◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 70 (You are my helper and deliverer); Amos 4:6-13 (Israel prepare to meet your God); Matthew 24:1-14 (Jesus foretells the end) (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 70

Psalm 70^[a]

For the music director, by David; written to get God’s attention.^[b]

70 O God, please be willing to rescue me.^[c]
O Lord, hurry and help me.^[d]
²May those who are trying to take my life
be embarrassed and ashamed.^[e]
May those who want to harm me
be turned back and ashamed.^[f]
³May those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
be driven back^[g] and disgraced.^[h]
⁴May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you.
May those who love to experience^[i] your deliverance say continually,^[j]
“May God^[k] be praised!”^[l]
⁵I am oppressed and needy.^[m]
O God, hurry to me.^[n]
You are my helper and my deliverer.
O Lord,^[o] do not delay.

Footnotes

Psalm 70:1 sn Psalm 70. This psalm is almost identical to Ps 40:13-17. The psalmist asks for God’s help and for divine retribution against his enemies.
Psalm 70:1 tn Heb “to cause to remember.” The same form, a Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the superscription of Ps 38. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).
Psalm 70:1 tn Heb “O God, to rescue me.” A main verb is obviously missing. The verb רָצָה (ratsah, “be willing”) should be supplied (see Ps 40:13). Ps 40:13 uses the divine name “Lord” rather than “God.”
Psalm 70:1 tn Heb “hurry to my help.” See Pss 22:19; 38:22.
Psalm 70:2 tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed, the ones seeking my life.” Ps 40:14 has “together” after “ashamed,” and “to snatch it away” after “my life.”
Psalm 70:2 tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies.sn See Ps 35:4 for a similar prayer.
Psalm 70:3 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive in this imprecation.
Psalm 70:3 tn Heb “May they be turned back according to their shame, those who say, ‘Aha! Aha!’” Ps 40:15 has the verb “humiliated” instead of “turned back” and adds “to me” after “say.”
Psalm 70:4 tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by God.
Psalm 70:4 tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing on the godly.
Psalm 70:4 tn Ps 40:16 uses the divine name “Lord” here instead of “God.”
Psalm 70:4 tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great.” See Ps 35:27.
Psalm 70:5 sn See Pss 35:10; 37:14.
Psalm 70:5 tn Ps 40:17 has “may the Lord pay attention to me.”
Psalm 70:5 tn Ps 40:17 has “my God” instead of “Lord.”

Amos 4:6-13

⁶“But surely I gave^[a] you no food to eat in all your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you lived.^[b]
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
⁷“I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest.^[c]

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.
One field^[d] would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
⁸People from^[e] two or three cities staggered into one city to get^[f] water,
but remained thirsty.^[g]
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
⁹“I destroyed your crops^[h] with blight and disease.

Locusts kept^[i] devouring your orchards,^[j] vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
¹⁰“I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues.^[k]

I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses^[l] rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
¹¹“I overthrew some of you the way God^[m] overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.^[n]

You were like a burning stick^[o] snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
¹²“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.

Because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, Israel!”^[p]
¹³For here he is!

He^[q] formed the mountains and created the wind.
He reveals^[r] his plans^[s] to men.
He turns the dawn into darkness^[t]
and marches on the heights of the earth.
The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies^[u] is his name!

Footnotes

Amos 4:6 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending and the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).
Amos 4:6 tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.
Amos 4:7 sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.
Amos 4:7 tn Heb “portion”; cf. KJV, ASV “piece,” NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.
Amos 4:8 tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Amos 4:8 tn Heb “to drink.”
Amos 4:8 tn Or “were not satisfied.”
Amos 4:9 tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.
Amos 4:9 tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).
Amos 4:9 tn Or “gardens.”
Amos 4:10 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
Amos 4:10 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
Amos 4:11 tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
Amos 4:11 tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”sn The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is described in Gen 19:1-29.
Amos 4:11 tn Heb “like that which is burning.”
Amos 4:12 tn The Lord appears to announce a culminating judgment resulting from Israel’s obstinate refusal to repent. The following verse describes the Lord in his role as sovereign judge, but it does not outline the judgment per se. For this reason F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman (Amos [AB], 450) take the prefixed verbal forms as preterites referring to the series of judgments detailed in vv. 6-11. It is more likely that a coming judgment is in view, but that its details are omitted for rhetorical effect, creating a degree of suspense (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 149-50) that will find its resolution in chapter 5. This line is an ironic conclusion to the section begun at 4:4. Israel thought they were meeting the Lord at the sanctuaries, yet they actually had misunderstood how he had been trying to bring them back to himself. Now Israel would truly meet the Lord—not at the sanctuaries, but face-to-face in judgment.
Amos 4:13 tn Heb “For look, the one who.” This verse is considered to be the first hymnic passage in the book. The others appear at 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. Scholars debate whether these verses were originally part of a single hymn or three distinct pieces deliberately placed in each context for particular effect.
Amos 4:13 tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).
Amos 4:13 tn Or “his thoughts.” The translation assumes that the pronominal suffix refers to God and that divine self-revelation is in view (see 3:7). If the suffix refers to the following term אָדַם (ʾadam, “men”), then the expression refers to God’s ability to read men’s minds.
Amos 4:13 tn Heb “he who makes dawn, darkness.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation assumes that allusion is made to God’s approaching judgment, when the light of day will be turned to darkness (see 5:20). Another interpretation is, “He makes the dawn [and] the darkness.” A few Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, add the conjunction (“and”) between the two nouns. A third possibility is, “He turns darkness into glimmering dawn” (NJPS). See S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 154), who takes שָׁחַר (shakhar) as “blackness” rather than “dawn” and עֵיפָה (ʿefah) as “glimmering dawn” rather than “darkness.”
Amos 4:13 tn Traditionally, “God of Hosts.”

