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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 64

Psalm 64^[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

64 Listen to me,^[b] O God, as I offer my lament!
Protect^[c] my life from the enemy’s terrifying attacks.^[d]
²Hide me from the plots of evil men,
from the crowd of evildoers.^[e]
³They^[f] sharpen their tongues like swords;
they aim their arrows, a slanderous charge,^[g]
⁴in order to shoot down the innocent^[h] in secluded places.
They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation.^[i]
⁵They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed.^[j]
They plan how to hide^[k] snares,
and boast,^[l] “Who will see them?”^[m]
⁶They devise^[n] unjust schemes;
they disguise^[o] a well-conceived plot.^[p]
Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered.^[q]
⁷But God will shoot^[r] at them;
suddenly they will be^[s] wounded by an arrow.^[t]
⁸Their slander will bring about their demise.^[u]
All who see them will shudder,^[v]
⁹and all people will fear.^[w]
They will proclaim what God has done,^[x]
and reflect on his deeds.
¹⁰The godly will rejoice in the Lord
and take shelter in him.
All the morally upright^[y] will boast.^[z]

Footnotes

Psalm 64:1 sn Psalm 64. The psalmist asks God to protect him from his dangerous enemies and then confidently affirms that God will destroy his enemies and demonstrate his justice in the sight of all observers.
Psalm 64:1 tn Heb “my voice.”
Psalm 64:1 tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s request.
Psalm 64:1 tn Heb “from the terror of [the] enemy.” “Terror” is used here metonymically for the enemy’s attacks that produce fear because they threaten the psalmist’s life.
Psalm 64:2 tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”
Psalm 64:3 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
Psalm 64:3 tn Heb “a bitter word.”
Psalm 64:4 tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.
Psalm 64:4 tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Psalm 64:5 tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”
Psalm 64:5 tn Heb “they report about hiding.”
Psalm 64:5 tn Heb “they say.”
Psalm 64:5 tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).
Psalm 64:6 tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”
Psalm 64:6 tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading טָמְנוּ (tam^enu, “they hide”), a Qal perfect third common plural form from the verbal root טָמַן (taman).
Psalm 64:6 tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.
Psalm 64:6 tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.
Psalm 64:7 tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive is normally used in narrative contexts to describe completed past actions. It is possible that the conclusion to the psalm (vv. 7-10) was added to the lament after God’s judgment of the wicked in response to the psalmist’s lament (vv. 1-6). The translation assumes that these verses are anticipatory and express the psalmist’s confidence that God would eventually judge the wicked. The psalmist uses a narrative style as a rhetorical device to emphasize his certitude. See GKC 329-30 §111.w.
Psalm 64:7 tn The perfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s certitude about the coming demise of the wicked.
Psalm 64:7 tn The translation follows the traditional accentuation of the MT. Another option is to translate, “But God will shoot them down with an arrow, suddenly they will be wounded” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
Psalm 64:8 tc The MT reads literally, “and they caused him [or it] to stumble upon them, their tongue.” Perhaps the third plural subject of the verb is indefinite with the third singular pronominal suffix on the verb being distributive (see Ps 63:10). In this case one may translate, “each one will be made to stumble.” The preposition עַל (ʿal) might then be taken as adversative, “against them [is] their tongue.” Many prefer to emend the text to וַיַּכְשִׁילֵמוֹ עֲלֵי לְשׁוֹנָם (vayyakhshilemo ʿale l^eshonam, “and he caused them to stumble over their tongue”). However, if this reading is original, it is difficult to see how the present reading of the MT arose. Furthermore, the preposition is not collocated with the verb כָּשַׁל (kashal) elsewhere. Perhaps a better option is that the third singular pronominal suffix “it” refers to the following noun “tongue” translated “they caused it, their tongue, to stumble on themselves” (see GKC 425-26 §131.m, o).
Psalm 64:8 tn The Hitpolel verbal form is probably from the root נוּד (nud; see HALOT 678 s.v. נוד), which is attested elsewhere in the Hitpolel stem, not the root נָדַד (nadad, as proposed by BDB 622 s.v. I נָדַד), which does not occur elsewhere in this stem.
Psalm 64:9 tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read וַיִּרְאוּ (vayyirʾu, “and they will see”) instead of וַיִּירְאוּ (vayyir^eʾu, “and they will fear”).
Psalm 64:9 tn Heb “the work of God,” referring to the judgment described in v. 7.
Psalm 64:10 tn Heb “upright in heart.”
Psalm 64:10 tn That is, about the Lord’s accomplishments on their behalf.

