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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 25:1-10

Psalm 25^[a]

By David.

25 O Lord, I come before you in prayer.^[b]
²My God, I trust in you.
Please do not let me be humiliated;
do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me.
³Certainly none who rely on you will be humiliated.
Those who deal in treachery will be thwarted^[c] and humiliated.
⁴Make me understand your ways, O Lord.
Teach me your paths.^[d]
⁵Guide me into your truth^[e] and teach me.
For you are the God who delivers me;
on you I rely all day long.
⁶Remember^[f] your compassionate and faithful deeds, O Lord,
for you have always acted in this manner.^[g]
⁷Do not hold against me^[h] the sins of my youth^[i] or my rebellious acts.
Because you are faithful to me, extend to me your favor, O Lord.^[j]
⁸The Lord is both kind and fair;^[k]
that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live.^[l]
⁹May he show^[m] the humble what is right.^[n]
May he teach^[o] the humble his way.
¹⁰The Lord always proves faithful and reliable^[p]
to those who follow the demands of his covenant.^[q]

Footnotes

Psalm 25:1 sn Psalm 25. The psalmist asks for divine protection, guidance and forgiveness as he affirms his loyalty to and trust in the Lord. This psalm is an acrostic; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except for v. 18, which, like v. 19, begins with ר (resh) instead of the expected ק (qof). The final verse, which begins with פ (pe), stands outside the acrostic scheme.
Psalm 25:1 tn Heb “to you, O Lord, my life I lift up.” To “lift up” one’s “life” to the Lord means to express one’s trust in him through prayer. See Pss 86:4; 143:8.
Psalm 25:3 tn Heb “those who deal in treachery in vain.” The adverb רֵיקָם (reqam, “in vain”) probably refers to the failure (or futility) of their efforts. Another option is to understand it as meaning “without cause” (cf. NIV “without excuse”; NRSV “wantonly treacherous”).
Psalm 25:4 sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.
Psalm 25:5 sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.
Psalm 25:6 tn That is, “remember” with the intention of repeating.
Psalm 25:6 tn Heb “for from antiquity [are] they.”
Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “do not remember,” with the intention of punishing.
Psalm 25:7 sn That is, the sins characteristic of youths, who lack moral discretion and wisdom.
Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “according to your faithfulness, remember me, you, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”
Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “good and just.”
Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”
Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive; the psalmist expresses his prayer.
Psalm 25:9 tn Heb “may he guide the humble into justice.” The Hebrew term עֲנָוִים (ʿanavim, “humble”) usually refers to the oppressed, but in this context, where the psalmist confesses his sin and asks for moral guidance, it apparently refers to sinners who humble themselves before God and seek deliverance from their sinful condition.
Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is interpreted as a jussive (it stands parallel to the jussive form, “may he guide”).
Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “all the paths of the Lord are faithful and trustworthy.” The Lord’s “paths” refer here to his characteristic actions.
Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “to the ones who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

Daniel 9:1-14

Daniel Prays for His People

9 In the first year of Darius^[a] son of Ahasuerus,^[b] who was of Median descent and who had been^[c] appointed king over the Babylonian^[d] empire— ²in the first year of his reign^[e] I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books^[f] that the number of years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem, which had come as the Lord’s^[g] message to the prophet Jeremiah, would be 70 years. ³So I turned my attention^[h] to the Lord God^[i] to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.^[j] ⁴I prayed to the Lord my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord,^[k] great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant^[l] with those who love him and keep his commandments, ⁵we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. ⁶We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority^[m] to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors,^[n] and to all the inhabitants^[o] of the land as well.

⁷“You are righteous,^[p] O Lord, but we are humiliated this day^[q]—the people^[r] of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. ⁸O Lord, we have been humiliated^[s]—our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors—because we have sinned against you. ⁹Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving,^[t] even though we have rebelled against him. ¹⁰We have not obeyed^[u] the Lord our God by living according to^[v] his laws^[w] that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

¹¹“All Israel has broken^[x] your law and turned away by not obeying you.^[y] Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened^[z] in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you.^[aa] ¹²He has carried out his threats^[ab] against us and our rulers^[ac] who were over^[ad] us by bringing great calamity on us—what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven! ¹³Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify^[ae] the Lord our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom^[af] from your reliable moral standards.^[ag] ¹⁴The Lord was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the Lord our God is just^[ah] in all he has done,^[ai] and we have not obeyed him.^[aj]

