◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 90:1-8 [9-11] 12 (Number your days); Ezekiel 7:10-27 (You shall know that the Lord is God); Matthew 12:43-45 (From bad to worse) (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 90:1-8

Book 4 (Psalms 90-106)

Psalm 90^[a]

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

90 O Lord, you have been our protector^[b] through all generations.
²Even before the mountains came into existence,^[c]
or you brought the world into being,^[d]
you were the eternal God.^[e]
³You make mankind return^[f] to the dust,^[g]
and say, “Return, O people.”
⁴Yes,^[h] in your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday that quickly passes,
or like one of the divisions of the nighttime.^[i]
⁵You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.”^[j]
In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up:
⁶In the morning it glistens^[k] and sprouts up;
at evening time it withers^[l] and dries up.
⁷Yes,^[m] we are consumed by your anger;
we are terrified by your wrath.
⁸You are aware of our sins;^[n]
you even know about our hidden sins.^[o]

Footnotes

Psalm 90:1 sn Psalm 90. In this communal lament the worship leader affirms that the eternal God and creator of the world has always been Israel’s protector. But God also causes men, who are as transient as grass, to die, and in his fierce anger he decimates his covenant community, whose brief lives are filled with suffering and end in weakness. The community asks for wisdom, the restoration of God’s favor, a fresh revelation of his power, and his blessing upon their labors.
Psalm 90:1 tn Or “place of safety.” See Ps 71:3.
Psalm 90:2 tn Heb “were born.”
Psalm 90:2 tn Heb “and you gave birth to the earth and world.” The Polel verbal form in the Hebrew text pictures God giving birth to the world. The LXX and some other ancient textual witnesses assume a Polal (passive) verbal form here. In this case the earth becomes the subject of the verb and the verb is understood as third feminine singular rather than second masculine singular.
Psalm 90:2 tn Heb “and from everlasting to everlasting you [are] God.” Instead of אֵל (ʾel, “God”) the LXX reads אַל (ʾal, “not”) and joins the negative particle to the following verse, making the verb תָּשֵׁב (tashev) a jussive. In this case v. 3a reads as a prayer, “do not turn man back to a low place.” However, taking תָּשֵׁב as a jussive is problematic in light of the following wayyiqtol form וַתֹּאמֶר (vatoʾmer, “and you said/say”), unless one reads the form as a simple vav plus imperfect as indicated by Aquila and Jerome.
Psalm 90:3 tn In this context the shortened prefix form does not function as a preterite, but indicates what is typical of the world.
Psalm 90:3 tn The Hebrew term דַּכָּא (dakaʾ) carries the basic sense of “crushed.” Elsewhere it refers to those who are “crushed” in spirit or contrite of heart (see Ps 34:18; Isa 57:15). If one understands this nuance here, then v. 3 is observing that God leads mankind to repentance (the term שׁוּב, shuv, “return,” which appears twice in this verse, is sometimes used of repentance.) However, the following context laments mankind’s mortality and the brevity of life, so it is doubtful if v. 3 should be understood so positively. It is more likely that דַּכָּא here refers to “crushed matter,” that is, the dust that fills the grave (see HALOT 221 s.v. s.v. I דַּכָּא; BDB 194 s.v. דַּכָּא). In this case one may hear an echo of Gen 3:19.
Psalm 90:4 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 90:4 sn The divisions of the nighttime. The ancient Israelites divided the night into distinct periods, or “watches.”
Psalm 90:5 tn Heb “you bring them to an end [with] sleep.” The Hebrew verb זָרַם (zaram) has traditionally been taken to mean “flood” or “overwhelm” (note the Polel form of a root זרם in Ps 77:17, where the verb is used of the clouds pouring down rain). However, the verb form here is Qal, not Polel, and is better understood as a homonym meaning “to make an end [of life].” The term שֵׁנָה (shenah, “sleep”) can be taken as an adverbial accusative; it is a euphemism here for death (see Ps 76:5-6).
Psalm 90:6 tn Or “flourishes.” The verb is used of a crown shining in Ps 132:18. Perhaps here in Ps 90:6 it refers to the glistening of the grass in the morning dew.
Psalm 90:6 tn The Polel form of this verb occurs only here. Perhaps the form should be emended to a Qal (which necessitates eliminating the final ל [lamed] as dittographic). See Ps 37:2.
Psalm 90:7 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 90:8 tn Heb “you set our sins in front of you.”
Psalm 90:8 tn Heb “what we have hidden to the light of your face.” God’s face is compared to a light or lamp that exposes the darkness around it.

