◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 66:1-12 (God holds our souls in life); Jeremiah 25:1-14 (Babylonian captivity foretold); 2 Timothy 1:13-18 (Paul in prison) (New English Translation)

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October 10, 1968

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 66:1-12

Psalm 66^[a]

For the music director, a song, a psalm.

66 Shout out praise to God, all the earth!
²Sing praises about the majesty of his reputation.^[b]
Give him the honor he deserves!^[c]
³Say to God:
“How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear^[d] before you.
⁴All the earth worships^[e] you
and sings praises to you.
They sing praises to your name.” (Selah)
⁵Come and witness^[f] God’s exploits!^[g]
His acts on behalf of people are awesome.^[h]
⁶He turned the sea into dry land;^[i]
they passed through the river on foot.^[j]
Let us rejoice in him there.^[k]
⁷He rules^[l] by his power forever;
he watches^[m] the nations.
Stubborn rebels should not exalt^[n] themselves. (Selah)
⁸Praise^[o] our God, you nations.
Loudly proclaim his praise.^[p]
⁹He preserves our lives^[q]
and does not allow our feet to slip.
¹⁰For^[r] you, O God, tested us;
you purified us like refined silver.
¹¹You led us into a trap;^[s]
you caused us to suffer.^[t]
¹²You allowed men to ride over our heads;
we passed through fire and water,
but you brought us out into a wide open place.^[u]

Footnotes

Psalm 66:1 sn Psalm 66. The psalmist praises God because he has delivered his people from a crisis.
Psalm 66:2 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
Psalm 66:2 tn Heb “make honorable his praise.”
Psalm 66:3 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).
Psalm 66:4 tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).
Psalm 66:5 tn Or “see.”
Psalm 66:5 tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).
Psalm 66:5 tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”
Psalm 66:6 sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
Psalm 66:6 tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term נָהָר (nahad) does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).
Psalm 66:6 tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).
Psalm 66:7 tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”
Psalm 66:7 tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.
Psalm 66:7 tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ʾal). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. רוּם Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition ל (lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.
Psalm 66:8 tn Heb “bless,” in the sense of declaring “God to be the source of…special power” (see HALOT 160 s.v. II ברך pi).
Psalm 66:8 tn Heb “cause the voice of his praise to be heard.”
Psalm 66:9 tn Heb “the one who places our soul in life.”
Psalm 66:10 tn Or “indeed.”
Psalm 66:11 tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.
Psalm 66:11 tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (muʿaqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.
Psalm 66:12 tc The MT reads רְוָיָה (r^evayah, “saturation”) but this should be emended to רְוָחָה (r^evakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).

Jeremiah 25:1-14

Seventy Years of Servitude for Failure to Give Heed

25 In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah^[a] concerning all the people of Judah. (That was the same as the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon.)^[b] ²So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem. ³“For the last twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was ruling in Judah^[c] until now, the Lord’s messages have come to me and I have told them to you over and over again.^[d] But you would not listen. ⁴Over and over again^[e] the Lord has sent^[f] his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention.^[g] ⁵He said through them,^[h] ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing.^[i] If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession.^[j] ⁶Do not pay allegiance to^[k] other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do.^[l] Then I will not cause you any harm.’ ⁷So, now the Lord says,^[m] ‘You have not listened to me. But^[n] you have made me angry by the things that you have done.^[o] Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

⁸“Therefore, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies^[p] says, ‘You have not listened to what I said.^[q] ⁹So I, the Lord, affirm that^[r] I will send for all the peoples of the north^[s] and my servant,^[t] King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy^[u] the land, its inhabitants, and all the surrounding nations^[v] and make them everlasting ruins.^[w] I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn.^[x] ¹⁰I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and the glad celebration of brides and grooms in these lands.^[y] I will put an end to the sound of people grinding meal. I will put an end to lamps shining in their houses.^[z] ¹¹This whole area^[aa] will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’^[ab]