Footnotes

Daniel 9:1 sn The identity of this Darius is a major problem in correlating the biblical material with the extra-biblical records of this period. Most modern scholars treat the reference as a mistaken allusion to Darius Hystaspes (ca. 522-486 b.c.). Others have maintained instead that this name is a reference to the Persian governor Gubaru. Still others understand the reference to be to the Persian king Cyrus (cf. 6:28, where the ו (vav) may be understood as vav explicativum, meaning “even”). Under either of these latter two interpretations, the first year of Darius would have been ca. 538 b.c. Daniel would have been approximately eighty-two years old at this time.
Daniel 9:1 tc The LXX reads “Xerxes.” This is the reading used by some English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV). Most other English versions retain the Hebrew name “Ahasuerus.”
Daniel 9:1 tc The present translation follows the MT in reading a Hophal (i.e., passive). Theodotion, the Syriac, and the Vulgate all presuppose the Hiphil (i.e., active). Even though this is the only occurrence of the Hophal of this verb in the Bible, there is no need to emend the vocalization to the Hiphil.
Daniel 9:1 tn Heb “was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans.”
Daniel 9:2 tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.
Daniel 9:2 tn Heb “books” or “scrolls.” The word “sacred” has been added to clarify that it refers to the Scriptures.
Daniel 9:2 sn The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters that constitute the divine Name, YHWH) appears 8 times in this chapter and nowhere else in the book of Daniel.
Daniel 9:3 tn Heb “face.”
Daniel 9:3 tn The Hebrew phrase translated “Lord God” here is אֲדֹנָי הָאֱלֹהִים (ʾadonay haʾelohim).
Daniel 9:3 sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.
Daniel 9:4 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 7, 9, 15, 16, and 19 is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
Daniel 9:4 tn Heb “who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.
Daniel 9:6 tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate: “as your representatives.”
Daniel 9:6 tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.
Daniel 9:6 tn Heb “people.”
Daniel 9:7 tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”
Daniel 9:7 tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”
Daniel 9:7 tn Heb “men.”
Daniel 9:8 tn Heb “to us (belongs) shame of face.”
Daniel 9:9 tn Heb “to the Lord our God (belong) compassion and forgiveness.”
Daniel 9:10 tn Heb “paid attention to the voice of,” which is an idiomatic expression for obedience (cf. NASB “nor have we obeyed the voice of”).
Daniel 9:10 tn Heb “to walk in.”
Daniel 9:10 tc The LXX and Vulgate have the singular.
Daniel 9:11 tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.
Daniel 9:11 tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”
Daniel 9:11 tn Heb “the curse and the oath that is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.
Daniel 9:11 tn Heb “him.”
Daniel 9:12 tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s), which he spoke.”
Daniel 9:12 tn Heb “our judges.”
Daniel 9:12 tn Heb “who judged.”
Daniel 9:13 tn Heb “we have not pacified the face of.”
Daniel 9:13 tn Or “by gaining insight.”
Daniel 9:13 tn Heb “by your truth.” The Hebrew term does not refer here to abstract truth, however, but to the reliable moral guidance found in the covenant law (see vv 10-11).
Daniel 9:14 tn Or “righteous.”
Daniel 9:14 tn Heb “in all his deeds that he has done.”
Daniel 9:14 tn Heb “we have not listened to his voice.”

1 John 1:3-10

³What we have seen and heard we announce^[a] to you too, so that^[b] you may have fellowship^[c] with us (and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ). ⁴Thus^[d] we are writing these things so that^[e] our^[f] joy may be complete.^[g]

God Is Light, So We Must Walk in the Light

⁵Now^[h] this is the gospel^[i] message^[j] we have heard from him^[k] and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.^[l] ⁶If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking^[m] in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing^[n] the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses^[o] us from all sin.^[p] ⁸If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin,^[q] we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous,^[r] forgiving^[s] us our sins and cleansing^[t] us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Footnotes

