◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 102:12-28 (Prayer for healing); Job 6:1-13 (Job’s lament at misfortune); Mark 3:7-12 (Jesus heals many people) (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 102:12-28

¹²But you, O Lord, rule forever,^[a]
and your reputation endures.^[b]
¹³You will rise up and have compassion on Zion.^[c]
For it is time to have mercy on her,
for the appointed time has come.
¹⁴Indeed,^[d] your servants take delight in her stones,
and feel compassion for^[e] the dust of her ruins.^[f]
¹⁵The nations will respect the reputation of the Lord,^[g]
and all the kings of the earth will respect^[h] his splendor,
¹⁶when the Lord rebuilds Zion,
and reveals his splendor,
¹⁷when he responds to the prayer of the destitute,^[i]
and does not reject^[j] their request.^[k]
¹⁸The account of his intervention^[l] will be recorded for future generations;
people yet to be born^[m] will praise the Lord.
¹⁹For he will look down from his sanctuary above;^[n]
from heaven the Lord will look toward earth,^[o]
²⁰in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,
and to set free those condemned to die,^[p]
²¹so they may proclaim the name of the Lord in Zion,
and praise him^[q] in Jerusalem,
²²when the nations gather together,
and the kingdoms pay tribute to the Lord.^[r]
²³He has taken away my strength in the middle of life;^[s]
he has cut short my days.
²⁴I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life.^[t]
You endure through all generations.^[u]
²⁵In earlier times you established the earth;
the skies are your handiwork.
²⁶They will perish,
but you will endure.^[v]
They will wear out like a garment;
like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear.^[w]
²⁷But you remain;^[x]
your years do not come to an end.
²⁸The children of your servants will settle down here,
and their descendants^[y] will live securely in your presence.”^[z]

Footnotes

Psalm 102:12 tn Heb “sit” (i.e., sit enthroned, see Ps 9:7). The imperfect verbal form highlights the generalization.
Psalm 102:12 tn Heb “and your remembrance [is] for a generation and a generation.”
Psalm 102:13 tn The imperfect verbal forms are understood as expressing the psalmist’s confidence in God’s intervention. Another option is to take them as expressing the psalmist’s request or wish, “You, rise up and have compassion!”
Psalm 102:14 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 102:14 tn The Poel of חָנַן (khanan) occurs only here and in Prov 14:21, where it refers to having compassion on the poor.
Psalm 102:14 tn Heb “her dust,” probably referring to the dust of the city’s rubble.
Psalm 102:15 tn Heb “will fear the name of the Lord.” To “fear” God’s name means to have a healthy respect for his revealed reputation which in turn motivates one to obey God’s commands (see Ps 86:11).
Psalm 102:15 tn The verb “will fear” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the preceding line).
Psalm 102:17 tn The Hebrew adjective עַרְעָר (ʿarar, “destitute”) occurs only here in the OT. It is derived from the verbal root ערר (“to strip oneself”).
Psalm 102:17 tn Heb “despise.”
Psalm 102:17 tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 16-17 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 15.
Psalm 102:18 tn The Hebrew text has simply “this,” referring to the anticipated divine intervention on behalf of Zion (vv. 13, 16-17). The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Psalm 102:18 tn Or “created.”
Psalm 102:19 tn Heb “from the height of his sanctuary.”
Psalm 102:19 tn The perfect verbal forms in v. 19 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 18.
Psalm 102:20 tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.
Psalm 102:21 tn Heb “his praise.”
Psalm 102:22 tn “and the kingdoms to serve the Lord.”
Psalm 102:23 tn Heb “he has afflicted my strength in the way.” The term “way” refers here to the course of the psalmist’s life, which appears to be ending prematurely (vv. 23b-24).
Psalm 102:24 tn Heb “do not lift me up in the middle of my days.”
Psalm 102:24 tn Heb “in a generation of generations [are] your years.”
Psalm 102:26 tn Heb “stand.”
Psalm 102:26 tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.
Psalm 102:27 tn Heb “you [are] he,” or “you [are] the one.” The statement may echo the Lord’s affirmation “I am he” in Isa 41:4; 43:10, 13; 46:10; 48:12. In each of these passages the affirmation emphasizes the fact that the Lord transcends time limitations, the very point being made in Ps 102:27.
Psalm 102:28 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
Psalm 102:28 tn Heb “before you will be established.”

