◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / 1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20] (The calling of Samuel); Psalm 139:1-6 13-18 (You have searched me out); 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (Glorify God in your body); John 1:43-51 (The calling of the first disciples) (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

1 Samuel 3:1-10

The Call of Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision.^[a] Receiving a message from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

²Eli’s eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place, ³and the lamp of God had not yet been extinguished. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord as well; the ark of God was also there. ⁴The Lord called to Samuel, and he replied, “Here I am!” ⁵Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli^[b] said, “I didn’t call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went back and lay down. ⁶The Lord again called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli^[c] said, “I didn’t call you, my son. Go back and lie down.”

⁷Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord; the Lord’s messages had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸Then the Lord called Samuel a third time. So he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me!” Eli then realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy. ⁹So Eli said to Samuel, “Go back and lie down. When he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.

¹⁰Then the Lord came and stood nearby, calling as he had previously done, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening!”

1 Samuel 3:11-20

¹¹The Lord said to Samuel, “Look! I am about to do something in Israel;^[a] when anyone hears about it, both of his ears will tingle. ¹²On that day I will carry out^[b] against Eli everything that I spoke about his house—from start to finish! ¹³You^[c] should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of^[d] the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God,^[e] and he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴Therefore I swore an oath to the house of Eli, ‘The sin of the house of Eli can never be forgiven by sacrifice or by grain offering.’”

¹⁵So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision. ¹⁶However, Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He replied, “Here I am.” ¹⁷Eli^[f] said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely^[g] if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

¹⁸So Samuel told him everything. He did not hold back anything from him. Eli^[h] said, “The Lord will do what he pleases.”^[i] ¹⁹Samuel continued to grow, and the Lord was with him. None of his prophecies fell to the ground unfulfilled.^[j] ²⁰All Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba realized that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.

Footnotes

1 Samuel 3:11 tn The Hebrew text adds “so that” here, formally connecting this clause with the next.
1 Samuel 3:12 tn Or “fulfill.”
1 Samuel 3:13 tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (v^ehiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect first person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the second person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (v^ehiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.
1 Samuel 3:13 tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.
1 Samuel 3:13 tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (theon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb קָלַל (qalal) means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologountes theon) and a few mss of the Old Latin in reading “God” rather than the MT “to them.” Cf. also NAB, NRSV, NLT.
1 Samuel 3:17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 3:17 tn Heb “So God will do to you and thus he will add.” The verbal forms in this pronouncement are imperfects, not jussives, but the statement has the force of a curse or warning. One could translate, “May God do to you and thus may he add.”
1 Samuel 3:18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 3:18 tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”
1 Samuel 3:19 tn Heb “and he did not cause to fall from all his words to the ground.”

Psalm 139:1-6

Psalm 139^[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

139 O Lord, you examine me^[b] and know me.
²You know when I sit down and when I get up;
even from far away you understand my motives.
³You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest;^[c]
you are aware of everything I do.^[d]
⁴Certainly^[e] my tongue does not frame a word
without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it.^[f]
⁵You squeeze me in from behind and in front;
you place your hand on me.
⁶Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension;
it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it.^[g]

Psalm 139:13-18

¹³Certainly^[a] you made my mind and heart;^[b]
you wove me together^[c] in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing.^[d]
You knew me thoroughly;^[e]
¹⁵my bones were not hidden from you,
when^[f] I was made in secret
and sewed together in the depths of the earth.^[g]
¹⁶Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb.^[h]
All the days ordained for me
were recorded in your scroll
before one of them came into existence.^[i]
¹⁷How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God!^[j]
How vast is their sum total.^[k]
¹⁸If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you.^[l]

