◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 119:81-88 (The faithful persecuted); Jeremiah 16:14-21 (God will forgive Israel); John 7:1-9 (Unbelief of Jesus’ brothers) (New English Translation)

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July 10, 2024

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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 119:81-88

כ (Kaf)

⁸¹I desperately long for^[a] your deliverance.
I find hope in your word.
⁸²My eyes grow tired as I wait for your promise to be fulfilled.^[b]
I say,^[c] “When will you comfort me?”
⁸³For^[d] I am like a wineskin^[e] dried up in smoke.^[f]
I do not forget your statutes.
⁸⁴How long must your servant endure this?^[g]
When will you judge those who pursue me?
⁸⁵The arrogant dig pits to trap me,^[h]
which violates your law.^[i]
⁸⁶All your commands are reliable.
I am pursued without reason.^[j] Help me!
⁸⁷They have almost destroyed me here on the earth,
but I do not reject your precepts.
⁸⁸Revive me with^[k] your loyal love,
that I might keep^[l] the rules you have revealed.^[m]

Jeremiah 16:14-21

¹⁴Yet^[a] I, the Lord, say:^[b] “A new time will certainly come.^[c] People now affirm their oaths with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.’ ¹⁵But in that time they will affirm them with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.”^[d]

¹⁶But for now I, the Lord, say:^[e] “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks.^[f] ¹⁷For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it.^[g] ¹⁸Before I restore them^[h] I will punish them in full^[i] for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own^[j] with their detestable idols.”^[k]

¹⁹Then I said,^[l]

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.
You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble.^[m]
Nations from all over the earth
will come to you and say,
‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods—
worthless idols that could not help them at all.’^[n]
²⁰Can people make their own gods?
No, what they make are not gods at all.”^[o]

²¹The Lord said,^[p]

