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September 23, 2022

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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 146

Psalm 146^[a]

146 Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
²I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
³Do not trust in princes,
or in human beings, who cannot deliver.^[b]
⁴Their life’s breath departs, they return to the ground.
On that day their plans die.^[c]
⁵How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
⁶the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful,^[d]
⁷vindicates the oppressed,^[e]
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord releases the imprisoned.
⁸The Lord gives sight to the blind.
The Lord lifts up all who are bent over.^[f]
The Lord loves the godly.
⁹The Lord protects the resident foreigner.
He lifts up the fatherless and the widow,^[g]
but he opposes the wicked.^[h]
¹⁰The Lord rules forever,
your God, O Zion, throughout the generations to come.^[i]
Praise the Lord!

Proverbs 28:3-10

³A poor person^[a] who oppresses the weak
is like^[b] a driving rain without food.^[c]
⁴Those who forsake the law^[d] praise the wicked,^[e]
but those who keep the law contend^[f] with them.
⁵Evil people^[g] do not understand justice,^[h]
but those who seek the Lord^[i] understand it all.
⁶A poor person^[j] who walks in his integrity is better
than one who is perverse in his ways^[k] even though^[l] he is rich.^[m]
⁷The one who keeps the law^[n] is a discerning child,^[o]
but a companion of gluttons brings shame to^[p] his parents.^[q]
⁸The one who increases his wealth by increasing interest^[r]
gathers it for someone who is gracious^[s] to the needy.
⁹The one who turns away his ear^[t] from hearing the law,
even his prayer^[u] is an abomination.^[v]
¹⁰The one who leads the upright astray in an evil way
will himself fall into his own pit,^[w]
but the blameless will inherit what is good.^[x]

Footnotes

Proverbs 28:3 tc The MT reads “a poor man,” גֶּבֶר רָשׁ (gever rash); cf. KJV, NASB, NLT. The problem is that the poor in the book of Proverbs is not an oppressor and does not have the power to be such. So commentators assume the word is incorrect. By a slight change to רָשָׁע (rashaʿ) the reading becomes “a wicked ruler” [Heb “a wicked mighty man”]. There is no textual support for this change. The LXX, however, reads, “A courageous man oppresses the poor with impieties.” If “a poor man” is retained, then the oppression would include betrayal—one would expect a poor man to have sympathy for others who are impoverished, but in fact that is not the case. It is a sad commentary on human nature that the truly oppressed people can also be oppressed by other poor people.
Proverbs 28:3 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
Proverbs 28:3 sn “Food” is a metonymy of effect here. The picture is of the driving rain that should cause crops to grow so that food can be produced—but does not (some English versions assume the crops are destroyed instead, e.g., NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). The point the proverb is making is that a show of strength may not produce anything except ruin.
Proverbs 28:4 sn Some commentators do not think that the word refers to the Mosaic law, but to “instruction” or “teaching” in general (cf. NCV “who disobey what they have been taught”). However, the expression “keep the law” in the second line indicates that it is binding, which would not be true of teaching in general (J. Bright, “The Apodictic Prohibition: Some Observations,” JBL 92 [1973]: 185-204). Moreover, Proverbs 28:9 and 29:18 refer to the law, and this chapter has a stress on piety.
Proverbs 28:4 sn The proverb gives the outcome and the evidence of those who forsake the law—they “praise the wicked.” This may mean (1) calling the wicked good or (2) justifying what the wicked do, for such people are no longer sensitive to evil.
Proverbs 28:4 tn The verb is the Hitpael imperfect of גָּרָה (garah), which means “to stir up strife” but in this stem means “to engage in strife” (cf. NIV “resist them”). Tg. Prov 28:4 adds an explanatory expansion, “so as to induce them to repent.”
Proverbs 28:5 tn Heb “men of evil”; the context does not limit this to males only, however.
Proverbs 28:5 tn The term translated “justice” is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat); it refers to the legal rights of people, decisions that are equitable in the community. W. G. Plaut observes that there are always those who think that “justice” is that which benefits them, otherwise it is not justice (Proverbs, 282).
Proverbs 28:5 sn The contrast (and the difference) is between the wicked and those who seek the Lord. Originally the idea of seeking the Lord meant to obtain an oracle (2 Sam 21:1), but then it came to mean devotion to God—seeking to learn and do his will. Only people who are interested in doing the Lord’s will can fully understand justice. Without that standard, legal activity can become self-serving.
Proverbs 28:6 sn This chapter gives a lot of attention to the contrast between the poor and the rich, assuming an integrity for the poor that is not present with the rich; the subject is addressed in vv. 6, 8, 11, 20, 22, 25, and 27 (G. A. Chutter, “Riches and Poverty in the Book of Proverbs,” Crux 18 [1982]: 23-28).
Proverbs 28:6 tn The Hebrew term translated “ways” is in the dual, suggesting that the person has double ways, i.e., he is hypocritical. C. H. Toy does not like this idea and changes the form to the plural (Proverbs [ICC], 497), but his emendation is gratuitous and should be rejected.
Proverbs 28:6 tn Heb “and he is rich.” Many English versions treat this as a concessive clause (cf. KJV “though he be rich”).
Proverbs 28:6 sn This is another “better” saying, contrasting a poor person who has integrity with a rich person who is perverse. Of course there are rich people with integrity and perverse poor people, but that is not of interest here. If it came to the choices described here, honest poverty is better than corrupt wealth.
Proverbs 28:7 tn The Hebrew word could refer (1) to “instruction” by the father (cf. NCV) or (2) the Mosaic law (so most English versions). The chapter seems to be stressing religious obedience, so the referent is probably the law. Besides, the father’s teaching will be what the law demands, and the one who associates with gluttons is not abiding by the law.
Proverbs 28:7 tn Heb “son,” but the immediate context does not suggest limiting this only to male children.
Proverbs 28:7 sn The companion of gluttons shames his father and his family because such a life style as he now embraces is both unruly and antisocial.
Proverbs 28:7 tn Heb “father,” but the immediate context does not suggest limiting this only to the male parent.
Proverbs 28:8 tn Heb “by interest and increase” (so ASV; NASB “by interest and usury”; NAB “by interest and overcharge.” The two words seem to be synonyms; they probably form a nominal hendiadys, meaning “by increasing [exorbitant] interest.” The law prohibited making a commission or charging interest (Exod 22:25; Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:20; Ps 15:5). If the poor needed help, the rich were to help them—but not charge them interest.
Proverbs 28:8 tn The term חוֹנֵן (khonen, “someone who shows favor”) is the active participle. sn The verse is saying that in God’s justice wealth amassed unjustly will eventually go to the poor. God will take the wealth away from them and give it to people who will distribute it better to the poor.
Proverbs 28:9 sn The expression “turn away the ear from hearing” uses a metonymy to mean that this individual will not listen—it indicates a deliberate refusal to follow the instruction of the law.
Proverbs 28:9 sn It is hard to imagine how someone who willfully refuses to obey the law of God would pray according to the will of God. Such a person is more apt to pray for some physical thing or make demands on God. (Of course a prayer of repentance would be an exception and would not be an abomination to the Lord.)
Proverbs 28:9 sn C. H. Toy says, “If a man, on his part, is deaf to instruction, then God, on his part, is deaf to prayer” (Proverbs [ICC], 499). And W. McKane observes that one who fails to attend to God’s law is a wicked person, even if he is a man of prayer (Proverbs [OTL], 623).
Proverbs 28:10 sn The image of falling into a pit (a figure of speech known as hypocatastasis, involving implied comparison) is meant to say that the evil to which he guides people will ultimately destroy him.
Proverbs 28:10 sn This proverb is teaching that those who corrupt others will be destroyed, usually by their own devices, but those who manage to avoid being corrupted will be rewarded. According to this proverb the righteous can be led astray (e.g., 26:27).

