◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 141 (God is my refuge); Ezekiel 43:1-12 (Divine glory returns to the temple); Matthew 23:37—24:14 (The last things) (New English Translation)

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November 19, 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 141

Psalm 141^[a]

A psalm of David.

141 O Lord, I cry out to you. Come quickly to me.
Pay attention to me when I cry out to you.
²May you accept my prayer like incense,
my uplifted hands like the evening offering.^[b]
³O Lord, place a guard on my mouth.
Protect the opening^[c] of my lips.^[d]
⁴Do not let me have evil desires,^[e]
or participate in sinful activities
with men who behave wickedly.^[f]
I will not eat their delicacies.^[g]
⁵May the godly strike me in love and correct me.
May my head not refuse^[h] choice oil.^[i]
Indeed, my prayer is a witness against their evil deeds.^[j]
⁶They will be thrown over the side of a cliff by their judges.^[k]
They^[l] will listen to my words, for they are pleasant.
⁷As when one plows and breaks up the soil,^[m]
so our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
⁸Surely I am looking to you,^[n] O Sovereign Lord.
In you I take shelter.
Do not expose me to danger.^[o]
⁹Protect me from the snare they have laid for me,
and the traps the evildoers have set.^[p]
¹⁰Let the wicked fall^[q] into their^[r] own nets,
while I escape.^[s]

Footnotes

Psalm 141:1 sn Psalm 141. The psalmist asks God to protect him from sin and from sinful men.
Psalm 141:2 tn Heb “may my prayer be established [like] incense before you, the uplifting of my hands [like] an evening offering.”
Psalm 141:3 tn Heb “door.” The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
Psalm 141:3 sn My mouth…my lips. The psalmist asks God to protect him from speaking inappropriately or sinfully.
Psalm 141:4 tn Heb “do not turn my heart toward an evil thing.”
Psalm 141:4 tn Heb “to act sinfully in practices in wickedness with men, doers of evil.”
Psalm 141:4 sn Their delicacies. This probably refers to the enjoyment that a sinful lifestyle appears to offer.
Psalm 141:5 tn The form יָנִי (yani) appears to be derived from the verbal root נוּא (nuʾ). Another option is to emend the form to יְנָא (y^enaʾ), a Piel from נָאָה (naʾah), and translate “may choice oil not adorn my head” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 271). In this case, choice oil, like delicacies in v. 4, symbolize the pleasures of sin.
Psalm 141:5 sn May my head not refuse choice oil. The psalmist compares the constructive criticism of the godly (see the previous line) to having refreshing olive oil poured over one’s head.
Psalm 141:5 tc Heb “for still, and my prayer [is] against their evil deeds.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult; the sequence -כִּי־עוֹד וּ (ki ʿod u-, “for still and”) occurs only here. The translation assumes an emendation to כִּי עֵד תְּפִלָּתִי (ki ʿed t^efillati, “indeed a witness [is] my prayer”). The psalmist’s lament about the evil actions of sinful men (see v. 4) testifies against the wicked in the divine court.
Psalm 141:6 tn Heb “they are thrown down by the hands of a cliff, their judges.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult and the meaning uncertain. The perfect verbal form is understood as rhetorical; the psalmist describes the anticipated downfall of the wicked as if it had already occurred. “Their judges” could be taken as the subject of the verb, but this makes little, if any, sense. The translation assumes the judges are the agents and that the wicked, mentioned earlier in the psalm, are the subjects of the verb.
Psalm 141:6 tn It is unclear how this statement relates to the preceding sentence. Perhaps the judges are the referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) of the verb “will listen,” and “my words” are the referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) of the phrase “are pleasant.” The psalmist may be affirming here his confidence that he will be vindicated when he presents his case before the judges, while the wicked will be punished.
Psalm 141:7 tn Heb “like splitting and breaking open in the earth.” The meaning of the statement and the point of the comparison are not entirely clear. Perhaps the psalmist is suggesting that he and other godly individuals are as good as dead; their bones are scattered about like dirt that is dug up and tossed aside.
Psalm 141:8 tn Heb “my eyes [are] toward you.”
Psalm 141:8 tn Heb “do not lay bare my life.” Only here is the Piel form of the verb collocated with the term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”). In Isa 53:12 the Lord’s servant “lays bare (the Hiphil form of the verb is used) his life to death.”
Psalm 141:9 tn Heb “and the traps of the doers of evil.”
Psalm 141:10 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer. Another option is to translate, “the wicked will fall.”
Psalm 141:10 tn Heb “his.”
Psalm 141:10 tn Heb “at the same [that] I, until I pass by.” Another option is to take יַחַד (yakhad) with the preceding line, “let the wicked fall together into their own nets.”

