◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 145:10-18 (You open wide your hand); 2 Kings 3:4-20 (Elisha and the miracle of water); Colossians 3:12-17 (Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts) (New English Translation)

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July 23, 2021

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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 145:10-18

¹⁰All your works will give thanks to you, Lord.
Your loyal followers will praise you.
¹¹They will proclaim the splendor of your kingdom;
they will tell about your power,
¹²so that mankind^[a] might acknowledge your mighty acts,
and the majestic splendor of your kingdom.
¹³Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom,^[b]
and your dominion endures through all generations.
¹⁴^[c] The Lord supports all who fall,
and lifts up all who are bent over.^[d]
¹⁵Everything looks to you in anticipation,^[e]
and you provide them with food on a regular basis.^[f]
¹⁶You open your hand,
and fill every living thing with the food it desires.^[g]
¹⁷The Lord is just in all his actions,^[h]
and exhibits love in all he does.^[i]
¹⁸The Lord is near all who cry out to him,
all who cry out to him sincerely.^[j]

2 Kings 3:4-20

⁴Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder.^[a] He would send as tribute^[b] to the king of Israel 100,000 male lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. ⁵When Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. ⁶At that time King Jehoram left Samaria and assembled all Israel for war. ⁷He sent^[c] this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you fight with me against Moab?” Jehoshaphat^[d] replied, “I will join you in the campaign; my army and horses are at your disposal.”^[e] ⁸He then asked, “Which invasion route are we going to take?”^[f] Jehoram^[g] answered, “By the road through the wilderness of Edom.” ⁹So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom^[h] set out together. They wandered around on the road for seven days and finally ran out of water for the men and animals they had with them. ¹⁰The king of Israel said, “Oh no!^[i] Certainly the Lord has summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to the king of Moab!” ¹¹Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we might seek the Lord’s direction?”^[j] One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shapat is here; he used to be Elijah’s servant.”^[k] ¹²Jehoshaphat said, “Yes, he receives the Lord’s messages.”^[l] So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to visit him.

¹³Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here?^[m] Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.” ¹⁴Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord of Heaven’s Armies^[n] lives (whom I serve),^[o] if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah,^[p] I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you.^[q] ¹⁵But now, get me a musician.”^[r] When the musician played, the Lord energized him,^[s] ¹⁶and he said, “This is what the Lord has said, ‘Make many cisterns in this valley,’^[t] ¹⁷for this is what the Lord has said, ‘You will not feel^[u] any wind or see any rain, but this valley will be full of water, and you and your cattle and animals will drink.’ ¹⁸This is an easy task for the Lord;^[v] he will also hand Moab over to you. ¹⁹You will defeat every fortified city and every important^[w] city. You must chop down^[x] every productive^[y] tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.”^[z]

²⁰Sure enough, the next morning, at the time of the morning sacrifice, water came flowing down from Edom and filled the land.^[aa]