Ephesians 2:1-10

New Life Individually

2 And although you were^[a] dead^[b] in your offenses and sins, ²in which^[c] you formerly lived^[d] according to this world’s present path,^[e] according to the ruler of the domain^[f] of the air, the ruler of^[g] the spirit^[h] that is now energizing^[i] the sons of disobedience,^[j] ³among whom^[k] all of us^[l] also^[m] formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath^[n] even as the rest…^[o]

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, ⁵even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!^[p]— ⁶and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷to demonstrate in the coming ages^[q] the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward^[r] us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you are saved^[s] through faith,^[t] and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹it is not from^[u] works, so that no one can boast.^[v] ¹⁰For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.^[w]

Footnotes

Ephesians 2:1 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
Ephesians 2:1 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.
Ephesians 2:2 sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.
Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “walked.” sn The Greek verb translated lived (περιπατέω, peripateō) in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
Ephesians 2:2 tn Or possibly “Aeon.”sn The word translated present path is the same as that which has been translated [this] age in 1:21 (αἰών, aiōn).
Ephesians 2:2 tn That is, “[place of] authority”; see BDAG 353 s.v. ἐξουσία 6.
Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).
Ephesians 2:2 sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).
Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “working in.”
Ephesians 2:2 sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.
Ephesians 2:3 sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en hais], ἐν οἵς [en hois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).
Ephesians 2:3 tn Grk “we all.”
Ephesians 2:3 tn Or “even.”
Ephesians 2:3 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
Ephesians 2:3 sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.
Ephesians 2:5 tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).
Ephesians 2:7 tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”
Ephesians 2:7 tn Or “upon.”
Ephesians 2:8 tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.
Ephesians 2:8 tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pisteōs, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1241 1881 al. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia tēs pisteōs) is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1175 1505 1739 al bo) lack the article. Without the article, the meaning of the text is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” On both internal and external grounds the anarthrous wording is preferred.
Ephesians 2:9 tn Or “not as a result of.”
Ephesians 2:9 tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”
Ephesians 2:10 tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).sn So that we may do them. Before the devil began to control our walk in sin and among sinful people, God had already planned good works for us to do.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 146[a]

Footnotes

Footnotes

New Life Individually

Footnotes

Psalm 146^[a]