Job 18

Bildad’s Second Speech^[a]

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

²“How long until you^[b] make an end of words?^[c]
You must consider,^[d] and then^[e] we can talk.
³Why should we be regarded as beasts,
and considered stupid^[f] in your sight?
⁴You who tear yourself^[g] to pieces in your anger,
will the earth be abandoned^[h] for your sake?
Or will a rock be moved from its place?^[i]
⁵“Yes,^[j] the lamp^[k] of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire^[l] does not shine.
⁶The light in his tent grows dark;
his lamp above him is extinguished.^[m]
⁷His vigorous steps^[n] are restricted,^[o]
and his own counsel throws him down.^[p]
⁸For he has been thrown into a net by his feet^[q]
and he wanders into a mesh.^[r]
⁹A trap^[s] seizes him by the heel;
a snare^[t] grips him.
¹⁰A rope is hidden for him^[u] on the ground
and a trap for him^[v] lies on the path.
¹¹Terrors^[w] frighten him on all sides
and dog^[x] his every step.
¹²Calamity is^[y] hungry for him,^[z]
and misfortune is ready at his side.^[aa]
¹³It eats away parts of his skin;^[ab]
the most terrible death^[ac] devours his limbs.
¹⁴He is dragged from the security of his tent,^[ad]
and marched off^[ae] to the king of terrors.^[af]
¹⁵Fire resides in his tent;^[ag]
over his residence burning sulfur is scattered.
¹⁶Below his roots dry up,
and his branches wither above.
¹⁷His memory perishes from the earth,
he has no name in the land.^[ah]
¹⁸He is driven^[ai] from light into darkness
and is banished from the world.
¹⁹He has neither children nor descendants^[aj] among his people,
no survivor in those places he once stayed.^[ak]
²⁰People of the west^[al] are appalled at his fate;^[am]
people of the east are seized with horror,^[an] saying,^[ao]
²¹‘Surely such is the residence^[ap] of an evil man;
and this is the place of one who has not known God.’”^[aq]

