◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 25:11-20 (I take refuge in you O God); Job 24:1-8 (The needy are thrust off the road); James 2:1-7 (God has chosen the poor) (New English Translation)

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July 14, 2025

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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 25:11-20

¹¹For the sake of your reputation,^[a] O Lord,
forgive my sin, because it is great.^[b]
¹²The Lord shows his faithful followers
the way they should live.^[c]
¹³They experience his favor;^[d]
their descendants^[e] inherit the land.^[f]
¹⁴The Lord’s loyal followers receive his guidance,^[g]
and he reveals his covenantal demands to them.^[h]
¹⁵I continually look to the Lord for help,^[i]
for he will free my feet from the enemy’s net.^[j]
¹⁶Turn toward me and have mercy on me,
for I am alone^[k] and oppressed.
¹⁷Deliver me from my distress;^[l]
rescue me from my suffering.^[m]
¹⁸See my pain and suffering.
Forgive all my sins.^[n]
¹⁹Watch my enemies, for they outnumber me;
they hate me and want to harm me.^[o]
²⁰Protect me^[p] and deliver me!
Please do not let me be humiliated,
for I have taken shelter in you.

Footnotes

Psalm 25:11 tn Heb “name.” By forgiving the sinful psalmist, the Lord’s reputation as a merciful God will be enhanced.
Psalm 25:11 sn Forgive my sin, because it is great. The psalmist readily admits his desperate need for forgiveness.
Psalm 25:12 tn Heb “Who is this man, the one who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” The singular (note “man”) is representative here (see v. 14, where the plural is used), and has thus been translated as a plural (“followers…they”).
Psalm 25:13 tn Heb “his life in goodness dwells.” The singular is representative (see v. 14).
Psalm 25:13 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
Psalm 25:13 tn Or “earth.”
Psalm 25:14 tn Heb “the advice of the Lord belongs to those who fear him.”
Psalm 25:14 tn Heb “and his covenant, to make them know.”
Psalm 25:15 tn Heb “my eyes continually [are] toward the Lord.”
Psalm 25:15 tn Heb “for he will bring out from a net my feet.” The hostility of the psalmist’s enemies is probably in view (see v. 19).
Psalm 25:16 tn That is, helpless and vulnerable.
Psalm 25:17 tc Heb “the distresses of my heart, they make wide.” The text makes little if any sense as it stands, unless this is an otherwise unattested intransitive use of the Hiphil of רָחַב (rakhav, “be wide”). It is preferable to emend the form הִרְחִיבוּ (hirkhivu; Hiphil perfect third plural “they make wide”) to הַרְחֵיב (harkhev; Hiphil imperative masculine singular “make wide”). (The final vav [ו] can be joined to the following word and taken as a conjunction.) In this case one can translate, “[in/from] the distresses of my heart, make wide [a place for me],” that is, “deliver me from the distress I am experiencing.” For the expression “make wide [a place for me],” see Ps 4:1.
Psalm 25:17 tn Heb “from my distresses lead me out.”
Psalm 25:18 tn Heb “lift up all my sins.”
Psalm 25:19 tn Heb “see my enemies for they are numerous, and [with] violent hatred they hate me.”
Psalm 25:20 tn Or “my life.”

Job 24:1-8

The Apparent Indifference of God

24 “Why are times not appointed by^[a] the Almighty?^[b]
Why do those who know him not see his days?
²Men^[c] move boundary stones;
they seize the flock and pasture them.^[d]
³They drive away the orphan’s donkey;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
⁴They turn the needy from the pathway,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together.^[e]
⁵Like^[f] wild donkeys in the wilderness,
they^[g] go out to their labor^[h] seeking diligently for food;
the arid rift valley^[i] provides^[j] food for them and for their children.
⁶They reap fodder^[k] in the field,
and glean^[l] in the vineyard of the wicked.
⁷They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;
they have no covering against the cold.
⁸They are soaked by mountain rains
and huddle^[m] in the rocks because they lack shelter.