Footnotes

Psalm 139:13 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 139:13 tn Heb “my kidneys.” The kidneys were sometimes viewed as the seat of one’s emotions and moral character (cf. Pss 7:9; 26:2). A number of translations, recognizing that “kidneys” does not communicate this idea to the modern reader, have generalized the concept: “inmost being” (NAB, NIV); “inward parts” (NASB, NRSV); “the delicate, inner parts of my body” (NLT). In the last instance, the focus is almost entirely on the physical body rather than the emotions or moral character. The present translation, by using a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms), links the concepts of emotion (heart) and moral character (mind).
Psalm 139:13 tn The Hebrew verb סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave together”) is an alternate form of שָׂכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave”) used in Job 10:11.
Psalm 139:14 tc Heb “because awesome things, I am distinct, amazing [are] your works.” The text as it stands is syntactically problematic and makes little, if any, sense. The Niphal of פָּלָה (palah) occurs elsewhere only in Exod 33:16. Many take the form from פָלָא (palaʾ; see GKC 216 §75.qq), which in the Niphal perfect means “to be amazing” (see 2 Sam 1:26; Ps 118:23; Prov 30:18). Some, following the LXX and some other ancient witnesses, also prefer to emend the verb from first to second person, “you are amazing” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 249, 251). The present translation assumes the text conflates two variants: נִפְלָאִים (niflaʾim), the otherwise unattested masculine plural participle of פָלָא, and נִפְלָאוֹת (niflaʾot), the usual (feminine) plural form of the Niphal participle. The latter has been changed to a verb by later scribes in an attempt to accommodate it syntactically. The original text likely read, נוראות נפלאותים מעשׂיך (“your works [are] awesome [and] amazing”).
Psalm 139:14 tc Heb “and my being knows very much.” Better parallelism is achieved (see v. 15a) if one emends יֹדַעַת (yodaʿat), a Qal active participle, feminine singular form, to יָדַעְתָּ (yadaʿta), a Qal perfect second masculine singular perfect. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252.
Psalm 139:15 tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (kaʾasher, “when”). The כ (kaf) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).
Psalm 139:15 sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.
Psalm 139:16 tn Heb “Your eyes saw my shapeless form.” The Hebrew noun גֹּלֶם (golem) occurs only here in the OT. In later Hebrew the word refers to “a lump, a shapeless or lifeless substance,” and to “unfinished matter, a vessel wanting finishing” (Jastrow 222 s.v. גּוֹלֶם). The translation employs the dynamic rendering “when I was inside the womb” to clarify that the speaker was still in his mother’s womb at the time he was “seen” by God.
Psalm 139:16 tn Heb “and on your scroll all of them were written, [the] days [which] were formed, and [there was] not one among them.” This “scroll” may be the “scroll of life” mentioned in Ps 69:28 (see the note on the word “living” there).
Psalm 139:17 tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).
Psalm 139:17 tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.
Psalm 139:18 tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Flee Sexual Immorality

¹²“All things are lawful for me”^[a]—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything. ¹³“Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.”^[b] The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Or do you not know that anyone who is united with^[c] a prostitute is one body with her?^[d] For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”^[e] ¹⁷But the one united with^[f] the Lord is one spirit with him.^[g] ¹⁸Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”^[h]—but the immoral person sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,^[i] whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 6:12 sn All things are lawful for me. In the expressions in vv. 12-13 within quotation marks, Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior. Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.
1 Corinthians 6:13 tn Grk “both this [stomach] and these [foods].”sn There is debate as to the extent of the Corinthian slogan which Paul quotes here. Some argue that the slogan is only the first sentence—“Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food”—with the second statement forming Paul’s rejoinder, while others argue that the slogan contains both sentences (as in the translation above). The argument which favors the latter is the tight conceptual and grammatical parallelism which occurs if Paul’s response begins with “The body is not for sexual immorality” and then continues through the end of v. 14. For discussion and diagrams of this structure, see G. D. Fee, First Corinthians (NICNT), 253-57.
1 Corinthians 6:16 tn Or “is in relationship with.”
1 Corinthians 6:16 tn Grk “is one body,” implying the association “with her.”
1 Corinthians 6:16 sn A quotation from Gen 2:24.
1 Corinthians 6:17 tn Grk “in relationship with.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 tn Grk “is one spirit,” implying the association “with him.”
1 Corinthians 6:18 sn It is debated whether this is a Corinthian slogan. If it is not, then Paul is essentially arguing that there are two types of sin, nonsexual sins which take place outside the body and sexual sins which are against a person’s very own body. If it is a Corinthian slogan, then it is a slogan used by the Corinthians to justify their immoral behavior. With it they are claiming that anything done in the body or through the body had no moral relevance. A decision here is very difficult, but the latter is to be preferred for two main reasons. (1) This is the most natural understanding of the statement as it is written. To construe it as a statement by Paul requires a substantial clarification in the sense (e.g., “All other sins…” [NIV]). (2) Theologically the former is more difficult: Why would Paul single out sexual sins as more intrinsically related to the body than other sins, such as gluttony or drunkenness? For these reasons, it is more likely that the phrase in quotation marks is indeed a Corinthian slogan which Paul turns against them in the course of his argument, although the decision must be regarded as tentative.
1 Corinthians 6:19 tn Grk “the ‘in you’ Holy Spirit.” The position of the prepositional phrase ἐν ὑμῖν (en humin, “in you”) between the article and the adjective effectively places the prepositional phrase in first attributive position. Such constructions are generally translated into English as relative clauses.