¹²“‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation^[ac] for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon^[ad] an everlasting ruin.^[ae] I, the Lord, affirm it!^[af] ¹³I will bring on that land everything that I said I would. I will bring on it everything that is written in this book. I will bring on it everything that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.^[ag] ¹⁴For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation^[ah] too. I will repay them for all they have done.’”^[ai]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 25:1 tn Heb “The word was to Jeremiah.” It is implicit from the context that it was the Lord’s word. The verbal expression is more in keeping with contemporary English style.
Jeremiah 25:1 sn The year referred to would be 605 b.c. Jehoiakim had been placed on the throne of Judah as a puppet king by Pharaoh Necho after the defeat of Josiah at Megiddo in 609 b.c. (2 Kgs 23:34-35). According to Jer 46:2 Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at Carchemish in that same year. After defeating Necho, Nebuchadnezzar had hurried back to Babylon, where he was made king. After being made king, he then returned to Judah and attacked Jerusalem (Dan 1:1. The date given there is the third year of Jehoiakim but scholars are generally agreed that the dating there is based on a different system than the one here. It did not count the part of the year before New Year’s day as an official part of the king’s official rule. Hence, the third year there is the fourth year here.) The identity of the foe from the north referred to in general terms (4:6; 6:1; 15:12) now becomes clear.
Jeremiah 25:3 sn The year referred to would be 627 b.c. The same year is referred to in 1:2 in reference to his call to be a prophet.
Jeremiah 25:3 tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.
Jeremiah 25:4 tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.
Jeremiah 25:4 tn The vav consecutive with the perfect in a past narrative is a little unusual. Here it is probably indicating repeated action in past time in keeping with the idiom that precedes and follows it. See GKC 332 §112.f for other possible examples.
Jeremiah 25:4 tn Heb “inclined your ear to hear.” This is idiomatic for “paying attention.” It is often parallel with “listen,” as here, or with “pay attention” (see, e.g., Prov 4:20; 5:1).
Jeremiah 25:5 tn Heb “saying.” The infinitive goes back to “he sent”; i.e., “he sent, saying.”
Jeremiah 25:5 tn Heb “Turn [masc. pl.] each person from his wicked way and from the evil of your [masc. pl.] doings.” See the same demand in 23:22.
Jeremiah 25:5 tn Heb “gave to you and your fathers with reference to from ancient times even unto forever.” See the same idiom in 7:7.
Jeremiah 25:6 tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.
Jeremiah 25:6 tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The phrase “work of your hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry, as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8 and 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.
Jeremiah 25:7 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”
Jeremiah 25:7 tn This is a rather clear case where the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (l^emaʿan) introduces a consequence and not a purpose, contrary to the dictum of BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. They have failed to listen to him not in order to make him angry but with the result that they have made him angry by going their own way. Jeremiah appears to use this particle for result rather than purpose on several other occasions (see, e.g., 7:18, 19; 27:10, 15; 32:29).
Jeremiah 25:7 tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The phrase “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry, as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8 and 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.
Jeremiah 25:8 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies.” sn See the study note on 2:19 for an explanation of this title.
Jeremiah 25:8 tn Heb “You have not listened to my words.”
Jeremiah 25:9 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”
Jeremiah 25:9 sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon, which included within them contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; and 13:20 for earlier allusions.
Jeremiah 25:9 sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the Lord’s servant also in Jer 27:6 and 43:10. He was the Lord’s servant in that he was the agent used by the Lord to punish his disobedient people. Assyria was earlier referred to as the Lord’s “rod” (Isa 10:5-6), and Cyrus is called his “shepherd” and his “anointed” (Isa 44:28; 45:1). P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, and J. F. Drinkard (Jeremiah 1-25 [WBC], 364) make the interesting observation that the terms here are very similar to the terms in v. 4. The people of Judah ignored the servants, the prophets, he sent to turn them away from evil. So he will send other servants whom they cannot ignore.
Jeremiah 25:9 tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah, see 50:21, 26 and 51:3.
Jeremiah 25:9 tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (the land, its inhabitants, and the surrounding nations) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.sn This is essentially the introduction to the “judgment on the nations” in vv. 15-29, which begins with Jerusalem and Judah (v. 18) and ultimately ends with Babylon itself (“Sheshach” in v. 26; see note there for explanation of the term).
Jeremiah 25:9 sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example, it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified, at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem, as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).
