◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 28 (God hears my pleadings); Genesis 37:29-36 (Jacob mourns Joseph’s loss); 2 Peter 2:4-10 (God judges and rescues) (New English Translation)

Prev Day

August 11, 1969

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

August 1969
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Return to today's reading

Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 28

Psalm 28^[a]

By David.

28 To you, O Lord, I cry out!
My Protector,^[b] do not ignore me.^[c]
If you do not respond to me,^[d]
I will join^[e] those who are descending into the grave.^[f]
²Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,
when I lift my hands^[g] toward your holy temple.^[h]
³Do not drag me away with evil men,
with those who behave wickedly,^[i]
who talk so friendly to their neighbors,^[j]
while they plan to harm them.^[k]
⁴Pay them back for their evil deeds.
Pay them back for what they do.
Punish them.^[l]
⁵For they do not understand the Lord’s actions,
or the way he carries out justice.^[m]
The Lord^[n] will permanently demolish them.^[o]
⁶The Lord deserves praise,^[p]
for he has heard my plea for mercy.^[q]
⁷The Lord strengthens and protects me;^[r]
I trust in him with all my heart.^[s]
I am rescued^[t] and my heart is full of joy;^[u]
I will sing to him in gratitude.^[v]
⁸The Lord strengthens his people;^[w]
he protects and delivers his chosen king.^[x]
⁹Deliver your people.
Empower^[y] the nation that belongs to you.^[z]
Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms^[aa] at all times!^[ab]

Footnotes

Psalm 28:1 sn Psalm 28. The author looks to the Lord for vindication, asks that the wicked be repaid in full for their evil deeds, and affirms his confidence that the Lord will protect his own.
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “I will be equal with.”
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.
Psalm 28:2 sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.
Psalm 28:2 tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (d^evir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.
Psalm 28:3 tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”
Psalm 28:3 tn Heb “speakers of peace with their neighbors.”
Psalm 28:3 tn Heb “and evil [is] in their heart[s].”
Psalm 28:4 tn Heb “Give to them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds. According to the work of their hands give to them. Return their due to them.” The highly repetitive style reflects the psalmist’s agitated emotional state and draws attention to his yearning for justice.
Psalm 28:5 tn Heb “or the work of his hands.” In this context “the Lord’s actions” and “the work of his hands” probably refer to the way he carries out justice by vindicating the godly and punishing the wicked. (Note the final line of the verse, which refers to divine judgment. See also Ps 92:4-7.) Evil men do not “understand” God’s just ways; they fail to realize he will protect the innocent. Consequently they seek to harm the godly, as if they believe they will never be held accountable for their actions.
Psalm 28:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord, who is referred to in the two immediately preceding lines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Psalm 28:5 tn Heb “will tear them down and not rebuild them.” The ungodly are compared to a structure that is permanently demolished.
Psalm 28:6 tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”
Psalm 28:6 sn He has heard my plea for mercy. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes at this point, because the Lord responded positively to his petition and assured him that he would deliver him.
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “The Lord [is] my strength and my shield.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Or “I am helped.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “and my heart exults.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.
Psalm 28:8 tn Heb “the Lord [is] strength to them” (or perhaps, “to him”). The form לָמוֹ (lamo, “to them/him”) probably needs to be emended to לְעַמּוֹ (l^eʿammo, “to his people”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 236), perhaps due to quiescence of the letter ʿayin (ע; see P. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 55). Note the reference to the Lord’s “people” in the next verse. Also, a few Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Syriac support לְעַמּוֹ (l^eʿammo, “to his people”).
Psalm 28:8 tn Heb “he [is] a refuge of help for his anointed one.” The noun מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh, “anointed one”) refers to the Davidic king, who perhaps speaks as representative of the nation in this psalm. See Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 84:9; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17.
Psalm 28:9 tn Or “bless.”
Psalm 28:9 tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.
Psalm 28:9 tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”sn The shepherd metaphor is sometimes associated with royal responsibility. See 2 Sam 5:2; 7:7; Mic 5:2-4).
Psalm 28:9 tn Or “forever.”

Genesis 37:29-36

²⁹Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it!^[a] He tore his clothes, ³⁰returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?” ³¹So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a young goat,^[b] and dipped the tunic in the blood. ³²Then they brought the special tunic to their father^[c] and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”

³³He recognized it and exclaimed, “It is my son’s tunic! A wild animal has eaten him!^[d] Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” ³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth,^[e] and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and daughters stood by^[f] him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.”^[g] So Joseph’s^[h] father wept for him.