1 John 1:3 tn Or “proclaim.”
1 John 1:3 tn The ἵνα (hina) here indicates purpose.
1 John 1:3 tn Or “communion”; or “association” (a reality shared in common, so in this case, “genuine association”). This term also occurs in vv. 6, 7.
1 John 1:4 tn “Thus” is supplied to indicate the resultative nature of the Greek conjunction καί (kai) at the beginning of v. 4.
1 John 1:4 tn The ἵνα (hina) here indicates purpose.
1 John 1:4 tc A number of mss, some of them quite significant (A C K P 5 33 81 442 1243 1505 1611 1735 1739 1852 1881 2344 pm sy^h bo), read ὑμῶν (humōn, “your”) rather than ἡμῶν (hēmōn, “our”), which is found in somewhat better witnesses (א B L Ψ 049 436 1175 1241 pm sy^p sa). Although the majority of Byzantine minuscules are split between the two readings, the Textus Receptus reads ὑμῶν. It is possible that ὑμῶν represents a scribal assimilation to John 16:24, where the Greek purpose clause is identical to the wording here with ὑμῶν (“so that your joy may be complete”). As far as the immediate context is concerned, either reading could possibly be original, since the recipients have already been mentioned in 1:2 (ὑμῖν, humin) and 1:3 (ὑμῖν), while it might seem more natural for the author to be concerned about the fulfillment of his own joy than his readers’ (cf. 2 John 4, 12; 3 John 3). Overall, the first person pronoun is preferred on both external and internal grounds. Although previous editions of the UBS text gave the first person pronoun reading an “A” rating, UBS⁵ strips out any rating at all and, along with NA²⁸, ranks ὑμῶν as an equally viable alternative initial reading by placing it in the apparatus with a diamond.
1 John 1:4 tn Grk “be fulfilled.”sn This is what we proclaim to you…so that our joy may be complete. The prologue to 1 John (1:1-4) has many similarities to the prologue to the Gospel of John (1:1-18). Like the prologue to the Fourth Gospel, the prologue to 1 John introduces the reader to important themes which will be more fully developed later in the body of the work. In the case of 1 John, three of these are: (1) the importance of eyewitness testimony to who Jesus is (cf. 4:14; 5:6-12), (2) the importance of the earthly ministry of Jesus as a part of God’s revelation of himself in Jesus Christ (cf. 4:2; 5:6), and (3) the eternal life available to believers in Jesus Christ (5:11-12; 5:20). Like the rest of the letter, the prologue to 1 John does not contain any of the usual features associated with a letter in NT times, such as an opening formula, the name of the author or sender, the name(s) of the addressee(s), a formal greeting, or a health wish or expression of remembrance. The author of 1 John begins the prologue with an emphasis on the eyewitness nature of his testimony. He then transitions to a focus on the readers of the letter by emphasizing the proclamation of this eyewitness (apostolic) testimony to them. The purpose of this proclamation is so that the readers might share in fellowship with the author, a true fellowship which is with the Father and the Son as well. To guarantee this maintenance of fellowship the author is writing the letter itself (line 4a). Thus, in spite of the convoluted structure of the prologue in which the author’s thought turns back on itself several times, there is a discernible progression in his thought which ultimately expresses itself in the reason for the writing of the letter (later expressed again in slightly different form in the purpose statement of 5:13).
1 John 1:5 tn The καί (kai) at the beginning of 1:5 takes on a resumptive force, indicated by the phrase “heard from him and announce to you,” which echoes similar phrases in 1:2 and 1:3.
1 John 1:5 tn The word “gospel” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to clarify the meaning. See the note on the following word “message.”
1 John 1:5 tn The word ἀγγελία (angelia) occurs only twice in the NT, here and in 1 John 3:11. It is a cognate of ἐπαγγελία (epangelia) which occurs much more frequently (some 52 times in the NT) including 1 John 2:25. BDAG 8 s.v. ἀγγελία 1 offers the meaning “message” which suggests some overlap with the semantic range of λόγος (logos), although in the specific context of 1:5 BDAG suggests a reference to the gospel. (The precise “content” of this “good news’ is given by the ὅτι [hoti] clause which follows in 1:5b.) The word ἀγγελία here is closely equivalent to εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion): (1) it refers to the proclamation of the eyewitness testimony about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the author and the rest of the apostolic witnesses (prologue, esp. 1:3-4), and (2) it relates to the salvation of the hearers/readers, since the purpose of this proclamation is to bring them into fellowship with God and with the apostolic witnesses (1:3). Because of this the adjective “gospel” is included in the English translation.
1 John 1:5 tn The referent of the pronoun “him” is not entirely clear in the Greek text; it could be either (1) God the Father, or (2) Jesus Christ, both of whom are mentioned at the end of v. 3. A reference to Jesus Christ is more likely because this is the nearest possible antecedent, and because God (the Father) is specifically mentioned in the following clause in v. 5.
