◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 112 (Happy are those who fear God); Jeremiah 3:6-14 (God will forgive the unfaithful); Matthew 5:27-36 (Teachings about marriage and vow-making) (New English Translation)

Prev Day

October 6, 2021

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

October 2021
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Return to today's reading

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).

Jeremiah 3:6-14

⁶When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done.^[a] You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.^[b] ⁷Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me.^[c] But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did.^[d] ⁸She also saw^[e] that, because of wayward Israel’s adulterous worship of other gods,^[f] I sent her away and gave her divorce papers. But still her unfaithful sister Judah was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods.^[g] ⁹Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land^[h] through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.^[i] ¹⁰In spite of all this,^[j] Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,”^[k] says the Lord. ¹¹Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah.^[l]

The Lord Calls on Israel and Judah to Repent

¹²“Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north.^[m] Tell them:

‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure.^[n]
For I am merciful,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not be angry with you forever.
¹³However, you must confess that you have done wrong^[o]
and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.
You must confess^[p] that you have given yourself to^[q] foreign gods under every green tree
and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.

¹⁴“Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master.^[r] If you do,^[s] I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 3:6 tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
Jeremiah 3:6 tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.
Jeremiah 3:7 tn Or “I said to her, ‘Come back to me!’” The verb אָמַר (ʾamar) usually means “to say,” but here it means “to think,” of an assumption that turns out to be wrong (so HALOT 66 s.v. אמר 4) (cf. Gen 44:28; Jer 3:19; Pss 82:6; 139:11; Job 29:18; Ruth 4:4; Lam 3:18).sn Open theists suggest that passages such as this indicate God has limited foreknowledge; however, more traditional theologians view this passage as an extended metaphor in which God presents himself as a deserted husband, hoping against hope that his adulterous wife might return to him. The point of the metaphor is not to make an assertion about God’s foreknowledge, but to develop the theme of God’s heartbreak due to Israel’s unrepentance.
Jeremiah 3:7 tn The words “what she did” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Jeremiah 3:8 tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads, “I saw,” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.
Jeremiah 3:8 tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.
Jeremiah 3:8 tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.
Jeremiah 3:9 tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.
Jeremiah 3:9 tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”
Jeremiah 3:10 tn Heb “And even in all this.”
Jeremiah 3:10 tn Heb “has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”
Jeremiah 3:11 tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel, who had no such advantage.
Jeremiah 3:12 tn Heb “Go and proclaim these words to the north.” The translation assumes that the message is directed toward the exiles of northern Israel who have been scattered in the provinces of Assyria to the north.
Jeremiah 3:12 tn Heb “I will not cause my face to fall on you.”
Jeremiah 3:13 tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”
Jeremiah 3:13 tn The words “You must confess” are repeated to convey the connection. The Hebrew text has an introductory “that” in front of the second line and a coordinative “and” in front of the next two lines.
Jeremiah 3:13 tc MT reads דְּרָכַיִךְ (d^erakhayikh, “your ways”), but the BHS editors suggest דּוֹדַיִךְ (dodayikh, “your breasts”) as an example of orthographic confusion. While the proposal makes sense, it remains a conjectural emendation since it is not supported by any actual manuscripts or ancient versions.tn Heb “scattered your ways with foreign [gods]” or “spread out your breasts to strangers.”
Jeremiah 3:14 tn Or “I am your true husband.”sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the Lord as Israel’s true master/husband versus Baal as Israel’s illegitimate lover/master. See 2:23-25.
Jeremiah 3:14 tn The words “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.

Matthew 5:27-36

Adultery

²⁷“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’^[a] ²⁸But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell.^[b] ³⁰If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.

Divorce

³¹“It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a legal document.’^[c] ³²But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality,^[d] makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Oaths

³³“Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation,^[e] ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’^[f] ³⁴But I say to you, do not take oaths at all—not by heaven, because it is the throne of God, ³⁵not by earth, because it is his footstool, and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.^[g] ³⁶Do not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black.

New English Translation (NET)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 112[a]

Footnotes

The Lord Calls on Israel and Judah to Repent

Footnotes

Adultery

Divorce

Oaths

Footnotes

Psalm 112^[a]