◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 119:129-136 (Light and understanding); 1 Kings 1:38-48 (Solomon more famous than David); Acts 7:44-53 (Solomon’s temple cannot contain God) (New English Translation)

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July 28, 2023

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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 119:129-136

פ (Pe)

¹²⁹Your rules are marvelous.
Therefore I observe them.
¹³⁰Your instructions are a doorway through which light shines.^[a]
They give^[b] insight to the untrained.^[c]
¹³¹I open my mouth and pant,
because I long^[d] for your commands.
¹³²Turn toward me and extend mercy to me,
as you typically do to your loyal followers.^[e]
¹³³Direct my steps by your word.^[f]
Do not let any sin dominate me.
¹³⁴Deliver me^[g] from oppressive men,
so that I can keep^[h] your precepts.
¹³⁵Smile^[i] on your servant.
Teach me your statutes!
¹³⁶Tears stream down from my eyes,^[j]
because people^[k] do not keep your law.

1 Kings 1:38-48

³⁸So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites, and the Pelethites^[a] went down, put Solomon on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon. ³⁹Zadok the priest took a horn filled with olive oil^[b] from the tent and poured it on^[c] Solomon; the trumpet was blown and all the people declared, “Long live King Solomon!” ⁴⁰All the people followed him up, playing flutes and celebrating so loudly they made the ground shake.^[d]

⁴¹Now Adonijah and all his guests heard the commotion just as they had finished eating.^[e] When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he asked, “Why is there such a noisy commotion in the city?”^[f] ⁴²As he was still speaking, Jonathan^[g] son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in, for^[h] an important man like you must be bringing good news.”^[i] ⁴³Jonathan replied^[j] to Adonijah: “No!^[k] Our master^[l] King David has made Solomon king. ⁴⁴The king sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites, and the Pelethites and they put him on the king’s mule. ⁴⁵Then Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed^[m] him king in Gihon. They went up from there rejoicing, and the city is in an uproar. That is the sound you hear. ⁴⁶Furthermore, Solomon has assumed the royal throne.^[n] ⁴⁷The king’s servants have even come to congratulate^[o] our master^[p] King David, saying, ‘May your God^[q] make Solomon more famous than you and make him an even greater king than you!’^[r] Then the king leaned^[s] on the bed ⁴⁸and said^[t] this: ‘The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because^[u] today he has placed a successor on my throne and allowed me to see it.’”^[v]

Footnotes

1 Kings 1:38 sn The Kerethites and Pelethites were members of David’s royal guard (see 2 Sam 8:18). The Kerethites may have been descendants of an ethnic group originating in Crete.
1 Kings 1:39 tn Heb “the horn of oil.” This has been specified as olive oil in the translation for clarity.sn A horn filled with oil. An animal’s horn was used as an oil flask in the anointing ceremony.
1 Kings 1:39 tn Or “anointed.”
1 Kings 1:40 tn Heb “and all the people went up after him, and the people were playing flutes and rejoicing with great joy and the ground split open at the sound of them.” The verb בָּקַע (baqaʿ, “to split open”), which elsewhere describes the effects of an earthquake, is obviously here an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.
1 Kings 1:41 tn Heb “And Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard, now they had finished eating.”
1 Kings 1:41 tn Heb “Why is the city’s sound noisy?”
1 Kings 1:42 tn The Hebrew text has “look” at this point. The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh), “look” draws attention to Jonathan’s arrival and invites the audience to view the scene through the eyes of the participants.
1 Kings 1:42 tn Or “surely.”
1 Kings 1:42 tn Heb “you are a man of strength [or “ability”] and you bring a message [that is] good.” Another option is to understand the phrase אִישׁ חַיִל (ʾish khayil) in the sense of “a worthy man,” that is “loyal.” See also 1 Kgs 1:52 and HALOT 311 s.v. חַיִל.
1 Kings 1:43 tn Heb “answered and said.”
1 Kings 1:43 tn For a similar use of אֲבָל (ʾaval), see Gen 17:19, where God rejects Abraham’s proposal and offers an alternative.
1 Kings 1:43 tn The plural form is used in the Hebrew text to indicate honor and authority.
1 Kings 1:45 tn I.e., designated by anointing with oil.
1 Kings 1:46 tn Heb “And also Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom.”
1 Kings 1:47 tn Heb “to bless.”
1 Kings 1:47 tn The plural form is used in the Hebrew text to indicate honor and authority.
1 Kings 1:47 tc Many Hebrew mss agree with the Qere in reading simply “God.”
1 Kings 1:47 tn Heb “make the name of Solomon better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne.” The term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) is used here of one’s fame and reputation.
1 Kings 1:47 tn Or “bowed down; worshiped.”
1 Kings 1:48 tn The Hebrew text reads, “and the king said.”
1 Kings 1:48 tn Or “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who….” In this blessing formula אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher, “who; because”) introduces the reason why the one being blessed deserves the honor.
1 Kings 1:48 tn Heb “and my eyes are seeing.”