Job 6:1-13

Job Replies to Eliphaz

6 Then Job responded:^[a]

²“Oh, if only^[b] my grief^[c] could be weighed,^[d]
and my misfortune laid^[e] on the scales too!^[f]
³But because it is heavier^[g] than the sand^[h] of the sea,
that is why my words have been wild.^[i]
⁴For the arrows^[j] of the Almighty^[k] are within me;
my spirit^[l] drinks their poison;^[m]
God’s sudden terrors^[n] are arrayed against^[o] me.

Complaints Reflect Suffering

⁵“Does the wild donkey^[p] bray^[q] when it is near grass?^[r]
Or^[s] does the ox bellow^[t] over its fodder?^[u]
⁶Can food that is tasteless^[v] be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?^[w]
⁷I^[x] have refused^[y] to touch such things;^[z]
they are like loathsome food to me.^[aa]

A Cry for Death

⁸“Oh that^[ab] my request would be realized,^[ac]
and that God would grant me what I long for!^[ad]
⁹And that God would be willing^[ae] to crush me,
that he would let loose^[af] his hand
and^[ag] kill me.^[ah]
¹⁰Then I would yet have my comfort,^[ai]
then^[aj] I would rejoice,^[ak]
in spite of pitiless pain,^[al]
for^[am] I have not concealed the words^[an] of the Holy One.^[ao]
¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait?^[ap]
And what is my end,^[aq]
that I should prolong my life?
¹²Is my strength like that of stones?^[ar]
Or is my flesh made of bronze?
¹³Is not^[as] my power to help myself nothing,
and has not every resource^[at] been driven from me?