³⁶Now^[i] in Egypt the Midianites^[j] sold Joseph^[k] to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.^[l]

Footnotes

Genesis 37:29 tn Heb “and look, Joseph was not in the cistern.” By the use of וְהִנֵּה (v^ehinneh, “and look”), the narrator invites the reader to see the situation through Reuben’s eyes.
Genesis 37:31 sn It was with two young goats that Jacob deceived his father (Gen 27:9); now with a young goat his sons continue the deception that dominates this family.
Genesis 37:32 tn Heb “and they sent the special tunic and they brought [it] to their father.” The text as it stands is problematic. It sounds as if they sent the tunic on ahead and then came and brought it to their father. Some emend the second verb to a Qal form and read “and they came.” In this case, they sent the tunic on ahead.
Genesis 37:33 sn A wild animal has eaten him. Jacob draws this conclusion on his own without his sons actually having to lie with their words (see v. 20). Dipping the tunic in the goat’s blood was the only deception needed.
Genesis 37:34 tn Heb “and put sackcloth on his loins.”
Genesis 37:35 tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.
Genesis 37:35 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Indeed I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol.’” Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death.
Genesis 37:35 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Genesis 37:36 tn The disjunctive clause formally signals closure for this episode of Joseph’s story, which will be resumed in Gen 39.
Genesis 37:36 tc The MT spells the name of the merchants as מְדָנִים (m^edanim, “Medanites”) rather than מִדְיָנִים (midyanim, “Midianites”) as in v. 28. It is likely that the letter י (yod) was accidentally omitted in the MT. The LXX, Vulgate, Smr, and Syriac read “Midianites” here. Some prefer to read “Medanites” both here and in v. 28, but Judg 8:24, which identifies the Midianites and Ishmaelites, favors the reading “Midianites.”
Genesis 37:36 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Genesis 37:36 sn The expression captain of the guard might indicate that Potiphar was the chief executioner. The noun "guard" derives from a verb meaning to slaughter.

2 Peter 2:4-10

⁴For if God did not spare the angels who sinned,^[a] but threw them into hell^[b] and locked them up^[c] in chains^[d] in utter darkness,^[e] to be kept until the judgment, ⁵and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others,^[f] when God^[g] brought a flood on an ungodly world,^[h] ⁶and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction,^[i] having appointed^[j] them to serve as an example^[k] to future generations of the ungodly,^[l] ⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless^[m] men,^[n] ⁸(for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul^[o] by the lawless deeds he saw and heard^[p]) ⁹—if so,^[q] then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials,^[r] and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment^[s] at the day of judgment, ¹⁰especially those who indulge their fleshly desires^[t] and who despise authority.

Brazen and insolent,^[u] they are not afraid to insult^[v] the glorious ones,^[w]

