◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 26 (Prayer for acceptance); Obadiah 10-16 (Do not gloat over another’s misfortune); Revelation 8:1-5 (The saints’ prayers before God) (New English Translation)

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October 12, 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 26

Psalm 26^[a]

By David.

26 Vindicate me, O Lord,
for I have integrity,^[b]
and I trust in the Lord without wavering.
²Examine me, O Lord, and test me.
Evaluate my inner thoughts and motives.^[c]
³For I am ever aware of your faithfulness,^[d]
and your loyalty continually motivates me.^[e]
⁴I do not associate^[f] with deceitful men,
or consort^[g] with those who are dishonest.^[h]
⁵I hate the mob^[i] of evil men,
and do not associate^[j] with the wicked.
⁶I maintain a pure lifestyle,^[k]
so I can appear before your altar,^[l] O Lord,
⁷to give you thanks,^[m]
and to tell about all your amazing deeds.^[n]
⁸O Lord, I love the temple where you live,^[o]
the place where your splendor is revealed.^[p]
⁹Do not sweep me away^[q] with sinners,
or execute me along with violent people,^[r]
¹⁰who are always ready to do wrong^[s]
or offer a bribe.^[t]
¹¹But I have integrity.^[u]
Rescue me^[v] and have mercy on me!
¹²I am safe,^[w]
and among the worshipers I will praise the Lord.

Footnotes

Psalm 26:1 sn Psalm 26. The author invites the Lord to test his integrity, asserts his innocence and declares his loyalty to God.
Psalm 26:1 tn Heb “for I in my integrity walk.”
Psalm 26:2 tn Heb “evaluate my kidneys and my heart.” The kidneys and heart were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.
Psalm 26:3 tn Heb “for your faithfulness [is] before my eyes.”
Psalm 26:3 tn Heb “and I walk about in your loyalty.”sn The psalmist’s awareness of the Lord’s faithfulness and…loyalty toward him motivates him to remain loyal to the Lord and to maintain his moral purity.
Psalm 26:4 tn Heb “sit.”
Psalm 26:4 tn Heb “go.” The psalmist uses the imperfect form of the verb to emphasize that he does not make a practice of associating with such people.
Psalm 26:4 tn Heb “[those who] conceal themselves.”
Psalm 26:5 tn Heb “assembly, company.”
Psalm 26:5 tn Heb “sit.” The psalmist uses the imperfect form of the verb to emphasize that he does not make a practice of associating with such people.
Psalm 26:6 tn Heb “I wash my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The imperfect verbal emphasizes that this is his habit.
Psalm 26:6 tn Heb “so I can go around your altar” (probably in ritual procession). Following the imperfect of the preceding line, the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.
Psalm 26:7 tn Heb “to cause to be heard the sound of thanksgiving.”
Psalm 26:7 tn The two infinitival forms (both with prefixed preposition ל, lamed) give the purpose for his appearance at the altar.
Psalm 26:8 tn Heb “the dwelling of your house.”
Psalm 26:8 tn Heb “the place of the abode of your splendor.”
Psalm 26:9 tn Heb “do not gather up my life with.”
Psalm 26:9 tn Heb “or with men of bloodshed my life.” The verb is supplied; it is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).
Psalm 26:10 tn Heb “who [have] in their hands evil.”
Psalm 26:10 tn Heb “and their right hand is full of a bribe.”
Psalm 26:11 tn Heb “and I in my integrity walk.” The psalmist uses the imperfect verbal form to emphasize this is his practice. The construction at the beginning of the verse (conjunction + pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist and the sinners mentioned in vv. 9-10.
Psalm 26:11 tn Or “redeem me.”
Psalm 26:12 tn Heb “my foot stands in a level place.”

Obadiah 10-16

Edom’s Treachery Against Judah

¹⁰“Because^[a] you violently slaughtered^[b] your relatives,^[c] the people of Jacob,^[d]
shame will cover you, and you will be destroyed^[e] forever.
¹¹You stood aloof^[f] while strangers took his army^[g] captive,
and foreigners advanced to his gates.^[h]
When they cast lots^[i] over Jerusalem,
you behaved as though you were in league^[j] with them.
¹²You should not^[k] have gloated^[l] when your relatives^[m] suffered calamity.^[n]
You should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah when they were destroyed.^[o]
You should not have boasted^[p] when they suffered adversity.^[q]
¹³You should not have entered the city^[r] of my people when they experienced distress.^[s]
You should not have joined^[t] in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress.^[u]
You should not have looted^[v] their wealth when they endured distress.^[w]
¹⁴You should not have stood at the fork in the road^[x] to slaughter^[y] those trying to escape.^[z]
You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity.^[aa]

The Coming Day of the Lord

¹⁵“For the day of the Lord^[ab] is approaching^[ac] for all the nations!^[ad]
Just as you have done, so it will be done to you.
You will get exactly what your deeds deserve.^[ae]
¹⁶For just as you^[af] have drunk^[ag] on my holy mountain,
so all the nations will drink continually.^[ah]
They will drink, and they will gulp down;
they will be as though they had never been.