Jeremiah 25:9 tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two, which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the third.sn Cf. Jer 18:16; 19:8; and the study note at 18:16.
Jeremiah 25:10 sn Cf. Jer 7:24 and 16:9 for this same dire prediction limited to Judah and Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 25:10 sn The sound of people grinding meal and the presence of lamps shining in their houses were signs of everyday life. The Lord is going to make these lands desolate (v. 11), destroying all signs of life. (The statement is, of course, hyperbolic or poetic exaggeration; even after the destruction of Jerusalem many people were left in the land.) For these same descriptions of everyday life applying to the end of life, see the allegory in Eccl 12:3-6.
Jeremiah 25:11 tn Heb “All this land.”
Jeremiah 25:11 sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah, but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)
Jeremiah 25:12 tn Heb “that nation.”
Jeremiah 25:12 tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the use of the term “Chaldeans.”
Jeremiah 25:12 tn Heb “I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, oracle of the Lord, their iniquity, even upon the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been restructured to avoid ambiguity and to conform the style more to contemporary English.sn Cf. Isa 13:19-22; Jer 50:39-40.
Jeremiah 25:12 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”
Jeremiah 25:13 tn Or “I will bring upon it everything that is to be written in this book. I will bring upon it everything that Jeremiah is going to prophesy concerning all the nations.” The references to “this book” and “what Jeremiah has prophesied against the nations” raise issues about the editorial process underlying the current form of the Book of Jeremiah. As the book now stands, there is no earlier reference to any judgments against Babylon or any book (really “scroll”; books were a development of the first or second century a.d.) containing them. A common assumption is that this “book” of judgment refers to the judgments against Babylon and the other nations contained at the end of the book of Jeremiah (46:1-51:58). The Greek version actually inserts the prophecies of 46:1-51:58 here (but in a different order) and interprets “Which (= What) Jeremiah prophesied concerning all the nations” as a title. It is possible that the Greek version may represent an earlier form of the book. At least two earlier forms of the book are known that date roughly to the period dealt with here (Cf. 36:1 with 25:1 and see 36:2, 4 and 36:28, 32). Whether reference here is made to the first or second of these scrolls, and whether the Greek version represents either, is impossible to determine. It is not inconceivable that the referent here is the prophecies that Jeremiah has already uttered in vv. 8-12 and is about to utter in conjunction with the symbolical act that the Lord commands him to perform (vv. 15-26, 30-38), and that these are proleptic of the latter prophecies which will be given later and will be incorporated in a future book. That is the tenor of the alternate translation. The verb forms involved are capable of either a past/perfect translation or a proleptic/future translation. For the use of the participle (in the alternate translation = Heb “that is to be written”; הַכָּתוּב, hakkatuv) to refer to what is proleptic, see GKC 356-57 §116.d, e, and compare usage in Jonah 1:3 and 2 Kgs 11:2. For the use of the perfect to refer to a future act (in the alternate translation “is going to prophesy,” נִבָּא, nibbaʾ), see GKC 312 §106.m and compare usage in Judg 1:2. In support of this interpretation is the fact that the first verb in the next verse (Heb “they will be subjected,” עָבְדוּ, ʿovdu) is undoubtedly prophetic [it is followed by a vav consecutive perfect; cf. Isa 5:14]). Reading the text this way has the advantage of situating it within the context of the passage itself, which involves prophecies against the nations and against Babylon. Babylon is both the agent of wrath (the cup from which the nations drink, cf. 51:7) and the recipient of it (cf. v. 26). However, this interpretation admittedly does not explain the reference to “this book,” except as a proleptic reference to some future form of the book, and there would be clearer ways of expressing this view if that were what was definitely intended.
Jeremiah 25:14 tn Heb “make slaves of them.” The verb form here indicates that the action is as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). For the use of the verb rendered “makes slaves,” see parallel usage in Lev 25:39, 46 (cf. BDB 713 s.v. עָבַד 3).
Jeremiah 25:14 tn Heb “according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.” The two phrases are synonymous; it would be hard to represent them both in translation without being redundant. The translation attempts to represent them by the qualifier “all” before the first phrase.

2 Timothy 1:13-18

¹³Hold to the standard^[a] of sound words that you heard from me and do so with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.^[b] ¹⁴Protect that good thing^[c] entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

¹⁵You know that everyone in the province of Asia^[d] deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my imprisonment.^[e] ¹⁷But when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. ¹⁸May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!^[f] And you know very well all the ways he served me in Ephesus.^[g]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 66[a]

For the music director, a song, a psalm.

Footnotes

Seventy Years of Servitude for Failure to Give Heed

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 66^[a]