Ezekiel 43:1-12

The Glory Returns to the Temple

43 Then he brought me to the gate that faced toward the east. ²I saw^[a] the glory of the God of Israel^[b] coming from the east;^[c] the sound was like that of rushing water,^[d] and the earth radiated^[e] his glory. ³It was like the vision I saw when he^[f] came to destroy the city, and the vision I saw by the Kebar River. I threw myself face down. ⁴The glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate that faces east. ⁵Then a wind^[g] lifted me up and brought me to the inner court; I watched^[h] the glory of the Lord filling the temple.^[i]

⁶I heard someone speaking to me from the temple, while the man was standing beside me. ⁷He said to me: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne^[j] and the place for the soles of my feet,^[k] where I will live among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no longer profane my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their spiritual prostitution or by the pillars of their kings set up when they die.^[l] ⁸When they placed their threshold by my threshold and their doorpost by my doorpost, with only the wall between me and them, they profaned my holy name by the abominable deeds they committed. So I consumed them in my anger. ⁹Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

¹⁰“As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be ashamed of their sins and measure the pattern. ¹¹When they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its pattern, its exits and entrances, and its whole design—all its statutes, its entire design, and all its laws; write it all down in their sight, so that they may observe its entire design and all its statutes and do them.

¹²“This is the law of the temple: The entire area on top of the mountain all around will be most holy. Indeed, this is the law of the temple.

Matthew 23:37-24:14

Judgment on Israel

³⁷“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,^[a] you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you!^[b] How often I have longed^[c] to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but^[d] you would have none of it!^[e] ³⁸Look, your house is left to you desolate! ³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”^[f]

The Destruction of the Temple

24 Now^[g] as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings.^[h] ²And he said to them,^[i] “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth,^[j] not one stone will be left on another.^[k] All will be torn down!”^[l]

Signs of the End of the Age

³As^[m] he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things^[n] happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ⁴Jesus answered them,^[o] “Watch out^[p] that no one misleads you. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’^[q] and they will mislead many. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come.^[r] ⁷For nation will rise up in arms^[s] against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes^[t] in various places.^[u] ⁸All^[v] these things are the beginning of birth pains.

Persecution of Disciples

⁹“Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations^[w] because of my name.^[x] ¹⁰Then many will be led into sin,^[y] and they will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹And many false prophets will appear and deceive^[z] many, ¹²and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³But the person who endures to the end will be saved.^[aa] ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations,^[ab] and then the end will come.

Footnotes

Matthew 23:37 sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.
Matthew 23:37 tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your…you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill…sent to you”).
Matthew 23:37 sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.
Matthew 23:37 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
Matthew 23:37 tn Grk “you were not willing.”
Matthew 23:39 sn A quotation from Ps 118:26.
Matthew 24:1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
Matthew 24:1 sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 [15.380-425]; J. W. 5.5 [5.184-227] and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.
Matthew 24:2 tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokritheis) is redundant in English and has not been translated.
Matthew 24:2 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amēn), I say to you.”
Matthew 24:2 sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.
Matthew 24:2 tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on a stone which will not be thrown down.”
Matthew 24:3 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:3 sn Because the phrase these things is plural, more than the temple’s destruction is in view. The question may presuppose that such a catastrophe signals the end.
Matthew 24:4 tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.
Matthew 24:4 tn Or “Be on guard.”
Matthew 24:5 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.
Matthew 24:6 tn Grk “it is not yet the end.”
Matthew 24:7 tn For the translation “rise up in arms” see L&N 55.2.
Matthew 24:7 tc Most witnesses (C Γ Δ Θ 0102 ƒ^1,13 700 1241 1424 M) have “and plagues” (καὶ λοιμοί, kai loimoi) between “famines” (λιμοί, limoi) and “earthquakes” (σεισμοί, seismoi), while others have “plagues and famines and earthquakes” (L W 33 lat). The similarities between λιμοί and λοιμοί could explain how καὶ λοιμοί might have accidentally dropped out, but since the Lukan parallel (Luke 21:11) has both terms (and W lat have the order λοιμοὶ καὶ λιμοί there too, as they do in Matthew), it seems more likely that scribes added the phrase here. The shorter reading does not enjoy overwhelming support ([א] B D 892 sa, and other Greek and versional witnesses), but it is nevertheless significant; coupled with the internal evidence it should be given preference.
Matthew 24:7 sn See Isa 5:13-14; 13:6-16; Hag 2:6-7; Zech 14:4.
Matthew 24:8 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 24:9 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “nations” or “Gentiles”).
Matthew 24:9 sn See Matt 5:10-12; 1 Cor 1:25-31.
Matthew 24:10 tn Or “many will fall away.” This could also refer to apostasy.
Matthew 24:11 tn Or “and lead many astray.”
Matthew 24:13 sn But the person who endures to the end will be saved. Jesus was not claiming here that salvation is by works. He was simply arguing that genuine faith evidences itself in persistence through even the worst of trials.
Matthew 24:14 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “nations” or “Gentiles”).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 141[a]

A psalm of David.

Footnotes

The Glory Returns to the Temple

Footnotes

Judgment on Israel

The Destruction of the Temple

Signs of the End of the Age

Persecution of Disciples

Footnotes

Psalm 141^[a]