◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 112 (Happy are those who fear God); Deuteronomy 24:1-5 (Laws about divorce); 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 (Divorce discouraged) (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 112

Psalm 112^[a]

112 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one^[b] who obeys^[c] the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands.^[d]
²His descendants^[e] will be powerful on the earth;
the godly^[f] will be blessed.
³His house contains wealth and riches;
his integrity endures.^[g]
⁴In the darkness a light^[h] shines for the godly,
for each one who is merciful, compassionate, and just.^[i]
⁵It goes well for the one^[j] who generously lends money,
and conducts his business honestly.^[k]
⁶For he will never be shaken;
others will always remember one who is just.^[l]
⁷He does not fear bad news.
He^[m] is confident; he trusts in the Lord.
⁸His resolve^[n] is firm; he will not succumb to fear
before he looks in triumph on his enemies.
⁹He generously gives^[o] to the needy;
his integrity endures.^[p]
He will be vindicated and honored.^[q]
¹⁰When the wicked^[r] see this, they will worry;
they will grind their teeth in frustration^[s] and melt away.
The desire of the wicked will perish.^[t]

Footnotes

Psalm 112:1 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “fears.”
Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.
Psalm 112:2 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
Psalm 112:2 tn Heb “His seed will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the godly.” The Hebrew term דוֹר (dor, “generation”) could be taken as parallel to “offspring” and translated “posterity,” but the singular more likely refers to the godly as a class. See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.
Psalm 112:3 tn Heb “stands forever.”
Psalm 112:4 tn In this context “light” symbolizes divine blessing in its various forms (see v. 2), including material prosperity and stability.
Psalm 112:4 tn Heb “merciful and compassionate and just.” The Hebrew text has three singular adjectives, which are probably substantival and in apposition to the “godly” (which is plural, however). By switching to the singular, the psalmist focuses on each individual member of the group known as the “godly.” Note how vv. 5-9, like vv. 1-2a, use the singular to describe the representative godly individual who typifies the whole group.
Psalm 112:5 tn Heb “man.”
Psalm 112:5 tn Heb “he sustains his matters with justice.”
Psalm 112:6 tn Heb “for an eternal memorial a just [one] will be.”
Psalm 112:7 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition and emotions (see Ps 108:1).
Psalm 112:8 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition.
Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “he scatters, he gives.”
Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “stands forever.”
Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “his horn will be lifted up in honor.” The horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17).
Psalm 112:10 tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).
Psalm 112:10 tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.
Psalm 112:10 tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).

Deuteronomy 24:1-5

24 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something indecent^[a] in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house. ²When she has left him^[b] she may go and become someone else’s wife. ³If the second husband rejects^[c] her and then divorces her,^[d] gives her the papers, and evicts her from his house, or if the second husband who married her dies, ⁴her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry^[e] her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the Lord.^[f] You must not bring guilt on the land^[g] that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

⁵When a man is newly married, he need not go into^[h] the army nor be obligated in any way; he must be free to stay at home for a full year and bring joy to^[i] the wife he has married.

1 Corinthians 7:10-16

¹⁰To the married I give this command—not I, but the Lord^[a]—a wife should not divorce a husband ¹¹(but if she does, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband), and a husband should not divorce his wife.

¹²To the rest I say—I, not the Lord^[b]—if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her. ¹³And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified because of the wife, and the unbelieving wife because of her husband.^[c] Otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound.^[d] God has called you in peace. ¹⁶For how do you know, wife, whether you will bring your husband to salvation?^[e] Or how do you know, husband, whether you will bring your wife to salvation?^[f]

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 7:10 sn Not I, but the Lord. Here and in v. 12 Paul distinguishes between his own apostolic instruction and Jesus’ teaching during his earthly ministry. In vv. 10-11, Paul reports the Lord’s own teaching about divorce (cf. Mark 10:5-12).
1 Corinthians 7:12 sn I, not the Lord. Here and in v. 10 Paul distinguishes between his own apostolic instruction and Jesus’ teaching during his earthly ministry. In vv. 12-16, Paul deals with a situation about which the Lord gave no instruction in his earthly ministry.
1 Corinthians 7:14 tc Grk “the brother.” Later witnesses (א² D² M) have ἀνδρί (andri, “husband”) here, apparently in conscious emulation of the earlier mention of ἀνήρ (anēr) in the verse. However, the earliest and best witnesses (P⁴⁶ א* A B C D* F G P Ψ 33 1739 al co) are decisively in favor of ἀδελφῷ (adelphō, “brother”), a word that because of the close association with “wife” here may have seemed inappropriate to many scribes. It is also for reasons of English style that “her husband” is used in the translation.
1 Corinthians 7:15 sn Interpreters differ over the implication of the statement the brother or sister is not bound. One view is that the believer is “not bound to continue the marriage,” i.e., not so slavishly tied to the instruction about not divorcing (cf. vv. 10-11) that he or she refuses to face reality when the unbelieving spouse is unwilling to continue the relationship. In this view divorce is allowable under these circumstances, but not remarriage (v. 11 still applies: remain unmarried or be reconciled). The other view is that the believer is “not bound in regard to marriage,” i.e., free to remain single or to remarry. The argument for this view is the conceptual parallel with vv. 39-40, where a wife is said to be “bound” (a different word in Greek, but the same concept) as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies, she is “free” to marry as she wishes, only in the Lord. If the parallel holds, then not bound in v. 15 also means “free to marry another.”
1 Corinthians 7:16 tn Grk “will save your husband?” The meaning is obviously that the wife would be the human agent in leading her husband to salvation.
1 Corinthians 7:16 tn Grk “will save your wife?” The meaning is obviously that the husband would be the human agent in leading his wife to salvation.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 112[a]

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 112^[a]