³they would have swallowed us alive,
when their anger raged against us.
⁴The water would have overpowered us;
the current^[d] would have overwhelmed^[e] us.^[f]
⁵The raging water
would have overwhelmed us.^[g]
⁶The Lord deserves praise,^[h]
for^[i] he did not hand us over as prey to their teeth.
⁷We escaped with our lives,^[j] like a bird from a hunter’s snare.
The snare broke, and we escaped.
⁸Our deliverer is the Lord,^[k]
the Creator^[l] of heaven and earth.

Isaiah 54:1-10

Zion Will Be Secure

54 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!
Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one are more numerous
than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
²Make your tent larger,
stretch your tent curtains farther out!^[a]
Spare no effort,
lengthen your ropes,
and pound your stakes deep.^[b]
³For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your children will conquer^[c] nations
and will resettle desolate cities.
⁴Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame.
Don’t be intimidated,^[d] for you will not be humiliated.
You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;
you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment.^[e]
⁵For your husband is the one who made you—
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name.
He is your Protector,^[f] the Holy One of Israel.^[g]
He is called “God of the entire earth.”
⁶“Indeed, the Lord will call you back
like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression,^[h]
like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.
⁷“For a short time I abandoned^[i] you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
⁸In a burst^[j] of anger I rejected you^[k] momentarily,
but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”
says your Protector,^[l] the Lord.
⁹“As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time,^[m]
when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood^[n] would never again cover the earth.
In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.
¹⁰Even if the mountains are removed
and the hills displaced,
my devotion will not be removed from you,
nor will my covenant of friendship^[o] be displaced,”
says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.

Matthew 24:23-35

²³Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’^[a] or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. ²⁴For false messiahs^[b] and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵Remember,^[c] I have told you ahead of time. ²⁶So then, if someone^[d] says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’^[e] do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. ²⁷For just like the lightning^[f] comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. ²⁸Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures^[g] will gather.^[h]

The Arrival of the Son of Man

²⁹“Immediately^[i] after the suffering^[j] of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.^[k] ³⁰Then^[l] the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,^[m] and^[n] all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They^[o] will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven^[p] with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven^[q] to the other.

The Parable of the Fig Tree

³²“Learn^[r] this parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. ³³So also you, when you see all these things, know^[s] that he is near, right at the door. ³⁴I tell you the truth,^[t] this generation^[u] will not pass away until all these things take place. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.^[v]

Footnotes

Matthew 24:23 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.
Matthew 24:24 tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
Matthew 24:25 tn Or “Pay attention!” Grk “Behold.”
Matthew 24:26 tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).
Matthew 24:26 tn Or “in the desert.”
Matthew 24:27 sn The Son of Man’s coming in power will be sudden and obvious like lightning. No one will need to point it out.
Matthew 24:28 tn The same Greek term can refer to “eagles” or “vultures” (L&N 4.42; BDAG 22 s.v. ἀετός), but in this context it must mean vultures because the gruesome image is one of dead bodies being consumed by scavengers.sn Jesus’ answer is that when the judgment comes, the scenes of death will be obvious and so will the location of the judgment. See also Luke 17:37.
Matthew 24:28 tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.
Matthew 24:29 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:29 tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”
Matthew 24:29 sn An allusion to Isa 13:10; 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.
Matthew 24:30 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:30 tn Or “in the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.
Matthew 24:30 tn Here τότε (tote, “then”) has not been translated to avoid redundancy in English.
Matthew 24:30 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:30 sn An allusion to Dan 7:13. Here is Jesus returning with full authority to judge.
Matthew 24:31 tn Or “of the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.
Matthew 24:32 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:33 tn The verb γινώσκετε (ginōskete, “know”) can be parsed as either present indicative or present imperative. In this context the imperative fits better, since the movement is from analogy (trees and seasons) to the future (the signs of the coming of the kingdom) and since the emphasis is on preparation for this event.
Matthew 24:34 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amēn), I say to you.”
Matthew 24:34 sn This is one of the hardest verses in the gospels to interpret. Various views exist for what generation means. (1) Some take it as meaning “race” and thus as an assurance that the Jewish race (nation) will not pass away. But it is very questionable that the Greek term γενεά (genea) can have this meaning. Two other options are possible. (2) Generation might mean “this type of generation” and refer to the generation of wicked humanity. Then the point is that humanity will not perish, because God will redeem it. Or (3) generation may refer to “the generation that sees the signs of the end” (v. 30), who will also see the end itself. In other words, once the movement to the return of Christ starts, all the events connected with it happen very quickly, in rapid succession.
Matthew 24:35 sn The words that Jesus predicts here will never pass away. They are more stable and lasting than creation itself. For this kind of image, see Isa 40:8; 55:10-11.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 124[a]

A song of ascents;[b] by David.

Footnotes

Zion Will Be Secure

Footnotes

The Arrival of the Son of Man

The Parable of the Fig Tree

Footnotes

Psalm 124^[a]

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