Footnotes

Obadiah 1:10 tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a causal sense.
Obadiah 1:10 tn Heb “because of the slaughter and because of the violence.” These two expressions form a hendiadys meaning “because of the violent slaughter.” Traditional understanding connects the first phrase “because of the slaughter” with the end of v. 9 (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). It is preferable, however, to regard it as parallel to the reference to violence at the beginning of v. 11. Both the parallel linguistic structure of the two phrases and the metrical structure of the verse favor connecting this phrase with the beginning of v. 10 (cf. NRSV, TEV).
Obadiah 1:10 tn Heb “the violence of your brother.” The genitive construction is to be understood as an objective genitive. The meaning is not that Jacob has perpetrated violence (= subjective genitive) but that violence has been committed against him (= objective genitive).
Obadiah 1:10 tn Heb “your brother Jacob” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); cf. NCV “your relatives, the Israelites.”
Obadiah 1:10 tn Heb “be cut off” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).
Obadiah 1:11 tn Heb “in the day of your standing”; cf. NAB “On the day when you stood by.”
Obadiah 1:11 tn Or perhaps, “wealth” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The Hebrew word is somewhat ambiguous here. This word also appears in v. 13, where it clearly refers to wealth.
Obadiah 1:11 tc The present translation follows the Qere, which reads the plural (“gates”) rather than the singular.
Obadiah 1:11 sn Casting lots seems to be a way of deciding who would gain control over material possessions and enslaved peoples following a military victory.
Obadiah 1:11 tn Heb “like one from them”; cf. NASB “You too were as one of them.”
Obadiah 1:12 tn In vv. 12-14 there are eight prohibitions that summarize the nature of the Lord’s complaint against Edom. Each prohibition alludes to something Edom did to Judah that should not have been done by one “brother” to another. It is because of these violations that the Lord has initiated judgment against Edom. In the Hebrew text these prohibitions are expressed by אַל (ʾal, “not”) plus the jussive form of the verb, which is common in negative commands of immediate urgency. Such constructions would normally have the sense of prohibiting something either not yet begun (i.e., “do not start to…”) or something already in process at the time of speaking (i.e., “stop…”). Here, however, it seems more likely that the prohibitions refer to a situation in past rather than future time (i.e., “you should not have…”). If so, the verbs are being used in a rhetorical fashion, as though the prophet were vividly projecting himself back into the events that he is describing and urging the Edomites not to do what in fact they have already done.
Obadiah 1:12 tn The Hebrew expression “to look upon” often has the sense of “to feast the eyes upon” or “to gloat over” (cf. v. 13).
Obadiah 1:12 tn Heb “your brother” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. NCV “your brother Israel.”
Obadiah 1:12 tn Heb “in the day of your brother, in the day of his calamity.” This expression is probably a hendiadys meaning, “in the day of your brother’s calamity.” The Hebrew word נָכְרוֹ (nokhro, “his calamity”)_is probably a word-play on נָכְרִים (nokhrim, “foreigners”) in v. 11.
Obadiah 1:12 tn Heb “in the day of their destruction” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); cf. NAB, NRSV “on the day of their ruin.”
Obadiah 1:12 tn Or “boasted with your mouth.” The Hebrew text includes the phrase “with your mouth,” which is redundant in English and has been left untranslated.
Obadiah 1:12 tn Heb “in the day of adversity”; cf. NASB “in the day of their distress.”
Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.
Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “in the day of their distress.” The phrase is used three times in this verse; the Hebrew word translated “distress” (אֵידָם, ʾedam) is a wordplay on the name Edom. For stylistic reasons and to avoid monotony, in the present translation this phrase is rendered, “when they experienced distress,” “when they suffered distress,” and “when they endured distress.”
Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “you, also you.”
Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “in the day of his distress.” In this and the following phrase at the end of v. 13 the suffix is third person masculine singular. As collective singulars both occurrences have been translated as plurals (“they suffered distress…endured distress,” rather than, “he suffered distress…endured distress”).
Obadiah 1:13 tc In the MT the verb is feminine plural, but the antecedent is unclear. The Hebrew phrase תִּשְׁלַחְנָה (tishlakhnah) here should probably be emended to read תִּשְׁלַח יָד (tishlakh yad), although yad (“hand”) is not absolutely essential to this idiom.
Obadiah 1:13 tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.
Obadiah 1:14 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word פֶּרֶק (pereq; here translated “fork in the road”) is uncertain. The word is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in Nah 3:1, where it means “plunder.” In the present context it seems to refer to a strategic intersection or fork in a road where bands of Edomites apprehended Israelites who were fleeing from the attack on Jerusalem (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT “crossroads,” NRSV “crossings”).