Footnotes

2 Peter 2:4 tn The participle ἁμαρτησάντων (hamartēsantōn) could either be attributive (“who sinned”) or adverbial (“when they sinned”). The relation to the judgment of the false teachers in v. 3 suggests that the objects of God’s judgment are not in question, but the time frame for the execution of justice is. If the participle is taken temporally, the point of comparison is not as acute. The objection that the illustrations following (the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah) are viewed temporally does not mitigate this translation, for in both instances only the time of executing judgment is in view. Further, in both instances the OT notes that God withheld punishment for a long time.
2 Peter 2:4 tn Grk “casting them into Tartarus” or “holding them captive in Tartarus.” This verb, ταρταρόω (tartaroō), occurs only here in the NT, but its meaning is clearly established in both Hellenistic and Jewish literature. “Tartarus [was] thought of by the Greeks as a subterranean place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out, and so regarded in Israelite apocalyptic as well” (BDAG 991 s.v.). Grammatically, it has been translated as an indicative because it is an attendant circumstance participle.
2 Peter 2:4 tn Grk “handed them over.”
2 Peter 2:4 tc The reading σειραῖς (seirais, “chains”) is found in P⁷² P Ψ 33 1739 M vg sy, while σιροῖς (sirois [or σειροῖς, seirois], “pits”) is found in א A B C 81. The evidence is thus fairly evenly divided. Internally, the reading adopted here (σειραῖς) is a rarer term, perhaps prompting some scribes to replace it with the more common word. However, this more common term is not a synonym and hence does not follow the normal pattern of scribes. As well, the use of the genitive ζόφου (zophou) in “chains of darkness” is a bit awkward (a rare genitive of place), perhaps prompting some scribes to change the imagery to “pits of darkness” (in which case ζόφου is an attributive genitive). A further point that complicates the issue is the relationship of 2 Peter to Jude. Jude’s parallel (v. 6) has δεσμοῖς (desmois, “chains”). Apart from the issue of whether 2 Peter used Jude or Jude used 2 Peter, this parallel suggests one of two possibilities: either (1) since these two books obviously have a literary relationship, σειραῖς is autographic, or (2) early scribes, recognizing that these two books shared their material, changed σειροῖς to σειραῖς to conform the wording, at least conceptually, to Jude 6. On balance, σειραῖς looks to be original because scribes were not prone to harmonize extensively between books other than the Gospels (although 2 Peter and Jude do display some of this harmonizing). Further, such harmonization is often, if not usually, verbally exact, but δεσμοῖς is not a variant here.
2 Peter 2:4 tn The genitive ζόφου (zophou) is taken as a genitive of place. See previous note for discussion.
2 Peter 2:5 tn “Along with seven others” is implied in the cryptic, “the eighth, Noah.” A more literal translation thus would be, “he did protect Noah [as] the eighth…”
2 Peter 2:5 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been repeated here for clarity, although this is somewhat redundant with the beginning of v. 4.
2 Peter 2:5 tn Grk “a world of the ungodly.”
2 Peter 2:6 tc Several significant witnesses omit καταστροφῇ (katastrophē, “destruction”; such as P^72* B C* 442 1175 1241 1243 1739 1881 bo), but this is probably best explained as an accidental omission due to homoioarcton (the word following is κατέκρινεν [katekrinen, “he condemned”]).tn Or “ruin,” or “extinction.” The first part of this verse more literally reads “And [if] he condemned to annihilation the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, by turning them to ashes.”sn The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is detailed in Gen 18:16—19:29.
2 Peter 2:6 tn The perfect participle τεθεικώς (tetheikōs) suggests an antecedent act. More idiomatically, the idea seems to be, “because he had already appointed them to serve as an example.”
2 Peter 2:6 tn “To serve as” is not in Greek but is implied in the object-complement construction.
2 Peter 2:6 tn Grk “an example of the things coming to the ungodly,” or perhaps “an example to the ungodly of coming [ages].”
2 Peter 2:7 tn Or “unprincipled.”
2 Peter 2:7 tn This verse more literally reads “And [if] he rescued righteous Lot, who was deeply distressed by the lifestyle of the lawless in [their] debauchery.”
2 Peter 2:8 tn Grk “that righteous man tormented his righteous soul.”
2 Peter 2:8 tn Grk “by lawless deeds, in seeing and hearing [them].”
2 Peter 2:9 tn The Greek is one long conditional sentence, from v. 4 to v. 10a. 2 Pet 2:4-8 constitute the protasis; vv. 9 and 10a, the apodosis. In order to show this connection more clearly, a resumptive summary protasis—“if so,” or “if God did these things”—is needed in English translation.
2 Peter 2:9 tn Grk “from trial,” or possibly “from temptation” (though this second meaning for πειρασμός (peirasmos) does not fit the context in which Noah and Lot are seen as in the midst of trials, not temptation).
2 Peter 2:9 tn The adverbial participle κολαζομένους (kolazomenous) can refer either to contemporaneous time or subsequent time. At stake is the meaning of the following prepositional phrase (at the day of judgment or until the day of judgment). If the participle is contemporaneous, the idea is “to keep the ungodly in a state of punishment until the day of judgment.” If subsequent, the meaning is “to keep the ungodly to be punished at the day of judgment.” Many commentators/translations opt for the first view, assuming that the present participle cannot be used of subsequent time. However, the present participle is the normal one used for result, and is often used of purpose (cf., e.g., for present participles suggesting result, Mark 9:7; Luke 4:15; John 5:18; Eph 2:15; 2 Pet 2:1, mentioned above; for present participles indicating purpose, note Luke 10:25; John 12:33; Acts 3:26; 2 Pet 2:10 [as even most translations render it]). Further, the context supports this: 2:1-10 forms something of an inclusio, in which the final end of the false teachers is mentioned specifically in v. 1, then as a general principle in v. 9. The point of v. 3—that the punishment of the false teachers is certain, even though the sentence has not yet been carried out, is underscored by a participle of purpose in v. 9.
2 Peter 2:10 tn Grk “those who go after the flesh in [its] lust.”
2 Peter 2:10 tn There is no “and” in Greek; it is supplied for the sake of English convention.
2 Peter 2:10 tn The translation takes βλασφημοῦντες (blasphēmountes) as an adverbial participle of purpose, as most translations do. However, it is also possible to see this temporally (thus, “they do not tremble when they blaspheme”).
2 Peter 2:10 tn Δόξας (doxas) almost certainly refers to angelic beings rather than mere human authorities, though it is difficult to tell whether good or bad angels are in view. Verse 11 seems to suggest that wicked angels is what the author intends.

New English Translation (NET)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 28[a]

By David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 28^[a]