1 John 1:5 tn The key to understanding the first major section of 1 John, 1:5-3:10, is found in the statement in v. 5: “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” The idea of “proclamation”—the apostolic proclamation of eyewitness testimony which the prologue introduces (1:2, 3)—is picked up in 1:5 by the use of the noun ἀγγελία (angelia) and the verb ἀναγγέλλομεν (anangellomen), cognate to the verb in 1:3. The content of this proclamation is given by the ὅτι (hoti) clause in 1:5 as the assertion that God is light, so this statement should be understood as the author’s formulation of the apostolic eyewitness testimony introduced in the prologue. (This corresponds to the apostolic preaching elsewhere referred to as κήρυγμα [kērugma], although the term the Apostle John uses here is ἀγγελία.)sn Following the theme statement in 1:5, God is light and in him there is no darkness at all, the author presents a series of three claims and counterclaims that make up the first unit of 1 John (1:5-2:2). The three claims begin with “if” (1:6, 8, 10) and the three counterclaims begin with “but if” (1:7, 9; 2:1) in the English translation.
1 John 1:6 tn The context of this statement in 1:6 indicates clearly that the progressive (continuative or durative) aspect of the present tense must be in view here.sn The relationship of the phrase keep on walking to if we say is very important for understanding the problem expressed in 1:6. If one should say (εἴπωμεν, eipōmen) that he has fellowship with God, and yet continues walking (περιπατῶμεν, peripatōmen) in the darkness, then it follows (in the apodosis, the “then” clause) that he is lying and not practicing the truth.
1 John 1:6 tn Or “living according to…”
1 John 1:7 tn Or “purifies.”
1 John 1:7 tn BDAG 50 s.v. ἁμαρτία 1 defines this term as “a departure fr. either human or divine standards of uprightness” (see 1 John 5:17 where ἁμαρτία [hamartia] and ἀδικία [adikia] are related). This word occurs 17 times in 1 John, of which 11 are singular and 6 are plural.sn From all sin. Sometimes a distinction between singular “sin” and plural “sins” has been suggested: Some would see the singular all sin of 1:7 as a reference to sinfulness before conversion and the plural sins of 1:9 as a reference to sins committed after one became a Christian. This amounts to making 1:7 refer to initial justification and 1:9 to sanctification. But the phrase all sin in 1:7 is so comprehensive that it can hardly be limited to preconversion sins, and the emphasis on “walking” in 1:7 strongly suggests that the Christian life is in view (not one’s life before conversion). In 1 John 1:8 sin appears as a condition or characteristic quality, which in 1:10 is regarded as universal. Apart from forgiveness in Christ it results in alienation from God (2:15) and spiritual death (3:14). But according to 1 John 1:7, cleansing from sin is possible by the blood (representing the sacrificial death) of Jesus.
1 John 1:8 tn Grk “say we do not have sin.” The use of ἔχω + ἁμαρτία (echō + hamartia) is an expression limited to John and 1 John in the NT. On the analogy with other constructions where ἔχω governs an abstract noun (e.g., 1 John 1:3, 6, 7; 2:28; 3:3, 15, 21; 4:16, 17; 5:12-13), it indicates that a state is involved, which in the case of ἁμαρτία would refer to a state of sin. The four times the expression ἔχω + ἁμαρτία occurs in the Gospel of John (9:41; 15:22, 24; 19:11) all refer to situations where a wrong action has been committed or a wrong attitude has already existed, resulting in a state of sin, and then something else happens which further emphasizes the evil of that action or attitude. Here in 1 John 1:8 the sense is the same. The author is addressing people who have sinned (resulting in a state of sin), warning them that they cannot claim to be free from the guilt of that sin. The context of 1 John does not imply libertinism (where sins are flaunted as a way of demonstrating one’s “liberty”) on the part of the opponents, since the author makes no explicit charges of immoral behavior against his opponents. The worst the author explicitly says is that they have failed to love the brethren (1 John 3:17). It seems more likely that the opponents were saying that things a believer did after conversion were not significant enough to be “sins” that could challenge one’s intimate relationship with God (a relationship the author denies that the opponents have to begin with).
1 John 1:9 tn Or “just.”
1 John 1:9 tn The ἵνα (hina) followed by the subjunctive is here equivalent to the infinitive of result, an “ecbatic” or consecutive use of ἵνα according to BDAG 477 s.v. 3 where 1 John 1:9 is listed as a specific example. The translation with participles (“forgiving,…cleansing”) conveys this idea of result.
1 John 1:9 tn Or “purifying.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 25[a]

By David.

Footnotes

Daniel Prays for His People

Footnotes

God Is Light, So We Must Walk in the Light

Footnotes

Psalm 25^[a]