Acts 7:44-53

⁴⁴Our ancestors^[a] had the tabernacle^[b] of testimony in the wilderness,^[c] just as God^[d] who spoke to Moses ordered him^[e] to make it according to the design he had seen. ⁴⁵Our^[f] ancestors^[g] received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors,^[h] until the time^[i] of David. ⁴⁶He^[j] found favor^[k] with^[l] God and asked that he could^[m] find a dwelling place^[n] for the house^[o] of Jacob. ⁴⁷But Solomon built a house^[p] for him. ⁴⁸Yet the Most High^[q] does not live in houses made by human hands,^[r] as the prophet says,

⁴⁹‘Heaven is my throne,
and earth is the footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is my resting place?^[s]
⁵⁰Did my hand^[t] not make all these things?’^[u]

⁵¹“You stubborn^[v] people, with uncircumcised^[w] hearts and ears!^[x] You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors^[y] did! ⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors^[z] not persecute?^[aa] They^[ab] killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One,^[ac] whose betrayers and murderers you have now become!^[ad] ⁵³You^[ae] received the law by decrees given by angels,^[af] but you did not obey^[ag] it.”

Footnotes

Acts 7:44 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
Acts 7:44 tn Or “tent.”sn The tabernacle was the tent used to house the ark of the covenant before the construction of Solomon’s temple. This is where God was believed to reside, yet the people were still unfaithful.
Acts 7:44 tn Or “desert.”
Acts 7:44 tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Acts 7:44 tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.
Acts 7:45 tn Grk “And.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
Acts 7:45 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
Acts 7:45 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”sn Before our ancestors. Stephen has backtracked here to point out how faithful God had been before the constant move to idolatry just noted.
Acts 7:45 tn Grk “In those days.”
Acts 7:46 tn Grk “David, who” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.
Acts 7:46 tn Or “grace.”
Acts 7:46 tn Grk “before,” “in the presence of.”
Acts 7:46 tn The words “that he could” are not in the Greek text, but are implied as the (understood) subject of the infinitive εὑρεῖν (heurein). This understands David’s request as asking that he might find the dwelling place. The other possibility would be to supply “that God” as the subject of the infinitive: “and asked that God find a dwelling place.” Unfortunately this problem is complicated by the extremely difficult problem with the Greek text in the following phrase (“house of Jacob” vs. “God of Jacob”).
Acts 7:46 tn On this term see BDAG 929 s.v. σκήνωμα a (Ps 132:5).
Acts 7:46 tc Some mss read θεῷ (theō, “God”) here, a variant much easier to understand in the context. The reading “God” is supported by א² A C E Ψ 33 1739 M lat sy co. The more difficult οἴκῳ (oikō, “house”) is supported by P⁷⁴ א* B D H 049. Thus the second reading is preferred both externally because of better ms evidence and internally because it is hard to see how a copyist finding the reading “God” would change it to “house,” while it is easy to see how (given the LXX of Ps 132:5) a copyist might assimilate the reading and change “house” to “God.” However, some scholars think the reading “house” is so difficult as to be unacceptable. Others (like Lachmann and Hort) resorted to conjectural emendation at this point. Others (Ropes) sought an answer in an underlying Aramaic expression. Not everyone thinks the reading “house” is too difficult to be accepted as original (see Lake and Cadbury). A. F. J. Klijn, “Stephen’s Speech—Acts vii.2-53, ” NTS 4 (1957): 25-31, compared the idea of a “house within the house of Israel” with the Manual of Discipline from Qumran, a possible parallel that seems to support the reading “house” as authentic. (For the more detailed discussion from which this note was derived, see TCGNT 308-9.)
Acts 7:47 sn See 1 Kgs 8:1-21.
Acts 7:48 sn The title the Most High points to God’s majesty (Heb 7:1; Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 16:7).
Acts 7:48 sn The phrase made by human hands is negative in the NT: Mark 14:58; Acts 17:24; Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11, 24. It suggests “man-made” or “impermanent.” The rebuke is like parts of the Hebrew scripture where the rebuke is not of the temple, but for making too much of it (1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 57:15; 1 Chr 6:8; Jer 7:1-34).
Acts 7:49 sn What kind…resting place? The rhetorical questions suggest mere human beings cannot build a house to contain God.
Acts 7:50 tn Or “Did I.” The phrase “my hand” is ultimately a metaphor for God himself.
Acts 7:50 tn The question in Greek introduced with οὐχί (ouchi) expects a positive reply.sn A quotation from Isa 66:1-2. If God made the heavens, how can a human building contain him?
Acts 7:51 sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.
Acts 7:51 tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmētoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.
Acts 7:51 tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)
Acts 7:51 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
Acts 7:52 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
Acts 7:52 sn Which…persecute. The rhetorical question suggests they persecuted them all.
Acts 7:52 tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
Acts 7:52 sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ.
Acts 7:52 sn Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The harsh critique has OT precedent (1 Kgs 19:10-14; Neh 9:26; 2 Chr 36:16).
Acts 7:53 tn Grk “whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, who received the law” The two consecutive relative clauses make for awkward English style, so the second was begun as a new sentence with the pronoun “You” supplied in place of the Greek relative pronoun to make a complete sentence in English.
Acts 7:53 tn Traditionally, “as ordained by angels,” but εἰς (eis) with the accusative here should be understood as instrumental (a substitute for ἐν [en]); so BDAG 291 s.v. εἰς 9, BDF §206. Thus the phrase literally means “received the law by the decrees [orders] of angels” with the genitive understood as a subjective genitive, that is, the angels gave the decrees.sn Decrees given by angels. According to Jewish traditions in the first century, the law of Moses was mediated through angels. See also the note on “angel” in 7:35.
Acts 7:53 tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (phulassō, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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