Footnotes

2 Kings 3:4 tn For a discussion of the meaning of term נֹקֵד (noqed) as “sheep breeder,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 43.
2 Kings 3:4 tn The vav + perfect here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause. See IBHS 533-34 §32.2.3e.
2 Kings 3:7 tn Heb “went and sent.”
2 Kings 3:7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoshaphat) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 3:7 tn Heb “I will go up—like me, like you; like my people, like your people; like my horses; like your horses.”
2 Kings 3:8 tn Heb “Where is the road we will go up?”
2 Kings 3:8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 3:9 tn Heb “the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom.”
2 Kings 3:10 tn Or “ah.”
2 Kings 3:11 tn Heb “that we might inquire of the Lord through him?”
2 Kings 3:11 tn Heb “who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This refers to one of the typical tasks of a servant.
2 Kings 3:12 tn Heb “the Lord’s message is with him.”
2 Kings 3:13 tn Or “What do we have in common?” The text reads literally, “What to me and to you?”
2 Kings 3:14 tn Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.”
2 Kings 3:14 tn Heb “before whom I stand.”
2 Kings 3:14 tn Heb “if I did not lift up the face of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah.”
2 Kings 3:14 tn Heb “I would not look at you or see you.”
2 Kings 3:15 tn The term used refers to one who plays a stringed instrument, perhaps a harp.
2 Kings 3:15 tn Heb “the hand of the Lord came on him.” This may refer to what typically happened, “[for] when a musician played, the hand of the Lord would come upon him.”
2 Kings 3:16 tn Heb “making this valley cisterns, cisterns.” The Hebrew noun גֵּב (gev) means “cistern” in Jer 14:3 (cf. Jer 39:10). The repetition of the noun is for emphasis. See GKC 396 §123.e. The verb (“making”) is an infinitive absolute, which has to be interpreted in light of the context. The translation above takes it in an imperatival sense. The command need not be understood as literal, but as hyperbolic. Telling them to build cisterns is a dramatic way of leading into the announcement that he would miraculously provide water in the desert. Some prefer to translate the infinitive as an imperfect with the Lord as the understood subject, “I will turn this valley [into] many pools.”
2 Kings 3:17 tn Heb “see.”
2 Kings 3:18 tn Heb “and this is easy in the eyes of the Lord.”
2 Kings 3:19 tn Heb “choice” or “select.”
2 Kings 3:19 tn Elisha places the object first and uses an imperfect verb form. The stylistic shift may signal that he is now instructing them what to do, rather than merely predicting what would happen.
2 Kings 3:19 tn Heb “good.”
2 Kings 3:19 tn Heb “and ruin every good portion with stones.”
2 Kings 3:20 tn Heb “and in the morning, when the offering is offered up, look, water was coming from the way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.”

Colossians 3:12-17

Exhortation to Unity and Love

¹²Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy,^[a] kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, ¹³bearing with one another and forgiving^[b] one another, if someone happens to have^[c] a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.^[d] ¹⁴And to all these^[e] virtues^[f] add^[g] love, which is the perfect bond.^[h] ¹⁵Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body^[i] to this peace), and be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ^[j] dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace^[k] in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Footnotes

Colossians 3:12 tn If the genitive construct σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ (splanchna oiktirmou) is a hendiadys then it would be “compassion” or “tenderheartedness.” See M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 161.
Colossians 3:13 tn For the translation of χαριζόμενοι (charizomenoi) as “forgiving,” see BDAG 1078 s.v. χαρίζομαι 3. The two participles “bearing” (ἀνεχόμενοι, anechomenoi) and “forgiving” (χαριζόμενοι) express the means by which the action of the finite verb “clothe yourselves” is to be carried out.
Colossians 3:13 tn Grk “if someone has”; the term “happens,” though not in the Greek text, is inserted to bring out the force of the third class condition.
Colossians 3:13 tn The expression “forgive others” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. It is included in the translation to make the sentence complete and more comprehensible to the English reader.
Colossians 3:14 tn BDAG 365 s.v. ἐπί 7 suggests “to all these” as a translation for ἐπὶ πᾶσιν δὲ τούτοις (epi pasin de toutois).
Colossians 3:14 tn The term “virtues” is not in the Greek text, but is included in the translation to specify the antecedent and to make clear the sense of the pronoun “these.”
Colossians 3:14 tn The verb “add,” though not in the Greek text, is implied, picking up the initial imperative “clothe yourselves.”
Colossians 3:14 tn The genitive τῆς τελειότητος (tēs teleiotētos) has been translated as an attributive genitive, “the perfect bond.”
Colossians 3:15 tn Grk “in one body.” This phrase emphasizes the manner in which the believers were called, not the goal of their calling, and focuses upon their unity.
Colossians 3:16 tc Since “the word of Christ” occurs nowhere else in the NT, two predictable variants arose: “word of God” and “word of the Lord.” Even though some of the witnesses for these variants are impressive (κυρίου [kuriou, “of the Lord”] in א* I 1175 bo Cl; θεοῦ [theou, “of God”] in A C* 33 104 323 945 al), the reading Χριστοῦ (Christou, “of Christ”) is read by an excellent cross-section of witnesses (P⁴⁶ א² B C² D F G Ψ 075 1505 1739 1881 2464 M lat sa). On both internal and external grounds, Χριστοῦ is strongly preferred.
Colossians 3:16 tn Grk “with grace”; “all” is supplied as it is implicitly related to all the previous instructions in the verse.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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Exhortation to Unity and Love

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