◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Micah 3:5-12 (Judgment upon corrupt leaders); Psalm 43 (Send out your light and truth); 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 (The apostle’s teaching); Matthew 23:1-12 (Humble yourselves) (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

Micah 3:5-12

⁵This is what the Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people,^[a]

“If someone gives them enough to eat,
they offer an oracle of peace.^[b]
But if someone does not give them food,
they are ready to declare war on him.^[c]
⁶Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions;^[d]
it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens.^[e]
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.^[f]
⁷The prophets^[g] will be ashamed;
the omen readers will be humiliated.
All of them will cover their mouths,^[h]
for they will receive no divine oracles.”^[i]
⁸But I^[j] am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives

and have a strong commitment to justice.^[k]
This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion
and Israel with its sin.^[l]
⁹Listen to this, you leaders of the family^[m] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation^[n] of Israel!
You^[o] hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
¹⁰You^[p] build Zion through bloody crimes,^[q]
Jerusalem through unjust violence.
¹¹Her^[r] leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,^[s]
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust^[t] the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us.^[u]
Disaster will not overtake^[v] us!”
¹²Therefore, because of you,^[w] Zion will be plowed up like^[x] a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount^[y] will become a hill overgrown with brush!^[z]

Footnotes

Micah 3:5 tn Heb “concerning the prophets, those who mislead my people.” Some prefer to begin the quotation after “the Lord has said” (cf. NIV). But when the preposition עַל (ʿal, “about”) occurs with this introductory formula it regularly indicates who is being spoken about. (When a person is not the object of the preposition, it may begin the quote, meaning “because.”) Including the first person pronominal suffix (in “my people”) after a third person introduction may sound awkward, but also occurs in Jer 14:15; 23:2 (and perhaps Jer 12:14, a text critical question). Hillers prefers to add הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) at the beginning of the quotation, after the graphically similar יְהוָה (y^ehvah; see D. R. Hillers, Micah [Hermeneia], 44). The phrase הוֹי עַל (hoy ʿal, “woe upon”) occurs in Jer 50:27 and Ezek 13:3 (with “the prophets” following the preposition in the latter instance).
Micah 3:5 tn Heb “those who bite with their teeth and cry out, ‘peace.’” The phrase “bite with the teeth” is taken here as idiomatic for eating. Apparently these prophets were driven by mercenary motives. If they were paid well, they gave positive oracles to their clients, but if someone could not afford to pay them, they were hostile and delivered oracles of doom.
Micah 3:5 tn Heb “but [as for the one] who does not place [food] in their mouths, they prepare for war against him.”
Micah 3:6 tn Heb “it will be night for you without a vision.”sn The coming of night (and darkness in the following line) symbolizes the cessation of revelation.
Micah 3:6 tn Heb “it will be dark for you without divination.”sn The reading of omens (Heb “divination”) was forbidden in the law (Deut 18:10), so this probably reflects the prophets’ view of how they received divine revelation.
Micah 3:6 tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”
Micah 3:7 tn Or “seers.”
Micah 3:7 tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”
Micah 3:7 tn Heb “no divine response” or “no answer from God.”
Micah 3:8 sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.
Micah 3:8 tn Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.
Micah 3:8 tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
Micah 3:9 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).
Micah 3:10 tn Heb “who.”
Micah 3:10 tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”
Micah 3:11 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
Micah 3:11 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
Micah 3:11 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
Micah 3:11 tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”
Micah 3:11 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
Micah 3:12 tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.
Micah 3:12 tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).
Micah 3:12 tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
Micah 3:12 tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”

Psalm 43

Psalm 43^[a]