Footnotes

Job 6:1 tn Heb “answered and said.”
Job 6:2 tn The conjunction לוּ (lu, “if, if only”) introduces the wish—an unrealizable wish—with the Niphal imperfect.
Job 6:2 tn Job pairs כַּעְסִי (kaʿsi, “my grief”) and הַיָּתִי (hayyati, “my misfortune”). The first word, used in Job 4:2, refers to Job’s whole demeanor that he shows his friends—the impatient and vexed expression of his grief. The second word expresses his misfortune, the cause of his grief. Job wants these placed together in the balances so that his friends could see the misfortune is greater than the grief. The word for “misfortune” is a Kethib-Qere reading. The two words have essentially the same meaning; they derive from the verb הָוַה (havah, “to fall”) and so mean a misfortune.
Job 6:2 tn The Qal infinitive absolute is here used to intensify the Niphal imperfect (see GKC 344-45 §113.w). The infinitive absolute intensifies the wish as well as the idea of weighing.
Job 6:2 tn The third person plural verb is used here; it expresses an indefinite subject and is treated as a passive (see GKC 460 §144.g).
Job 6:2 tn The adverb normally means “together,” but it can also mean “similarly, too.” In this verse it may not mean that the two things are to be weighed together, but that the whole calamity should be put on the scales (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 43).
Job 6:3 tn E. Dhorme (Job, 76) notes that כִּי־עַתָּה (ki ʿattah) has no more force than “but”; and that the construction is the same as in 17:4; 20:19-21; 23:14-15. The initial clause is causative, and the second half of the verse gives the consequence (“because”…“that is why”). Others take 3a as the apodosis of v. 2, and translate it “for now it would be heavier…” (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 43).
Job 6:3 sn The point of the comparison with the sand of the sea is that the sand is immeasurable. So the grief of Job cannot be measured.
Job 6:3 tn The verb לָעוּ (laʿu) is traced by E. Dhorme (Job, 76) to a root לָעָה (laʿah), cognate to an Arabic root meaning “to chatter.” He shows how modern Hebrew has a meaning for the word “to stammer out.” But that does not really fit Job’s outbursts. The idea in the context is rather that of speaking wildly, rashly, or charged with grief. This would trace the word to a hollow or geminate word and link it to Arabic “talk wildly” (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 158). In the older works the verb was taken from a geminate root meaning “to suck” or “to swallow” (cf. KJV), but that yields a very difficult sense to the line.
Job 6:4 sn Job uses an implied comparison here to describe his misfortune—it is as if God had shot poisoned arrows into him (see E. Dhorme, Job, 76-77 for a treatment of poisoned arrows in the ancient world).
Job 6:4 sn Job here clearly states that his problems have come from the Almighty, which is what Eliphaz said. But whereas Eliphaz said Job provoked the trouble by his sin, Job is perplexed because he does not think he did.
Job 6:4 tn Most commentators take “my spirit” as the subject of the participle “drinks.” The NEB does not; it follows the older versions to say that the poison “drinks up (or “soaks in”) the spirit.” The image of the poisoned arrow represents the calamity or misfortune from God, which is taken in by Job’s spirit and enervates him.
Job 6:4 tn The LXX translators knew that a liquid should be used with the verb “drink,” but they took the line to be “whose violence drinks up my blood.” For the rest of the verse they came up with, “whenever I am going to speak they pierce me.”
Job 6:4 tn The word translated “sudden terrors” is found only here and in Ps 88:16 [17]. G. R. Driver notes that the idea of suddenness is present in the root, and so renders this word as “sudden assaults” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 73).
Job 6:4 tn The verb עָרַךְ (ʿarakh) means “to set in battle array.” The suffix on the verb is dative (see GKC 369 §117.x). Many suggestions have been made for changing this word. These seem unnecessary since the MT pointing yields a good meaning: but for the references to these suggestions, see D. J. A. Clines, Job (WBC), 158. H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 59), nonetheless, follows the suggestion of Driver that connects it to a root meaning “wear me down.” This change of meaning requires no change in the Hebrew text. The image is of a beleaguering army; the host is made up of all the terrors from God. The reference is to the terrifying and perplexing thoughts that assail Job (A. B. Davidson, Job, 44).
Job 6:5 tn There have been suggestions to identify this animal as something other than a wild donkey, but the traditional interpretation has been confirmed (see P. Humbert, “En marge du dictionnaire hébraïque,” ZAW 62 [1950]: 199-207).
Job 6:5 tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq, “bray”) occurs in Arabic and Aramaic and only in Job 30:7 in Hebrew, where it refers to unfortunate people in the wilderness who utter cries like the hungry wild donkey.