John 1:43-51

The Calling of More Disciples

⁴³On the next day Jesus^[a] wanted to set out for Galilee.^[b] He^[c] found Philip and said^[d] to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴(Now Philip was from Bethsaida,^[e] the town of^[f] Andrew and Peter.) ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael^[g] and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also^[h] wrote about—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶Nathanael^[i] replied,^[j] “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”^[k] Philip replied,^[l] “Come and see.”

⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed,^[m] “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”^[n] ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied,^[o] “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree,^[p] I saw you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king^[q] of Israel!”^[r] ⁵⁰Jesus said to him,^[s] “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”^[t] ⁵¹He continued,^[u] “I tell all of you the solemn truth^[v]—you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”^[w]

Footnotes

John 1:43 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Jesus is best taken as the subject of εὑρίσκει (heuriskei), since Peter would scarcely have wanted to go to Galilee.
John 1:43 sn No explanation is given for why Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee, but probably he wanted to go to the wedding at Cana (about a two day trip).
John 1:43 tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
John 1:43 tn Grk “and Jesus said.”
John 1:44 sn Although the author thought of the town as in Galilee (12:21), Bethsaida technically was in Gaulanitis (Philip the Tetrarch’s territory) across from Herod’s Galilee. There may have been two places called Bethsaida, or this may merely reflect popular imprecision—locally it was considered part of Galilee, even though it was just east of the Jordan river. This territory was heavily Gentile (which may explain why Andrew and Philip both have Gentile names).
John 1:44 tn Probably ἀπό (apo) indicates “originally from” in the sense of hometown rather than current residence; Mark 1:21, 29 seems to locate the home of Andrew and Peter at Capernaum. The entire remark (v. 44) amounts to a parenthetical comment by the author.
John 1:45 sn Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip; in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name. Other alternatives than Bartholomew have also been suggested, e.g. James the son of Alphaeus; see C. E. Hill, “The Identity of John’s Nathanael,” JSNT 20 (1998): 45-61.
John 1:45 tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.
John 1:46 tn Grk “And Nathanael.”
John 1:46 tn Grk “said to him.”
John 1:46 sn Can anything good come out of Nazareth? may be a local proverb expressing jealousy among the towns.
John 1:46 tn Grk “And Philip said to him.”
John 1:47 tn Grk “said about him.”
John 1:47 tn Or “treachery.”sn An allusion to Ps 32:2.
John 1:48 tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”
John 1:48 sn Many have speculated about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. Meditating on the Messiah who was to come? A good possibility, since the fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (Mic 4:4, Zech 3:10.)
John 1:49 tn Although βασιλεύς (basileus) lacks the article it is definite due to contextual and syntactical considerations. See ExSyn 263.
John 1:49 sn Nathanael’s confession—You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel—is best understood as a confession of Jesus’ messiahship. It has strong allusions to Ps 2:6-7, a well-known messianic psalm. What Nathanael’s exact understanding was at this point is hard to determine, but “son of God” was a designation for the Davidic king in the OT, and Nathanael parallels it with King of Israel here.
John 1:50 tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This has been simplified in the translation to “said to him.”
John 1:50 sn What are the greater things Jesus had in mind? In the narrative this forms an excellent foreshadowing of the miraculous signs which began at Cana of Galilee.
John 1:51 tn Grk “and he said to him.”
John 1:51 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
John 1:51 sn The title Son of Man appears 13 times in John’s Gospel. It is associated especially with the themes of crucifixion (3:14; 8:28), revelation (6:27; 6:53), and eschatological authority (5:27; 9:35). The title as used in John’s Gospel has for its background the son of man figure who appears in Dan 7:13-14 and is granted universal regal authority. Thus for the author, the emphasis in this title is not on Jesus’ humanity, but on his heavenly origin and divine authority.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Call of Samuel

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 139[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Flee Sexual Immorality

Footnotes

The Calling of More Disciples

Footnotes

Psalm 139^[a]