Footnotes

Job 24:1 tn The preposition מִן (min) is used to express the cause (see GKC 389 §121.f).
Job 24:1 tc The LXX reads “Why are times hidden from the Almighty?” as if to say that God is not interested in the events on the earth. The MT reading is saying that God fails to set the times for judgment and vindication and makes good sense as it stands.
Job 24:2 tn The line is short: “they move boundary stones.” So some commentators have supplied a subject, such as “wicked men.” The reason for its being wicked men is that to move the boundary stone was to encroach dishonestly on the lands of others (Deut 19:14; 27:17).
Job 24:2 tc The LXX reads “and their shepherd.” Many commentators accept this reading. But the MT says that they graze the flocks that they have stolen. The difficulty with the MT reading is that there is no suffix on the final verb—but that is not an insurmountable difference.
Job 24:4 sn Because of the violence and oppression of the wicked, the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, all are deprived of their rights and forced out of the ways and into hiding just to survive.
Job 24:5 tc The verse begins with הֵן (hen), but the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac all have “like.” R. Gordis (Job, 265) takes הֵן (hen) as a pronoun “they” and supplies the comparative. The sense of the verse is clear in either case.
Job 24:5 tn That is, “the poor.”
Job 24:5 tc The MT has “in the working/labor of them,” or “when they labor.” Some commentators simply omit these words. Dhorme retains them and moves them to go with עֲרָבָה (ʿaravah), which he takes to mean “evening”; this gives a clause, “although they work until the evening.” Then, with many others, he takes לוֹ (lo) to be a negative and finishes the verse with “no food for the children.” Others make fewer changes in the text, and as a result do not come out with such a hopeless picture—there is some food found. The point is that they spend their time foraging for food, and they find just enough to survive, but it is a day-long activity. For Job, this shows how unrighteous the administration of the world actually is.
Job 24:5 tc Based on the text critical question in the previous note, some read this as a form related to the noun עֶרֶב (ʿerev, “evening”). These same consonants occur as a verb in Isa 24:11, עָרְבָה (ʿar^evah) from עָרַב (ʿarav, “become evening”). This would give the time frame of their work rather than the location, but the location provides a parallel to “wilderness.”tn The rift valley (עֲרָבָה, ʿaravah) extends from Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba, but the term normally refers only to a section of it. For the book of Job, the most likely section is that south of the Dead Sea, a section that is arid with only sparse vegetation.
Job 24:5 tn The verb is not included in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation.
Job 24:6 tc The word בְּלִילוֹ (b^elilo) means “his fodder.” It is unclear to what this refers. If the suffix is taken as a collective, then it can be translated “they gather/reap their fodder.” The early versions all have “they reap in a field which is not his” (taking it as בְּלִי לוֹ, b^eli lo). A conjectural emendation would change the word to בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “in the night”). But there is no reason for this.
Job 24:6 tn The verbs in this verse are uncertain. In the first line “reap” is used, and that would be the work of a hired man (and certainly not done at night). The meaning of this second verb is uncertain; it has been taken to mean “glean,” which would be the task of the poor.
Job 24:8 tn Heb “embrace” or “hug.”

James 2:1-7

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2 My brothers and sisters,^[a] do not show prejudice^[b] if you possess faith^[c] in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^[d] ²For if someone^[e] comes into your assembly^[f] wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes, ³do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say,^[g] “You sit here in a good place,”^[h] and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”?^[i] ⁴If so, have you not made distinctions^[j] among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?^[k] ⁵Listen, my dear brothers and sisters!^[l] Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor!^[m] Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? ⁷Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to?^[n]

Footnotes

James 2:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
James 2:1 tn Or “partiality.”
James 2:1 tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.
James 2:1 tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxēs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
James 2:2 tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anēr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, “equivalent to τὶς someone.”
James 2:2 tn Grk “synagogue.” Usually συναγωγή refers to Jewish places of worship (e.g., Matt 4:23, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:15, John 6:59). The word can be used generally to refer to a place of assembly, and here it refers specifically to a Christian assembly (BDAG 963 s.v. 2.b.).
James 2:3 tn Grk “and you pay attention…and say,” continuing the “if” clauses from v. 2. In the Greek text, vv. 2-4 form one long sentence.
James 2:3 tn Or “sit here, please.”
James 2:3 tn Grk “sit under my footstool.” The words “on the floor” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the modern reader the undesirability of this seating arrangement (so also TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). Another option followed by a number of translations is to replace “under my footstool” with “at my feet” (NAB, NIV, NRSV).
James 2:4 tn Grk “have you not made distinctions” (as the conclusion to the series of “if” clauses in vv. 2-3).
James 2:4 tn Grk “judges of evil reasonings.”
James 2:5 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
James 2:6 tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.
James 2:7 tn Grk “that was invoked over you,” referring to their baptism in which they confessed their faith in Christ and were pronounced to be his own. To have the Lord’s name “named over them” is OT imagery for the Lord’s ownership of his people (cf. 2 Chr 7:14; Amos 9:12; Isa 63:19; Jer 14:9; 15:16; Dan 9:19; Acts 15:17).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Footnotes

The Apparent Indifference of God

Footnotes

Prejudice and the Law of Love

Footnotes