43 Vindicate me, O God!
Fight for me^[b] against an ungodly nation.
Deliver me^[c] from deceitful and evil men.^[d]
²For you are the God who shelters me.^[e]
Why do you reject me?^[f]
Why must I walk around^[g] mourning^[h]
because my enemies oppress me?
³Reveal^[i] your light^[j] and your faithfulness.
They will lead me;^[k]
they will escort^[l] me back to your holy hill,^[m]
and to the place where you live.^[n]
⁴Then I will go^[o] to the altar of God,
to the God who gives me ecstatic joy,^[p]
so that I may express my thanks to you,^[q] O God, my God, with a harp.
⁵Why are you depressed,^[r] O my soul?^[s]
Why are you upset?^[t]
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention.^[u]

Footnotes

Psalm 43:1 sn Psalm 43. Many medieval Hebrew mss combine Psalm 43 and Psalm 42 into one psalm. Psalm 43 is the only psalm in Book 2 of the Psalter (Psalms 42-72) that does not have a heading, suggesting that it was originally the third and concluding section of Psalm 42. Ps 43:5 is identical to the refrain in Ps 42:11 and almost identical to the refrain in Ps 42:5.
Psalm 43:1 tn Or “argue my case.”
Psalm 43:1 tn The imperfect here expresses a request or wish. Note the imperatives in the first half of the verse. See also v. 3.
Psalm 43:1 tn Heb “from the deceitful and evil man.” The Hebrew text uses the singular form “man” in a collective sense, as the reference to a “nation” in the parallel line indicates.
Psalm 43:2 tn Heb “God of my place of refuge,” that is, “God who is my place of refuge.” See Ps 31:4.
Psalm 43:2 tn The question is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but זָנַח (zanakh, “reject”) is a stronger verb than שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”).
Psalm 43:2 tn The language is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but the Hitpael form of the verb הָלַךְ (halakh; as opposed to the Qal form in 42:9) expresses more forcefully the continuing nature of the psalmist’s distress.
Psalm 43:2 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar statement.
Psalm 43:3 tn Heb “send.”
Psalm 43:3 sn God’s deliverance is compared here to a light which will lead the psalmist back home to the Lord’s temple. Divine deliverance will in turn demonstrate the Lord’s faithfulness to his people.
Psalm 43:3 tn Or “may they lead me.” The prefixed verbal forms here and in the next line may be taken as jussives.
Psalm 43:3 tn Heb “bring.”
Psalm 43:3 sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill is Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.
Psalm 43:3 tn Or “to your dwelling place[s].” The plural form of the noun may indicate degree or quality; this is the Lord’s special dwelling place (see Pss 46:4; 84:1; 132:5, 7).
Psalm 43:4 tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”
Psalm 43:4 tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.
Psalm 43:4 tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.
Psalm 43:5 tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
Psalm 43:5 sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
Psalm 43:5 tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”
Psalm 43:5 tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (y^eshuʿot f^ene ʾelohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is identical to the one in Ps 42:11. See also 42:5, which differs only slightly.

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

⁹For you recall, brothers and sisters,^[a] our toil and drudgery: By working night and day so as not to impose a burden on any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. ¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, as to how holy and righteous and blameless our conduct was toward you who believe. ¹¹As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his own children, ¹²exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory. ¹³And so^[b] we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us,^[c] you accepted it not as a human message,^[d] but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe.

Matthew 23:1-12

Seven Woes

23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ²“The^[a] experts in the law^[b] and the Pharisees^[c] sit on Moses’ seat. ³Therefore pay attention to what they tell you and do it. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach.^[d] ⁴They^[e] tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them. ⁵They^[f] do all their deeds to be seen by people, for they make their phylacteries^[g] wide and their tassels^[h] long. ⁶They^[i] love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues^[j] ⁷and elaborate greetings^[k] in the marketplaces,^[l] and to have people call them ‘Rabbi.’ ⁸But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher and you are all brothers. ⁹And call no one your ‘father’ on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. ¹⁰Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one teacher, the Christ.^[m] ¹¹The^[n] greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Footnotes

Psalm 43[a]

Footnotes

Footnotes

Seven Woes

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Psalm 43^[a]