Psalm 90:9-11

⁹Yes,^[a] throughout all our days we experience your raging fury;^[b]
the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh.^[c]
¹⁰The days of our lives add up to seventy years,^[d]
or eighty, if one is especially strong.^[e]
But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression.^[f]
Yes,^[g] they pass quickly^[h] and we fly away.^[i]
¹¹Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger?^[j]
Your raging fury causes people to fear you.^[k]

Footnotes

Psalm 90:9 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 90:9 tn Heb “all our days pass by in your anger.”
Psalm 90:9 tn Heb “we finish our years like a sigh.” In Ezek 2:10 the word הֶגֶה (hegeh) elsewhere refers to a grumbling or moaning sound. Here a brief sigh or moan is probably in view. If so, the simile pictures one’s lifetime as transient. Another option is that the simile alludes to the weakness that characteristically overtakes a person at the end of one’s lifetime. In this case the phrase could be translated, “we end our lives with a painful moan.”
Psalm 90:10 tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”
Psalm 90:10 tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”
Psalm 90:10 tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רָהַב (rahav, “to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).
Psalm 90:10 tn or “for.”
Psalm 90:10 tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.
Psalm 90:10 sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).
Psalm 90:11 tn Heb “Who knows the strength of your anger?”
Psalm 90:11 tc Heb “and like your fear [is] your raging fury.” Perhaps one should emend וּכְיִרְאָתְךָ (ukh^eyirʾat^ekha, “and like your fear”) to יִרְאָתְךְ (yirʾat^ekha, “your fear”), removing the כ (kaf) as dittography of the kaf ending the previous word. In this case the psalmist asserts “your fear [is] your raging fury,” that is, your raging fury is what causes others to fear you. The suffix on “fear” is understood as objective.

Psalm 90:12

¹²So teach us to consider our mortality,^[a]
so that we might live wisely.^[b]

Ezekiel 7:10-27

¹⁰“Look, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out! The staff has budded, pride has blossomed! ¹¹Violence^[a] has grown into a staff that supports wickedness. Not one of them will be left^[b]—not from their crowd, not from their wealth, not from their prominence.^[c] ¹²The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath^[d] comes against their whole crowd. ¹³The customer will no longer pay the seller^[e] while both parties are alive, for the vision against their whole crowd^[f] will not be revoked. Each person, for his iniquity,^[g] will fail to preserve his life.

¹⁴“They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd.^[h] ¹⁵The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house. Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city. ¹⁶Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys^[i] ; all of them will moan—each one for his iniquity. ¹⁷All their hands will hang limp; their knees will be wet with urine.^[j] ¹⁸They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved bald.^[k] ¹⁹They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth.^[l] Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury.^[m] They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth^[n] was the obstacle leading to their iniquity.^[o] ²⁰They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride,^[p] and with it they made their abominable images—their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them. ²¹I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world’s wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it. ²²I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured place.^[q] Vandals will enter it and desecrate it.^[r] ²³(Make the chain,^[s] because the land is full of murder^[t] and the city is full of violence.) ²⁴I will bring the most wicked of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong, and their sanctuaries^[u] will be desecrated. ²⁵Terror^[v] is coming! They will seek peace, but find none. ²⁶Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders. ²⁷The king will mourn and the prince will be clothed with shuddering; the hands of the people of the land will tremble. Based on their behavior I will deal with them, and by their standard of justice^[w] I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