“So I will now let this wicked people know—
I will let them know my mighty power in judgment.
Then they will know that my name is the Lord.^[q]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 16:14 tn The particle translated here as “Yet” (לָכֵן, lakhen) is regularly translated “So” or “Therefore” and introduces a consequence. However, in a few cases it introduces a contrasting set of conditions. Cf. Judg 11:8; Jer 48:12; 49:2; 51:52; Hos 2:14 (2:16 HT).
Jeremiah 16:14 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” The Lord has been speaking; the first person has been utilized in translation to avoid a shift that might create confusion.
Jeremiah 16:14 tn Heb “Behold, the days are coming.”
Jeremiah 16:15 tn These two verses, which constitute one long sentence with compound, complex subordinations, has been broken up for sake of English style. It reads, “Therefore, behold the days are coming,” says the Lord [Heb ‘oracle of the Lord’], “and it will not be said any longer, ‘By the life of the Lord who…Egypt,’ but, ‘by the life of the Lord who…,’ and I will bring them back….”
Jeremiah 16:16 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” The Lord has been speaking; the first person has been utilized in translation to avoid a shift that might create confusion.
Jeremiah 16:16 tn Heb “Behold, I am about to send for many fishermen, and they will catch them. And after that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the cracks in the rocks.”sn The picture of rounding up the population for destruction and exile is also seen in Amos 4:2 and Hab 1:14-17.
Jeremiah 16:17 tn Heb “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from before me. And their sin is not hidden away from before my eyes.”
Jeremiah 16:18 tn Heb “First.” Many English versions and commentaries delete this word because it is missing from the Greek version and is considered a gloss added by a postexilic editor who is said to be responsible also for vv. 14-16. However, the reading of the MT is well attested, being supported by the other ancient versions. The word here refers to order in rank or order of events. Compare Gen 38:28 and 1 Kgs 18:25. Here allusion is made to the restoration previously mentioned. First in order of events is the punishment of destruction and exile, then restoration.
Jeremiah 16:18 tn Heb “double.” However, usage in Deut 15:18 and probably Isa 40:2 argues for “full compensation.” This is supported also by usage in a tablet from Alalakh in Syria. See P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 218, for bibliography.
Jeremiah 16:18 tn Heb “my inheritance.”sn For earlier references to the term used here see Jer 2:7, where it applies as here to the land, Jer 10:16 and 12:8-9, where it applies to the people, and Jer 12:7, where it applies to the temple.
Jeremiah 16:18 tn Many of the English versions take “lifeless statues of their detestable idols” with “filled” as a compound object. This follows the Masoretic punctuation but violates usage. The verb “fill” never takes an object preceded by the preposition בְּ (bet).
Jeremiah 16:19 tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.sn The shift here is consistent with the interruptions that have taken place in chapters 14 and 15 and in Jeremiah’s response to God’s condemnation of the people of Judah’s idolatry in chapter 10 (note especially vv. 6-16).
Jeremiah 16:19 tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble.” The literal reading, which piles up attributes, is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.
Jeremiah 16:19 tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”sn This passage offers some rather forceful contrasts. The Lord is Jeremiah’s source of strength, security, and protection. The idols are false gods, worthless idols, that can offer no help at all.
Jeremiah 16:20 tn Heb “and they are ‘no gods.’” For the construction here compare 2:11 and a similar construction in 2 Kgs 19:18, and see BDB 519 s.v. לֹא 1.b(b).
Jeremiah 16:21 tn The words “The Lord said” are not in the text. However, it is obvious that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
Jeremiah 16:21 tn Or “So I will make known to those nations, I will make known to them at this time my power and my might. Then they will know that my name is the Lord.” There is a decided ambiguity in this text about the identity of the pronoun “them.” Is it his wicked people he has been predicting judgment upon or the nations that have come to recognize the folly of idolatry? The nearer antecedent would argue for the latter. However, usage of “hand” (translated here “power”) in 6:12; 15:6; and later in 21:5, and especially the threatening motif of “at this time” (or “now”) in 10:18, suggest that the “So” goes back logically to vv. 16-18, following a grounds of judgment with the threatened consequence, as it has in at least 16 out of 18 occurrences thus far. Moreover, it makes decidedly more sense that the Jews will know that his name is the Lord as the result of the present (“at this time”) display of his power in judgment than that the idolaters will at some later (cf. Isa 2:2-4 for possible parallel) time. There has been a decided emphasis that the people of Israel do not “know” him (cf. 2:8; 4:22; 9:3, 6). Now they will, but in a way they did not wish to. There is probably an allusion (and an ironic reversal) here to Exod 3:13-15; 34:5-7. They have presumed upon his graciousness and forgotten that his name not only involves being with them to help but being against them to punish sin. Even if the alternate translation is followed, the reference is still to God’s mighty power made known in judging the wicked Judeans. The words “power” and “might” are an example of hendiadys, in which two nouns joined by “and” function as a unit.

John 7:1-9

The Feast of Shelters

7 After this^[a] Jesus traveled throughout Galilee.^[b] He^[c] stayed out of Judea^[d] because the Jewish leaders^[e] wanted^[f] to kill him. ²Now the Jewish Feast of Shelters^[g] was near.^[h] ³So Jesus’ brothers^[i] advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing.^[j] ⁴For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself^[k] does anything in secret.^[l] If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵(For not even his own brothers believed in him.)^[m]

⁶So Jesus replied,^[n] “My time^[o] has not yet arrived,^[p] but you are ready at any opportunity!^[q] ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil. ⁸You go up^[r] to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast^[s] because my time^[t] has not yet fully arrived.”^[u] ⁹When he had said this, he remained in Galilee.