Footnotes

Job 18:1 sn Bildad attacks Job with less subtlety than Eliphaz. He describes the miserable existence of the wicked, indicating that it is the proof of sin. His speech falls into two main parts: why is Job so contemptuous toward his friends (Job 18:2-4), and the fate of the wicked (18:5-21). On this chapter see N. M. Sarna, “The Mythological Background of Job 18,” JBL 82 (1963): 315-18; and W. A. Irwin, “Job’s Redeemer,” JBL 81 (1962): 217-29.
Job 18:2 tn The verb is plural, and so most commentators make it singular. But it seems from the context that Bildad is addressing all of them, and not just Job.
Job 18:2 tn The construction is קִנְצֵי לְמִלִּין (qintse l^emillin), which is often taken to be “end of words,” as if the word was from קֵץ (qets, “end”). But a plural of “end” is not found in the OT. Some will link the word to Arabic qanasa, “to hunt; to give chase,” to get an interpretation of “snares for words.” But E. Dhorme (Job, 257) objects that this does not fit the speech of Bildad (as well as it might Job’s). He finds a cognate qinsu, “fetters, shackles,” and reads “how long will you put shackles on words.” But G. R. Driver had pointed out that this cognate does not exist (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 72-93). So it would be preferable to take the reading “ends” and explain the ן (nun) as from a Aramaizing by-form. This is supported by 11QtgJob that uses סוֹף (sof, “end”). On the construction, GKC 421 §130.a explains this as a use of the construct in rapid narrative to connect the words; in such cases a preposition is on the following noun.
Job 18:2 tn The imperfect verb, again plural, would be here taken in the nuance of instruction, or a modal nuance of obligation. So Bildad is telling his listeners to be intelligent. This would be rather cutting in the discourse.
Job 18:2 tn Heb “afterward.”
Job 18:3 tn The verb נִטְמִינוּ (nitminu) has been explained from different roots. Some take it from תָּמֵא (tameʾ, “to be unclean”), and translate it “Why should we be unclean in your eyes?” Most would connect it to טָמַם (tamam, “to stop up”), meaning “to be stupid” in the Niphal. Another suggestion is to follow the LXX and read from דָּמַם (damam, “to be reduced to silence”). Others take it from דָּמָּה (damah) with a meaning “to be like.” But what is missing is the term of comparison—like what? Various suggestions have been made, but all are simply conjectures.
Job 18:4 tn The construction uses the participle and then third person suffixes: “O tearer of himself in his anger.” But it is clearly referring to Job, and so the direct second person pronouns should be used to make that clear. The LXX is an approximation or paraphrase here: “Anger has possessed you, for what if you should die—would under heaven be desolate, or shall the mountains be overthrown from their foundations?”
Job 18:4 tn There is a good deal of study on this word in this passage, and in Job in general. M. Dahood suggested a root עָזַב (ʿazav) meaning “to arrange; to rearrange” (“The Root ʿzb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 303-9). But this is refuted by H. G. M. Williamson, “A Reconsideration of ʿzb II in Biblical Hebrew,” ZAW 97 (1985): 74-85.
Job 18:4 sn Bildad is asking if Job thinks the whole moral order of the world should be interrupted for his sake, that he may escape the punishment for wickedness.
Job 18:5 tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.
Job 18:5 sn The lamp or the light can have a number of uses in the Bible. Here it is probably an implied metaphor for prosperity and happiness, for the good life itself.
Job 18:5 tn The expression is literally “the flame of his fire,” but the pronominal suffix qualifies the entire bound construction. The two words together intensify the idea of the flame.
Job 18:6 tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”sn This thesis of Bildad will be questioned by Job in 21:17—how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
Job 18:7 tn Heb “the steps of his vigor,” the genitive being the attribute.
Job 18:7 tn The verb צָרַר (tsarar) means “to be cramped; to be straitened; to be hemmed in.” The trouble has hemmed him in, so that he cannot walk with the full, vigorous steps he had before. The LXX has “Let the meanest of men spoil his goods.”
Job 18:7 tn The LXX has “causes him to stumble,” which many commentators accept, but this involves the transposition of the three letters. The verb is שָׁלַךְ (shalakh, “throw”) not כָּשַׁל (kashal, “stumble”).
Job 18:8 tn See Ps 25:15.
Job 18:8 tn The word שְׂבָכָה (s^evakhah) is used in scripture for the lattice window (2 Kgs 1:2). The Arabic cognate means “to be intertwined.” So the term could describe a net, matting, grating, or lattice. Here it would be the netting stretched over a pit.
Job 18:9 tn This word פָּח (pakh) specifically refers to the snare of the fowler—thus a bird trap. But its plural seems to refer to nets in general (see Job 22:10).
Job 18:9 tn This word does not occur elsewhere. But another word from the same root means “plait of hair,” and so this term has something to do with a net like a trellis or lattice.
Job 18:10 tn Heb “his rope.” The suffix must be a genitive expressing that the trap was for him, to trap him, and so an objective genitive.
Job 18:10 tn Heb “his trap.” The pronominal suffix is objective genitive here as well.
Job 18:11 sn Bildad is referring here to all the things that afflict a person and cause terror. It would then be a metonymy of effect, the cause being the afflictions.
Job 18:11 tn The verb פּוּץ (puts) in the Hiphil has the meaning “to pursue” and “to scatter.” It is followed by the expression “at his feet.” So the idea is easily derived: they chase him at his feet. But some commentators have other proposals. The most far-fetched is that of Ehrlich and Driver (ZAW 24 [1953]: 259-60) which has “and compel him to urinate on his feet,” one of many similar readings the NEB accepted from Driver.
Job 18:12 tn The jussive is occasionally used without its normal sense and only as an imperfect (see GKC 323 §109.k).
Job 18:12 tn There are a number of suggestions for אֹנוֹ (ʾono). Some take it as “vigor”: thus “his strength is hungry.” Others take it as “iniquity”: thus “his iniquity/trouble is hungry.”
Job 18:12 tn The expression means that misfortune is right there to destroy him whenever there is the opportunity.