Obadiah 1:14 tn Heb “to cut off” (so KJV, NRSV); cf. NASB, NIV “to cut down.”
Obadiah 1:14 tn Heb “his fugitives”; cf. NAB, CEV “refugees.”
Obadiah 1:14 tn Heb “in the day of distress” (so KJV, ASV).
Obadiah 1:15 sn The term יוֹם (yom, “day”) is repeated ten times in vv. 11-14, referring to the time period when Judah/Jerusalem suffered calamity that Edom exploited for its own sinful gain. In each of those cases יוֹם was qualified by a following genitive to describe Judah’s plight, e.g., “in the day of your brother’s calamity” (v. 12). Here it appears again but now followed by the divine name to describe the time of God’s judgment against Edom for its crimes against humanity: “the day of the Lord.” In the present translation, the expression בְּיוֹם (b^eyom; literally, “In the day of”) appears as “When…” in vv. 11-14. However, here it is translated more literally because the expression “the day of the Lord” is a well-known technical expression for a time of divine intervention in judgment. While this expression sometimes refers to the final eschatological day of God’s judgment, it may also refer occasionally to historical acts of judgment.
Obadiah 1:15 tn Heb “near” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. NCV “is coming soon.”
Obadiah 1:15 sn God’s judgment would not be confined to Edom. Edom would certainly be punished in just measure for its wrongdoing, but “the day of the Lord” would also encompass judgment of the nations (v. 15).
Obadiah 1:15 tn Heb “your deed will return on your own head.” Verses 15 and 16 provide an example of ironic reversal, whereby the tables are turned and poetic justice is served. This is a motif that is common in prophetic oracles against foreign nations.
Obadiah 1:16 tn The identification of the referent of “you” in v. 16a is uncertain. There are three major options. First, on the surface, it would appear to be Edom, which is addressed in v. 15b and throughout the prophecy. However, when Edom is addressed, second person singular forms are normally used in the Hebrew. In v. 16a the Hebrew verb “you drank” is a plural form שְׁתִיתֶם (sh^etitem), perhaps suggesting that Edom is no longer addressed, at least solely. Perhaps Edom and the nations, mentioned in v. 15a, are both addressed in v. 16a. However, since the nations are referred to in the third person in v. 16b, it seems unlikely that they are addressed here. A second option is to take the final mem (ם) on the Hebrew verb form (שְׁתִיתֶם) as an enclitic particle and revocalize the form as a singular verb (שָׁתִיתָ, shatita) addressed to Edom. In this case v. 16a would allude to the time when Edom celebrated Jerusalem’s defeat on Mount Zion, God’s “holy hill.” Verse 16b would then make the ironic point that just as Edom once drank in victory, so the nations (Edom included) would someday drink the cup of judgment. However, this interpretation is problematic for it necessitates taking the drinking metaphor in different ways (as signifying celebration and then judgment) within the same verse. A third option is that the exiled people of Judah are addressed. Just as God’s people were forced to drink the intoxicating wine of divine judgment, so the nations, including those who humiliated Judah, would be forced to drink this same wine. However, the problem here is that God’s people are never addressed elsewhere in the prophecy, making this approach problematic as well.
Obadiah 1:16 sn This reference to drinking portrays the profane activities of those who had violated Jerusalem’s sanctity. The following reference to drinking on the part of the nations portrays God’s judgment upon them. They will drink, as it were, from the cup of divine retribution.
Obadiah 1:16 sn The judgment is compared here to intoxicating wine, which the nations are forced to keep drinking (v. 16). Just as an intoxicating beverage eventually causes the one drinking it to become disoriented and to stagger, so God’s judgment would cause the panic-stricken nations to stumble around in confusion. This extended metaphor is paralleled in Jer 49:12, which describes God’s imminent judgment on Edom, “If even those who did not deserve to drink from the cup of my wrath have to drink from it, do you think you will go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but you also will certainly drink from the cup of my wrath.” There are numerous parallels between Obadiah and the oracle against Edom in Jer 49:1-22, so perhaps the latter should be used to help understand the enigmatic metaphor here in v. 16.

Revelation 8:1-5

The Seventh Seal

8 Now^[a] when the Lamb^[b] opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ²Then^[c] I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. ³Another^[d] angel holding^[e] a golden censer^[f] came and was stationed^[g] at the altar. A^[h] large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne. ⁴The^[i] smoke coming from the incense,^[j] along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. ⁵Then^[k] the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring,^[l] flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 26[a]

By David.

Footnotes

Edom’s Treachery Against Judah

The Coming Day of the Lord

Footnotes

The Seventh Seal

Footnotes

Psalm 26^[a]