Footnotes

John 7:1 sn Again, the transition is indicated by the imprecise temporal indicator After this. Clearly, though, the author has left out much of the events of Jesus’ ministry, because chap. 6 took place near the Passover (6:4). This would have been the Passover between winter/spring of a.d. 32, just one year before Jesus’ crucifixion (assuming a date of a.d. 33 for the crucifixion), or the Passover of winter/spring a.d. 29, assuming a date of a.d. 30 for the crucifixion.
John 7:1 tn Grk “Jesus was traveling around in Galilee.”
John 7:1 tn Grk “For he.” Here γάρ (gar, “for”) has not been translated.
John 7:1 tn Grk “he did not want to travel around in Judea.”
John 7:1 tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase should be restricted to the Jewish authorities or leaders who were Jesus’ primary opponents.
John 7:1 tn Grk “were seeking.”
John 7:2 tn Or “Feast of Tabernacles” or Or “Feast of Booths” (the feast where people lived in tents or huts, which was celebrated in the autumn after harvest). John’s use of σκηνοπηγία (skēnopēgia) for the Feast of Shelters constitutes the only use of this term in the New Testament.
John 7:2 sn Since the present verse places these incidents at the Feast of Shelters (a.d. 29 or 32, depending on whether one dates the crucifixion in a.d. 30 or 33) there would have been a 6-month interval during which no events are recorded. The author is obviously selective in his approach; he is not recording an exhaustive history (as he will later tell the reader in John 21:25). After healing the paralytic on the Sabbath in Jerusalem (John 5:1-47), Jesus withdrew again to Galilee because of mounting opposition. In Galilee the feeding of the 5,000 took place, which marked the end of the Galilean ministry for all practical purposes. John 7:1-9 thus marks Jesus’ final departure from Galilee.
John 7:3 tn Grk “his brothers.”sn Jesus’ brothers. Jesus’ brothers (really his half brothers) were mentioned previously by John in 2:12 (see the note on brothers there). They are also mentioned elsewhere in Matt 13:55 and Mark 6:3.
John 7:3 tn Grk “your deeds that you are doing.”sn Should the advice by Jesus’ brothers, Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing, be understood as a suggestion that he should attempt to win back the disciples who had deserted him earlier (6:66)? Perhaps. But it is also possible to take the words as indicating that if Jesus is going to put forward messianic claims (i.e., through miraculous signs) then he should do so in Jerusalem, not in the remote parts of Galilee. Such an understanding seems to fit better with the following verse. It would also indicate misunderstanding on the part of Jesus’ brothers of the true nature of his mission—he did not come as the royal Messiah of Jewish apocalyptic expectation, to be enthroned as king at this time.
John 7:4 tn Or “seeks to be well known.”
John 7:4 sn No one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret means, in effect: “if you’re going to perform signs to authenticate yourself as Messiah, you should do them at Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem is where mainstream Jewish apocalyptic tradition held that Messiah would appear.)
John 7:5 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
John 7:6 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”
John 7:6 tn Or “my opportunity.”
John 7:6 tn Or “is not yet here.”
John 7:6 tn Grk “your time is always ready.”
John 7:8 sn One always speaks of “going up” to Jerusalem in Jewish idiom, even though in western thought it is more common to speak of south as “down” (Jerusalem lies south of Galilee). The reason for the idiom is that Jerusalem was identified with Mount Zion in the OT, so that altitude was the issue.
John 7:8 tc Most mss (P^66,75 B L T W Θ Ψ 070 0105 0250 ƒ^1,13 M sa), including most of the better witnesses, have “not yet” (οὔπω, oupō) here. Those with the reading οὐκ are not as impressive (א D K 1241 al lat), but οὐκ is the more difficult reading here, especially because it stands in tension with v. 10. On the one hand, it is possible that οὐκ arose because of homoioarcton: A copyist who saw oupw wrote ouk. However, it is more likely that οὔπω was introduced early on to harmonize with what is said two verses later. As for Jesus’ refusal to go up to the feast in v. 8, the statement does not preclude action of a different kind at a later point. Jesus may simply have been refusing to accompany his brothers with the rest of the group of pilgrims, preferring to travel separately and “in secret” (v. 10) with his disciples.
John 7:8 tn Although the word is καιρός (kairos) here, it parallels John’s use of ὥρα (hōra) elsewhere as a reference to the time appointed for Jesus by the Father—the time of his return to the Father, characterized by his death, resurrection, and ascension (glorification). In the Johannine literature, synonyms are often interchanged for no apparent reason other than stylistic variation.
John 7:8 tn Or “my time has not yet come to an end” (a possible hint of Jesus’ death at Jerusalem); Grk “my time is not yet fulfilled.”

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

כ (Kaf)

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Feast of Shelters

Footnotes