Job 6:5 sn In this brief section Job indicates that it would be wiser to seek the reason for the crying than to complain of the cry. The wild donkey will bray when it finds no food (see Jer 14:6).
Job 6:5 tn The construction forms a double question (אִם…הֲ, ha…ʾim) but not to express mutually exclusive questions in this instance. Instead, it is used to repeat the same question in different words (see GKC 475 §150.h).
Job 6:5 tn Most translations have “low” (ASV, ESV, Holman, KJV, NASB); a few have “bellow” ( CEB, NIV, NLV). The verb is rare but cognate languages suggest a loud sound (e.g. Syriac “to scream” Ugaritic “to roar,” see HALOT 199). The rhetorical question expects a “no” answer and context suggests that the (unexpected) sound would convey discontent or complaint.
Job 6:5 tn Rather than grass or hay, this is mixed grain fodder prepared for domesticated animals (cf. also Akkadian ballu; CAD B 63-64).
Job 6:6 tn Heb “a tasteless thing”; the word “food” is supplied from the context.
Job 6:6 tn The point is in giving an example of something tasteless although the specifics are uncertain. Several meanings have been proposed for the word חַלָּמוּת (khallamut), which occurs only here. The root of the word may be connected to “dream,” “healthy,” “egg” (via Aramaic cognate), or “soft cheese” (via Arabic cognate). It has also been connected with various plants: the marsh mallow (althaea), bugloss, milkweed, and purslane. The term רִיר (rir, “spittle, mucus, slime”) occurs only here and in 1 Sam 21:13, where it means saliva, a meaning in agreement with Aramaic and Arabic cognates. The phrase tends to be taken as the gelatinous juice of plants or the white of an egg, both of which would parallel the idea of being tasteless or insipid in the A line. Dhorme says the phrase refers to “the glair which surrounds the yolk of an egg,” drawing support from the Targum and Saadia (E. Dhorme, Job 79). He also offers an explanation for how the LXX produced the reading “in empty words” as an example of interpretation more than translation. “[The LXX] renders בריר חלמות by ἐν ῥήμασιν κενοῖς, which has caused some critics to believe there was a reading דבר [davar, “word”] instead of ריר. It seems more likely that [the LXX] interprets ריר חלמות by connecting the second word with חלם ‘dream’ (cf. inf.), i.e., the saliva of dreams, what one says while sleeping, empty words, baseless dreams” (E. Dhorme, Job 78).
Job 6:7 tn The traditional rendering of נַפְשִׁי (nafshi) is “my soul.” But since נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) means the whole person, body and soul, it is best to translate it with its suffix simply as an emphatic pronoun.
Job 6:7 tn For the explanation of the perfect verb with its completed action in the past and its remaining effects, see GKC 311 §106.g.
Job 6:7 tn The phrase “such things” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied.
Job 6:7 tn The second colon of the verse is difficult. The word דְּוֵי (d^eve) means “sickness of” and yields a meaning “like the sickness of my food.” This could take the derived sense of דָּוָה (davah) and mean “impure” or “corrupt” food. The LXX has “for I loathe my food as the smell of a lion” and so some commentators emend “they” (which has no clear antecedent) to mean “I loathe it [like the sickness of my food].” Others have more freely emended the text to “my palate loathes my food” (McNeile) or “my bowels resound with suffering” (I. Eitan, “An unknown meaning of RAHAMIÝM,” JBL 53 [1934]: 271). Pope has “they are putrid as my flesh [= my meat].” D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 159) prefers the suggestion in BHS, “it [my soul] loathes them as my food.” E. Dhorme (Job, 80) repoints the second word of the colon to get כְּבֹדִי (k^evodi, “my glory”): “my heart [glory] loathes/is sickened by my bread.”
Job 6:8 tn The Hebrew expresses the desire (desiderative clause) with “who will give?” (see GKC 477 §151.d).
Job 6:8 tn The verb בּוֹא (boʾ, “go”) has the sense of “to be realized; to come to pass; to be fulfilled.” The optative “Who will give [that] my request be realized?” is “O that my request would be realized.”
Job 6:8 tn The text has תִקְוָתִי (tiqvati, “hope”). There is no reason to change the text to “my desire” (as Driver and others do) if the word is interpreted metonymically—it means “what I hope for.” What Job hopes for and asks for is death.sn See further W. Riggans, “Job 6:8-10: Short Comments,” ExpTim 99 (1987): 45-46.
Job 6:9 tn The verb יָאַל (yaʾal) in the Hiphil means “to be willing, to consent, to decide.” It is here the jussive followed by the dependent verb with a (ו) vav: “that God would be willing and would crush me” means “to crush me.” Gesenius, however, says that the conjunction introduces coordination rather than subordination; he says the principal idea is introduced in the second verb, the first verb containing the definition of the manner of the action (see GKC 386 §120.d).
Job 6:9 tn The verb is used for loosening shoe straps in Isa 58:6, and of setting prisoners free in Pss 105:20 and 146:7. Job thinks that God’s hand has been restrained for some reason, and so desires that God be free to destroy him.