Footnotes

Ezekiel 7:11 tn Heb “the violence.”
Ezekiel 7:11 tc The LXX reads “he will crush the wicked rod without confusion or haste.”tn The verb has been supplied for the Hebrew text to clarify the sense.
Ezekiel 7:11 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
Ezekiel 7:12 tn Heb “wrath.” Context clarifies that God’s wrath is in view.
Ezekiel 7:13 tc The translation follows the LXX for the first line of the verse, although the LXX has lost the second line due to homoioteleuton (similar endings of the clauses). The MT reads “The seller will not return to the sale.” This Hebrew reading has been construed as a reference to land redemption, the temporary sale of the use of property, with property rights returned to the seller in the year of Jubilee. But the context has no other indicator that land redemption is in view. If correct, the LXX evidence suggests that one of the cases of “the customer” has been replaced by “the seller” in the MT, perhaps due to hoimoioarcton (similar beginnings of the words).
Ezekiel 7:13 tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.
Ezekiel 7:13 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in v. 16; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
Ezekiel 7:14 tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.
Ezekiel 7:16 sn The simile compares doves that flee their valley home for the mountains, where they coo in mournful discomfort. For doves moaning or mourning see Isa 38:14; 59:11; Ezek 7:16 and Nah 2:7.
Ezekiel 7:17 tn Heb “their knees will run with water.” The expression probably refers to urination caused by fright, which is how the LXX renders the phrase. More colloquial English would simply be “they will wet their pants,” but as D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:261, n. 98) notes, the men likely wore skirts which were short enough to expose urine on the knees.
Ezekiel 7:18 tn Heb “baldness will be on their heads.”
Ezekiel 7:19 tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.
Ezekiel 7:19 sn Cf. Zeph 1:18.
Ezekiel 7:19 tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).
Ezekiel 7:19 tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).
Ezekiel 7:20 tc The MT reads “he set up the beauty of his ornament as pride.” The verb may be repointed as plural without changing the consonantal text. The Syriac reads “their ornaments” (plural), implying עֶדְיָם (ʿedyam) rather than עֶדְיוֹ (ʿedyo) and meaning “they were proud of their beautiful ornaments.” This understands “ornaments” in the common sense of women’s jewelry, which then was used to make idols. The singular suffix “his ornaments” would refer to using items from the temple treasury to make idols. D. I. Block points out the foreshadowing of Ezek 16:17, which, with Rashi and the Targum, supports the understanding that this is a reference to temple items. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:265.
Ezekiel 7:22 sn My treasured place probably refers to the temple (however, cf. NLT’s “my treasured land”).
Ezekiel 7:22 sn Since the pronouns “it” are both feminine, they do not refer to the masculine “my treasured place”; instead they probably refer to Jerusalem or the land, both of which are feminine in Hebrew.
Ezekiel 7:23 tc The Hebrew word “the chain” occurs only here in the OT. The reading of the LXX (“and they will make carnage”) seems to imply a Hebrew text of הַבַּתּוֹק (habbattoq, “disorder, slaughter”) instead of הָרַתּוֹק (haratoq, “the chain”). The LXX is also translating the verb as a third person plural future and taking this as the end of the preceding verse. As M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:154) notes, this may refer to a chain for a train of exiles, but “the context does not speak of exile but of the city’s fall. The versions guess desperately, and we can do little better.”
Ezekiel 7:23 tn Heb “judgment for blood,” i.e., indictment or accountability for bloodshed. The word for “judgment” does not appear in the similar phrase in 9:9.
Ezekiel 7:24 sn Or “their holy places” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV).
Ezekiel 7:25 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. It is interpreted based on a Syriac cognate meaning “to bristle or stiffen (in terror).”
Ezekiel 7:27 tn Heb “and by their judgments.”

Matthew 12:43-45

The Return of the Unclean Spirit

⁴³“When^[a] an unclean spirit^[b] goes out of a person,^[c] it passes through waterless places^[d] looking for rest but^[e] does not find it. ⁴⁴Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I left.’^[f] When it returns,^[g] it finds the house^[h] empty, swept clean, and put in order.^[i] ⁴⁵Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so^[j] the last state of that person is worse than the first. It will be that way for this evil generation as well!”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Book 4 (Psalms 90-106)

Psalm 90[a]

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Return of the Unclean Spirit

Footnotes

Psalm 90^[a]