◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 22:25-31 (All shall turn to the Lord); Amos 9:7-15 (The mountains shall drip sweet wine); Mark 4:30-32 (The kingdom like a mustard seed) (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 22:25-31

²⁵You are the reason I offer praise^[a] in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers.^[b]
²⁶Let the oppressed eat and be filled.^[c]
Let those who seek his help praise the Lord.
May you^[d] live forever!
²⁷Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him.^[e]
Let all the nations^[f] worship you.^[g]
²⁸For the Lord is king^[h]
and rules over the nations.
²⁹All the thriving people^[i] of the earth will join the celebration and worship;^[j]
all those who are descending into the grave^[k] will bow before him,
including those who cannot preserve their lives.^[l]
³⁰A whole generation^[m] will serve him;
they will tell the next generation about the Lord.^[n]
³¹They will come and tell about his saving deeds;^[o]
they will tell a future generation what he has accomplished.^[p]

Footnotes

Psalm 22:25 tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”
Psalm 22:25 tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.
Psalm 22:26 sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.
Psalm 22:26 tn Heb “may your heart[s].”
Psalm 22:27 tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.
Psalm 22:27 tn Heb “families of the nations.”
Psalm 22:27 tn Heb “before you.”
Psalm 22:28 tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”
Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (y^eshene, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishne, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.
Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.
Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings—the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.
Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”
Psalm 22:30 tn Heb “offspring.”
Psalm 22:30 tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
Psalm 22:31 tn Heb “his righteousness.” Here the noun צִדָקָה (tsidaqah) refers to the Lord’s saving deeds whereby he vindicates the oppressed.
Psalm 22:31 tn Heb “to a people [to be] born that he has acted.” The words “they will tell” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

Amos 9:7-15

⁷“You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,”^[a] says the Lord.
“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,
but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor^[b] and the Arameans from Kir.^[c]
⁸Look, the Sovereign Lord is watching^[d] the sinful nation,^[e]
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
But I will not completely destroy the family^[f] of Jacob,” says the Lord.
⁹“For look, I am giving a command
and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.
It will resemble a sieve being shaken,
when not even a pebble falls to the ground.^[g]
¹⁰All the sinners among my people will die by the sword—
the ones who say, ‘Disaster will not come near, it will not confront us.’

The Restoration of the Davidic Dynasty

¹¹“In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut^[h] of David.
I will seal its^[i] gaps,
repair its^[j] ruins,
and restore it to what it was like in days gone by.^[k]
¹²As a result they^[l] will conquer those left in Edom^[m]
and all the nations subject to my rule.”^[n]
The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking.
¹³“Be sure of this,^[o] the time is^[p] coming,” says the Lord,
“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper,^[q]
and the one who stomps the grapes^[r] will overtake^[s] the planter.^[t]
Juice will run down the slopes;^[u]
it will flow down all the hillsides.^[v]
¹⁴I will bring back my people, Israel;^[w]
they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble^[x] and settle down.^[y]
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce;^[z]
they will grow orchards^[aa] and eat the fruit they produce.^[ab]
¹⁵I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be uprooted from the^[ac] land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.

Footnotes

Amos 9:7 tn The Hebrew text has a rhetorical question, “Are you children of Israel not like the Cushites to me?” The rhetorical question has been converted to an affirmative statement in the translation for clarity. See the comment at 8:8.sn Though Israel was God’s special covenant people (see 3:2a), the Lord emphasizes they are not inherently superior to the other nations subject to his sovereign rule.
Amos 9:7 sn Caphtor may refer to the island of Crete.
Amos 9:7 tn The second half of v. 7 is also phrased as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text, “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?” The translation converts the rhetorical question into an affirmation for clarity.
Amos 9:8 tn Heb “the eyes of the Sovereign Lord are on.”
Amos 9:8 tn Or “kingdom.”
Amos 9:8 tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).
Amos 9:9 tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (ts^eror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).
Amos 9:11 tn The phrase translated “collapsing hut” refers to a temporary shelter (cf. NASB, NRSV “booth”) in disrepair and emphasizes the relatively weakened condition of the once powerful Davidic dynasty. Others have suggested that the term refers to Jerusalem, while still others argue that it should be repointed to read “Sukkoth,” a garrison town in Transjordan. Its reconstruction would symbolize the rebirth of the Davidic empire and its return to power (e.g., M. E. Polley, Amos and the Davidic Empire, 71-74).
Amos 9:11 tc The MT reads a third feminine plural suffix, which could refer to the two kingdoms (Judah and Israel) or, more literally, to the breaches in the walls of the cities that are mentioned in v. 14 (cf. 4:3). Some emend to third feminine singular, since the “hut” of the preceding line (a feminine singular noun) might be the antecedent. In that case, the final nun (ן) is virtually dittographic with the vav (ו) that appears at the beginning of the following word.
Amos 9:11 tc The MT reads a third masculine singular suffix, which could refer back to David. However, it is possible that an original third feminine singular suffix (יה-, yod-he) has been misread as masculine (יו-, yod-vav). In later Hebrew script a ה (he) resembles a יו- (yod-vav) combination.
Amos 9:11 tn Heb “and I will rebuild as in days of antiquity.”
Amos 9:12 sn They probably refers to the Israelites or to the Davidic rulers of the future.
Amos 9:12 tn Heb “take possession of the remnant of Edom”; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV “possess the remnant of Edom.”
Amos 9:12 tn Heb “nations over whom my name is proclaimed.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership, sometimes as a result of conquest. See 2 Sam 12:28.sn This verse envisions a new era of Israelite rule, perhaps patterned after David’s imperialistic successes (see 2 Sam 8-10). At the same time, however, the verse does not specify how this rule is to be accomplished. Note that the book ends with a description of peace and abundance, and its final reference to God (v. 15) does not include the epithet “the Lord who commands armies,” which has militaristic overtones. This is quite a different scene than what the book began with: nations at war and standing under the judgment of God.
Amos 9:13 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
Amos 9:13 tn Heb “the days are.”
Amos 9:13 sn The plowman will catch up to the reaper. Plowing occurred in October-November, and harvesting in April-May (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109.) But in the future age of restored divine blessing, there will be so many crops the reapers will take all summer to harvest them, and it will be time for plowing again before the harvest is finished.
Amos 9:13 sn When the grapes had been harvested, they were placed in a press where workers would stomp on them with their feet and squeeze out the juice. For a discussion of grape-harvesting technique, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-12.
Amos 9:13 tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
Amos 9:13 sn The grape harvest occurred in August-September, the planting in November-December (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109). But in the future age described here there will be so many grapes that the workers who stomp them will still be working when the next planting season arrives.
Amos 9:13 tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.
Amos 9:13 tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”
Amos 9:14 tn This line can also be translated, “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel,” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).
Amos 9:14 tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”
Amos 9:14 tn Or “and live [in them].”
Amos 9:14 tn Heb “drink their wine.”
Amos 9:14 tn Or “gardens.”
Amos 9:14 tn Heb “eat their fruit.”
Amos 9:15 tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.

Mark 4:30-32

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰He also asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God,^[a] or what parable can we use to present it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed^[b] that when sown in the ground, even though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground— ³²when it is sown, it grows up,^[c] becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds^[d] can nest in its shade.”^[e]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Footnotes

The Restoration of the Davidic Dynasty

Footnotes

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Footnotes