Job 6:9 tn The final verb is an imperfect (or jussive) following the jussive (of נָתַר, natar); it thus expresses the result (“and then” or “so that”) or the purpose (“in order that”). Job longs for death, but it must come from God.
Job 6:9 tn Heb “and cut me off.” The LXX reads this verse as “Let the Lord begin and wound me, but let him not utterly destroy me.” E. Dhorme (Job, 81) says the LXX is a paraphrase based on a pun with “free hand.” Targum Job has, “God has begun to make me poor; may he free his hand and make me rich,” apparently basing the reading on a metaphorical interpretation.
Job 6:10 tn Heb “and it will/may be yet my comfort.” The comfort or consolation that he seeks, that he wishes for, is death. The next colon in the verse simply intensifies this thought, for he affirms if that should happen he would rejoice, in spite of what death involves. The LXX, apparently confusing letters (reading עִיר [ʿir, “city”] instead of עוֹד [ʿod, “yet”], which then led to the mistake in the next colon, חֵילָה [khelah, “its wall”] for חִילָה [khilah, “suffering”]), has “Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped.”
Job 6:10 tn In the apodosis of conditional clauses (which must be supplied from the context preceding), the cohortative expresses the consequence (see GKC 320 §108.d).
Job 6:10 tn The Piel verb סִלֵּד (silled) is a hapax legomenon. BDB 698 s.v. סָלַד gives the meaning “to spring [i.e., jump] for joy,” which would certainly fit the passage. Others have emended the text, but unnecessarily. The LXX “I jumped” and Targum Job’s “exult” support the sense in the dictionaries, although the jumping is for joy and not over a wall (as the LXX has). D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 159) follows Driver in thinking this is untenable, choosing a meaning “recoiled in pain” for the line.
Job 6:10 tn The word חִילָה (khilah) also occurs only here, but is connected to the verb חִיל / חוּל (khil / khul, “to writhe in pain”). E. Dhorme says that by extension the meaning denotes the cause of this trembling or writhing—terrifying pain. The final clause, לֹא יַחְמוֹל (loʾ yakhmol, “it has no pity”), serves as a kind of epithet, modifying “pain” in general. If that pain has no pity or compassion, it is a ruthless pain (E. Dhorme, Job, 82).
Job 6:10 tn The כִּי (ki, “for”) functions here to explain “my comfort” in the first colon; the second colon simply strengthens the first.
Job 6:10 sn The “words” are the divine decrees of God’s providence, the decisions that he makes in his dealings with people. Job cannot conceal these—he knows what they are. What Job seems to mean by this clause in this verse is that there is nothing that would hinder his joy of dying for he has not denied or disobeyed God’s plan.
Job 6:10 tn Several commentators delete the colon as having no meaning in the verse, and because (in their view) it is probably the addition of an interpolator who wants to make Job sound more pious. But Job is at least consoling himself that he is innocent, and at the most anticipating a worth-while afterlife (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 60).
Job 6:11 sn Now, in vv. 11-13, Job proceeds to describe his hopeless condition. In so doing, he is continuing his defense of his despair and lament. The section begins with these rhetorical questions in which Job affirms that he does not have the strength to wait for the blessings that Eliphaz is talking about.
Job 6:11 tn The word translated “my end” is קִצִּי (qitsi). It refers to the termination of his life. In Ps 39:5 it is parallel to “the measure of my days.” In a sense, Job is asking what future he has. To him, the “end” of his affliction can only be death.
Job 6:12 sn The questions imply negative answers. Job is saying that it would take great strength to hold up under these afflictions, but he is only flesh and bone. The sufferings have almost completely overwhelmed him. To endure all of this to the end he would need a strength he does not have.
Job 6:13 tn For the use of the particle אִם (ʾim) in this kind of interrogative clause, see GKC 475 §150.g, note.
Job 6:13 tn The word means something like “recovery,” or the powers of recovery; it was used in Job 5:12. In 11:6 it applies to a condition of the mind, such as mental resource. Job is thinking not so much of relief or rescue from his troubles, but of strength to bear them.

Mark 3:7-12

Crowds by the Sea

⁷Then^[a] Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him.^[b] And from Judea, ⁸Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan River,^[c] and around Tyre and Sidon^[d] a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done. ⁹Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat^[e] ready for him so the crowd^[f] would not press toward him. ¹⁰For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him. ¹¹And whenever the unclean spirits^[g] saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” ¹²But^[h] he sternly ordered them not to make him known.^[i]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Footnotes

Job Replies to Eliphaz

Complaints Reflect Suffering

A Cry for Death

Footnotes

Crowds by the Sea

Footnotes