◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 54 (God is my helper); 2 Kings 17:5-18 (Israel refuses to listen to the prophets); Matthew 23:29-39 (Woe to those who kill and crucify the prophets) (New English Translation)

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September 18, 2027

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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 54

Psalm 54^[a]

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song^[b] by David. It was written when the Ziphites came and informed Saul: “David is hiding with us.”^[c]

54 O God, deliver me by your name.^[d]
Vindicate me^[e] by your power.
²O God, listen to my prayer.
Pay attention to what I say.^[f]
³For foreigners^[g] attack me;^[h]
ruthless men, who do not respect God, seek my life.^[i] (Selah)
⁴Look, God is my deliverer.^[j]
The Lord is among those who support me.^[k]
⁵May those who wait to ambush me^[l] be repaid for their evil.^[m]
As a demonstration of your faithfulness,^[n] destroy them.
⁶With a freewill offering I will sacrifice^[o] to you.
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
⁷Surely^[p] he rescues me from all trouble,^[q]
and I triumph over my enemies.^[r]

Footnotes

Psalm 54:1 sn Psalm 54. The psalmist asks God for protection against his enemies, confidently affirms that God will vindicate him, and promises to give thanks to God for his saving intervention.
Psalm 54:1 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 52.
Psalm 54:1 tn Heb “Is not David hiding with us?”sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm during the period when Saul was seeking his life. On one occasion the Ziphites informed Saul that David was hiding in their territory (see 1 Sam 23:19-20).
Psalm 54:1 tn God’s “name” refers here to his reputation and revealed character, which would instill fear in the psalmist’s enemies (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:17).
Psalm 54:1 tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.
Psalm 54:2 tn Heb “to the words of my mouth.”
Psalm 54:3 tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read זֵדִים (zedim, “proud ones”) rather than זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”). This is a case of confusing ד (dalet) and ר (resh). The term זֵדִים (zedim) occurs in parallelism with עָרִיצִים (ʿaritsim, “violent ones”) in Ps 86:14 and Isa 13:11. However, זָרִים (zarim) is parallel to עָרִיצִים in Isa 25:5; 29:5; Ezek 28:7; 31:12.
Psalm 54:3 tn Heb “rise against me.”
Psalm 54:3 tn Heb “and ruthless ones seek my life, they do not set God in front of them.”
Psalm 54:4 tn Or “my helper.”
Psalm 54:4 tn Or “sustain my life.”
Psalm 54:5 tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 56:2.
Psalm 54:5 tn The Kethib (consonantal text) reads a Qal imperfect, “the evil will return,” while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Hiphil imperfect, “he will repay.” The parallel line has an imperative (indicating a prayer/request), so it is best to read a jussive form יָשֹׁב (yashov, “let it [the evil] return”) here.
Psalm 54:5 tn Heb “in [or “by”] your faithfulness.”
Psalm 54:6 tn The cohortative verbal form expresses the psalmist’s resolve/vow to praise.
Psalm 54:7 tn Or “for,” indicating a more specific reason why he will praise the Lord’s name (cf. v. 6).
Psalm 54:7 tn The perfects in v. 7 are probably rhetorical, indicating the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s deliverance and his own vindication as if they were occurring or had already occurred.
Psalm 54:7 tn Heb “and on my enemies my eyes look.”

2 Kings 17:5-18

⁵The king of Assyria marched through^[a] the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. ⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel^[b] to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

A Summary of Israel’s Sinful History

⁷This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of^[c] Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped^[d] other gods; ⁸they observed the practices^[e] of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before them,^[f] and followed the example of the kings of Israel.^[g] ⁹The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right.^[h] They built high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the Lord had driven away before them did. Their evil practices made the Lord angry.^[i] ¹²They worshiped^[j] the disgusting idols^[k] in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.^[l]

¹³The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.”^[m] ¹⁴But they did not pay attention and were as stubborn as their ancestors,^[n] who had not trusted the Lord their God. ¹⁵They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey.^[o] They paid allegiance to^[p] worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord.^[q] They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.^[r] ¹⁶They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky,^[s] and worshiped^[t] Baal. ¹⁷They passed their sons and daughters through the fire,^[u] and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry.^[v]

¹⁸So the Lord was furious^[w] with Israel and rejected them;^[x] only the tribe of Judah was left.

Footnotes

2 Kings 17:5 tn Heb “went up against.”
2 Kings 17:6 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.
2 Kings 17:7 tn Heb “and from under the hand of.” The words “freed them” for stylistic reasons replace the term “under.”
2 Kings 17:7 tn Heb “feared.”
2 Kings 17:8 tn Heb “walked in the customs.”
2 Kings 17:8 tn Heb “before the sons of Israel.”
2 Kings 17:8 tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”
2 Kings 17:9 tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vay^ekhapp^eʾu), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.
2 Kings 17:11 tn Heb “and they did evil things, angering the Lord.”
2 Kings 17:12 tn Or “served.”
2 Kings 17:12 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
2 Kings 17:12 tn Heb “about which the Lord had said to them, ‘You must not do this thing.’”
2 Kings 17:13 tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”
2 Kings 17:14 tn Heb and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers.”
2 Kings 17:15 tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”
2 Kings 17:15 tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).
2 Kings 17:15 tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.
2 Kings 17:15 tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”
2 Kings 17:16 tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol ts^evaʾ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.
2 Kings 17:16 tn Or “served.”
2 Kings 17:17 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.
2 Kings 17:17 tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”
2 Kings 17:18 tn Heb “very angry.”
2 Kings 17:18 tn Heb “turned them away from his face.”

Matthew 23:29-39

²⁹“Woe to you, experts in the law^[a] and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You^[b] build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves^[c] of the righteous. ³⁰And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,^[d] we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ³²Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! ³³You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?^[e]

³⁴“For this reason I^[f] am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law,^[g] some of whom you will kill and crucify,^[h] and some you will flog^[i] in your synagogues^[j] and pursue from town to town, ³⁵so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah,^[k] whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶I tell you the truth,^[l] this generation will be held responsible for all these things!^[m]

Judgment on Israel

³⁷“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,^[n] you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you!^[o] How often I have longed^[p] to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but^[q] you would have none of it!^[r] 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!’”^[s]

Footnotes

Matthew 23:29 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
Matthew 23:29 tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (hoti) has not been translated.
Matthew 23:29 tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).
Matthew 23:30 tn Grk “fathers” (so also in v. 32).
Matthew 23:33 tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.
Matthew 23:34 tn Grk “behold I am sending.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
Matthew 23:34 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
Matthew 23:34 sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.
Matthew 23:34 tn BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”
Matthew 23:34 sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.
Matthew 23:35 sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Barachiou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).
Matthew 23:36 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amēn), I say to you.”
Matthew 23:36 tn Grk “all these things will come on this generation.”
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.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 54[a]

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song[b] by David. It was written when the Ziphites came and informed Saul: “David is hiding with us.”[c]

Footnotes

A Summary of Israel’s Sinful History

Footnotes

Judgment on Israel

Footnotes

Psalm 54^[a]

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a well-written song^[b] by David. It was written when the Ziphites came and informed Saul: “David is hiding with us.”^[c]