Matthew 24:1-14

The Destruction of the Temple

24 Now^[a] as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings.^[b] ²And he said to them,^[c] “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth,^[d] not one stone will be left on another.^[e] All will be torn down!”^[f]

Signs of the End of the Age

³As^[g] he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things^[h] happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ⁴Jesus answered them,^[i] “Watch out^[j] that no one misleads you. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’^[k] and they will mislead many. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come.^[l] ⁷For nation will rise up in arms^[m] against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes^[n] in various places.^[o] ⁸All^[p] these things are the beginning of birth pains.

Persecution of Disciples

⁹“Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations^[q] because of my name.^[r] ¹⁰Then many will be led into sin,^[s] and they will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹And many false prophets will appear and deceive^[t] many, ¹²and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³But the person who endures to the end will be saved.^[u] ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations,^[v] and then the end will come.

Footnotes

Matthew 24:1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
Matthew 24:1 sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 [15.380-425]; J. W. 5.5 [5.184-227] and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.
Matthew 24:2 tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokritheis) is redundant in English and has not been translated.
Matthew 24:2 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amēn), I say to you.”
Matthew 24:2 sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.
Matthew 24:2 tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on a stone which will not be thrown down.”
Matthew 24:3 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:3 sn Because the phrase these things is plural, more than the temple’s destruction is in view. The question may presuppose that such a catastrophe signals the end.
Matthew 24:4 tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.
Matthew 24:4 tn Or “Be on guard.”
Matthew 24:5 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 24:6 tn Grk “it is not yet the end.”
Matthew 24:7 tn For the translation “rise up in arms” see L&N 55.2.
Matthew 24:7 tc Most witnesses (C Γ Δ Θ 0102 ƒ^1,13 700 1241 1424 M) have “and plagues” (καὶ λοιμοί, kai loimoi) between “famines” (λιμοί, limoi) and “earthquakes” (σεισμοί, seismoi), while others have “plagues and famines and earthquakes” (L W 33 lat). The similarities between λιμοί and λοιμοί could explain how καὶ λοιμοί might have accidentally dropped out, but since the Lukan parallel (Luke 21:11) has both terms (and W lat have the order λοιμοὶ καὶ λιμοί there too, as they do in Matthew), it seems more likely that scribes added the phrase here. The shorter reading does not enjoy overwhelming support ([א] B D 892 sa, and other Greek and versional witnesses), but it is nevertheless significant; coupled with the internal evidence it should be given preference.
Matthew 24:7 sn See Isa 5:13-14; 13:6-16; Hag 2:6-7; Zech 14:4.
Matthew 24:8 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:9 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “nations” or “Gentiles”).
Matthew 24:9 sn See Matt 5:10-12; 1 Cor 1:25-31.
Matthew 24:10 tn Or “many will fall away.” This could also refer to apostasy.
Matthew 24:11 tn Or “and lead many astray.”
Matthew 24:13 sn But the person who endures to the end will be saved. Jesus was not claiming here that salvation is by works. He was simply arguing that genuine faith evidences itself in persistence through even the worst of trials.
Matthew 24:14 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “nations” or “Gentiles”).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 70[a]

For the music director, by David; written to get God’s attention.[b]

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Destruction of the Temple

Signs of the End of the Age

Persecution of Disciples

Footnotes

Psalm 70^[a]

For the music director, by David; written to get God’s attention.^[b]