◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 93 (God reigns above the floods); Genesis 9:8-17 (Sign of the covenant); Acts 27:39-44 (Paul and companions come safely to land) (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 93

Psalm 93^[a]

93 The Lord reigns.
He is robed in majesty.
The Lord is robed;
he wears strength around his waist.^[b]
Indeed, the world is established; it cannot be moved.
²Your throne has been secure from ancient times;
you have always been king.^[c]
³The waves^[d] roar, O Lord,
the waves roar,
the waves roar and crash.^[e]
⁴Above the sound of the surging water,^[f]
and the mighty waves of the sea,
the Lord sits enthroned in majesty.^[g]
⁵The rules you set down^[h] are completely reliable.^[i]
Holiness^[j] aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever.^[k]

Genesis 9:8-17

⁸God said to Noah and his sons,^[a] ⁹“Look. I now confirm^[b] my covenant with you and your descendants after you^[c] ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature of the earth.^[d] ¹¹I confirm^[e] my covenant with you: Never again will all living things^[f] be wiped out^[g] by the waters of a flood;^[h] never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

¹²And God said, “This is the guarantee^[i] of the covenant I am making^[j] with you^[k] and every living creature with you, a covenant^[l] for all subsequent^[m] generations: ¹³I will place^[n] my rainbow^[o] in the clouds, and it will become^[p] a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever^[q] I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵then I will remember my covenant with you^[r] and with all living creatures of all kinds.^[s] Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy^[t] all living things.^[u] ¹⁶When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember^[v] the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.”

¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things^[w] that are on the earth.”

Footnotes

Genesis 9:8 tn Heb “to Noah and to his sons with him, saying.”
Genesis 9:9 tn Heb “I, look, I confirm.” The particle הִנְנִי (hin^eni) used with the participle מֵקִים (meqim) gives the sense of immediacy or imminence, as if to say, “Look! I am now confirming.”
Genesis 9:9 tn The three pronominal suffixes (translated “you,” “your,” and “you”) are masculine plural. As v. 8 indicates, Noah and his sons are addressed.
Genesis 9:10 tn The verbal repetition is apparently for emphasis.
Genesis 9:11 tn The verb וַהֲקִמֹתִי (vahaqimoti) is a perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive and should be translated with the English present tense, just as the participle at the beginning of the speech was (v. 9). Another option is to translate both forms with the English future tense (“I will confirm”).
Genesis 9:11 tn Heb “all flesh.”
Genesis 9:11 tn Heb “cut off.”
Genesis 9:11 tn Heb “and all flesh will not be cut off again by the waters of the flood.”
Genesis 9:12 tn Heb “sign.”
Genesis 9:12 sn On the making of covenants in Genesis, see W. F. Albright, “The Hebrew Expression for ‘Making a Covenant’ in Pre-Israelite Documents,” BASOR 121 (1951): 21-22.
Genesis 9:12 tn Heb “between me and between you.”
Genesis 9:12 tn The words “a covenant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Genesis 9:12 tn The Hebrew term עוֹלָם (ʿolam) means “ever, forever, lasting, perpetual.” The covenant would extend to subsequent generations.
Genesis 9:13 tn The translation assumes that the perfect verbal form is used rhetorically, emphasizing the certainty of the action. Other translation options include “I have placed” (present perfect; cf. NIV, NRSV) and “I place” (instantaneous perfect; cf. NEB).
Genesis 9:13 sn The Hebrew word קֶשֶׁת (qeshet) normally refers to a warrior’s bow. Some understand this to mean that God the warrior hangs up his battle bow at the end of the flood, indicating he is now at peace with humankind, but others question the legitimacy of this proposal. See C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:473, and G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:196.
Genesis 9:13 tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here has the same aspectual function as the preceding perfect of certitude.
Genesis 9:14 tn The temporal indicator (וְהָיָה, v^ehayah, conjunction + the perfect verb form), often translated “it will be,” anticipates a future development.
Genesis 9:15 tn Heb “which [is] between me and between you.”
Genesis 9:15 tn Heb “all flesh.”
Genesis 9:15 tn Heb “to destroy.”
Genesis 9:15 tn Heb “all flesh.”
Genesis 9:16 tn The translation assumes that the infinitive לִזְכֹּר (lizkor, “to remember”) here expresses the result of seeing the rainbow. Another option is to understand it as indicating purpose, in which case it could be translated, “I will look at it so that I may remember.”
Genesis 9:17 tn Heb “all flesh.”