Job 18:13 tn The expression “the limbs of his skin” makes no sense, unless a poetic meaning of “parts” (or perhaps “layers”) is taken. The parallelism has “his skin” in the first colon, and “his limbs” in the second. One plausible suggestion is to take בַּדֵּי (badde, “limbs of”) in the first part to be בִּדְוָי (bidvay, “by a disease”; Dhorme, Wright, RSV). The verb has to be made passive, however. The versions have different things: The LXX has “let the branches of his feet be eaten”; the Syriac has “his cities will be swallowed up by force”; the Vulgate reads “let it devour the beauty of his skin”; and Targum Job has “it will devour the linen garments that cover his skin.”
Job 18:13 tn The “firstborn of death” is the strongest child of death (Gen 49:3), or the deadliest death (like the “firstborn of the poor, the poorest”). The phrase means the most terrible death (A. B. Davidson, Job, 134).
Job 18:14 tn Heb “from his tent, his security.” The apposition serves to modify the tent as his security.
Job 18:14 tn The verb is the Hiphil of צָעַד (tsaʿad, “to lead away”). The problem is that the form is either a third feminine (Rashi thought it was referring to Job’s wife) or the second person. There is a good deal of debate over the possibility of the prefix t- being a variant for the third masculine form. The evidence in Ugaritic and Akkadian is mixed, stronger for the plural than the singular. Gesenius has some samples where the third feminine form might also be used for the passive if there is no expressed subject (see GKC 459 §144.b), but the evidence is not strong. The simplest choices are to change the prefix to a י (yod), or argue that the ת (tav) can be masculine, or follow Gesenius.
Job 18:14 sn This is a reference to death, the king of all terrors. Other identifications are made in the commentaries: Mot, the Ugaritic god of death; Nergal of the Babylonians; Molech of the Canaanites, the one to whom people sent emissaries.
Job 18:15 tn This line is difficult as well. The verb, again a third feminine form, says “it dwells in his tent.” But the next part (מִבְּלִי לוֹ, mibb^eli lo) means something like “things of what are not his.” The best that can be made of the MT is “There shall live in his tent they that are not his” (referring to persons and animals; see J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 279). G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:161) refer “that which is naught of his” to weeds and wild animals. M. Dahood suggested a reading מַבֶּל (mabbel) and a connection to Akkadian nablu, “fire” (cf. Ugaritic nbl). The interchange of m and n is not a problem, and the parallelism with the next line makes good sense (“Some Northwest Semitic words in Job,” Bib 38 [1957]: 312ff.). Others suggest an emendation to get “night-hag” or vampire. This suggestion, as well as Driver’s “mixed herbs,” are linked to the idea of exorcism. But if a change is to be made, Dahood’s is the most compelling.
Job 18:17 tn Heb “outside.” Cf. ESV, “in the street,” referring to absence from his community’s memory.
Job 18:18 tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.
Job 18:19 tn The two words נִין (nin, “offspring”) and נֶכֶד (nekhed, “posterity”) are always together and form an alliteration. This is hard to capture in English, but some have tried: Moffatt had “son and scion,” and Tur-Sinai had “breed or brood.” But the words are best simply translated as “lineage and posterity” or as in the NIV “offspring or descendants.”
Job 18:19 tn Heb “in his sojournings.” The verb גּוּר (gur) means “to reside; to sojourn” temporarily, without land rights. Even this word has been selected to stress the temporary nature of his stay on earth.
Job 18:20 tn The word אַחֲרֹנִים (ʾakharonim) means “those [men] coming after.” And the next word, קַדְמֹנִים (qadmonim), means “those [men] coming before.” Some commentators have tried to see here references to people who lived before and people who lived after, but that does not explain their being appalled at the fate of the wicked. So the normal way this is taken is in connection to the geography, notably the seas—“the hinder sea” refers to the Mediterranean, the West, and “the front sea” refers to the Dead Sea (Zech 14:8), namely, the East. The versions understood this as temporal: “the last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first” (LXX).
Job 18:20 tn Heb “his day.”
Job 18:20 tn The expression has “they seize horror.” The RSV renders this “horror seizes them.” The same idiom is found in Job 21:6: “laid hold on shuddering.” The idiom would solve the grammatical problem and not change the meaning greatly, but it would change the parallelism.
Job 18:20 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation to mark and introduce the following as a quotation of these people who are seized with horror. The alternative is to take v. 21 as Bildad’s own summary statement (cf. G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray, Job [ICC], 2:162; J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 280).
Job 18:21 tn The term is in the plural, “the tabernacles”; it should be taken as a plural of local extension (see GKC 397 §124.b).
Job 18:21 tn The word “place” is in construct; the clause following it replaces the genitive: “this is the place of—he has not known God.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

The Message of the Cross

¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.”^[a] ²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law?^[b] Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. ²²For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, ²³but we preach about a crucified Christ,^[c] a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. ²⁴But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,^[d] and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.^[e]

²⁶Think about the circumstances of your call,^[f] brothers and sisters.^[g] Not many were wise by human standards,^[h] not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position.^[i] ²⁷But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. ²⁸God chose^[j] what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, ²⁹so that no one can boast in his presence. ³⁰He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus,^[k] who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”^[l]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 64[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

Footnotes

Bildad’s Second Speech[a]

Footnotes

The Message of the Cross

Footnotes

Psalm 64^[a]

Bildad’s Second Speech^[a]