Acts 27:39-44

Paul is Shipwrecked

³⁹When day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed^[a] a bay^[b] with a beach,^[c] where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. ⁴⁰So they slipped^[d] the anchors^[e] and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the linkage^[f] that bound the steering oars^[g] together. Then they hoisted^[h] the foresail^[i] to the wind and steered toward^[j] the beach. ⁴¹But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents^[k] and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force^[l] of the waves. ⁴²Now the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners^[m] so that none of them would escape by swimming away.^[n] ⁴³But the centurion,^[o] wanting to save Paul’s life,^[p] prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land,^[q] ⁴⁴and the rest were to follow,^[r] some on planks^[s] and some on pieces of the ship.^[t] And in this way^[u] all were brought safely to land.

Footnotes

Acts 27:39 tn Or “observed,” “saw.”
Acts 27:39 tn Or “gulf” (BDAG 557 s.v. κόλπος 3).
Acts 27:39 sn A beach would refer to a smooth sandy beach suitable for landing.
Acts 27:40 tn That is, released. Grk “slipping…leaving.” The participles περιελόντες (perielontes) and εἴων (eiōn) have been translated as finite verbs due to requirements of contemporary English style.
Acts 27:40 tn The term is used of a ship’s anchor. (BDAG 12 s.v. ἄγκυρα a).
Acts 27:40 tn Grk “bands”; possibly “ropes.”
Acts 27:40 tn Or “rudders.”
Acts 27:40 tn Grk “hoisting…they.” The participle ἐπάραντες (eparantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
Acts 27:40 tn Grk “sail”; probably a reference to the foresail.
Acts 27:40 tn BDAG 533 s.v. κατέχω 7 states, “hold course, nautical t.t., intr….κατεῖχον εἰς τὸν αἰγιαλόν they headed for the beach Ac 27:40.”
Acts 27:41 tn Grk “fell upon a place of two seas.” The most common explanation for this term is that it refers to a reef or sandbar with the sea on both sides, as noted in BDAG 245 s.v. διθάλασσος: the “τόπος δ. Ac 27:41 is a semantic unit signifying a point (of land jutting out with water on both sides).” However, Greek had terms for a “sandbank” (θῖς [this], ταινία [tainia]), a “reef” (ἑρμα [herma]), “strait” (στενόν [stenon]), “promontory” (ἀρωτήρον [arōtēron]), and other nautical hazards, none of which are used by the author here. NEB here translates τόπον διθάλασσον (topon dithalasson) as “cross-currents,” a proposal close to that advanced by J. M. Gilchrist, “The Historicity of Paul’s Shipwreck,” JSNT 61 (1996): 29-51, who suggests the meaning is “a patch of cross-seas,” where the waves are set at an angle to the wind, a particular hazard for sailors. Thus the term most likely refers to some sort of adverse sea conditions rather than a topographical feature like a reef or sandbar.
Acts 27:41 tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).
Acts 27:42 sn The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners. The issue here was not cruelty, but that the soldiers would be legally responsible if any prisoners escaped and would suffer punishment themselves. So they were planning to do this as an act of self-preservation. See Acts 16:27 for a similar incident.
Acts 27:42 tn The participle ἐκκολυμβήσας (ekkolumbēsas) has been taken instrumentally.
Acts 27:43 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
Acts 27:43 tn Or “wanting to rescue Paul.”sn Thanks to the centurion who wanted to save Paul’s life, Paul was once more rescued from a potential human threat.
Acts 27:43 tn BDAG 347 s.v. I. ἔξειμι has “ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν get to land Ac 27:43.”
Acts 27:44 tn The words “were to follow” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. They must be supplied to clarify the sense in contemporary English.
Acts 27:44 tn Or “boards” according to BDAG 913 s.v. σανίς.
Acts 27:44 tn Grk “on pieces from the ship”; that is, pieces of wreckage from the ship.sn Both the planks and pieces of the ship were for the weak or nonswimmers. The whole scene is a historical metaphor representing how listening to Paul and his message could save people.
Acts 27:44 tn Grk “And in this way it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 93[a]

Footnotes

Footnotes

Paul is Shipwrecked

Footnotes

Psalm 93^[a]