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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 46

Psalm 46^[a]

God, the Protector of Zion

¹For the leader. A song of the Korahites. According to alamoth.^[b]

I

²God is our refuge and our strength,
    an ever-present help in distress.^(A)
³^[c]Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken
    and mountains quake to the depths of the sea,
⁴Though its waters rage and foam
    and mountains totter at its surging.^(B)
Selah

II

⁵^[d]Streams of the river gladden the city of God,
    the holy dwelling of the Most High.^(C)
⁶God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken;
    God will help it at break of day.^(D)
⁷Though nations rage and kingdoms totter,
    he utters his voice and the earth melts.^(E)
⁸^[e]The Lord of hosts is with us;
    our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Selah

III

⁹Come and see the works of the Lord,
    who has done fearsome deeds on earth;^(F)
¹⁰Who stops wars to the ends of the earth,
    breaks the bow, splinters the spear,
    and burns the shields with fire;^(G)
¹¹^(H)“Be still and know that I am God!
    I am exalted among the nations,
    exalted on the earth.”
¹²The Lord of hosts is with us;
    our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Selah

Genesis 2:4-25

I. The Story of the Nations

The Garden of Eden. ⁴This is the story^[a] of the heavens and the earth at their creation. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens— ⁵there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the Lord God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man^[b] to till the ground, ⁶but a stream^[c] was welling up out of the earth and watering all the surface of the ground— ⁷then the Lord God formed the man^[d] out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.^(A)

⁸The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,^[e] and placed there the man whom he had formed.^(B) ⁹^[f]Out of the ground the Lord God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.^(C)

¹⁰A river rises in Eden^[g] to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches. ¹¹The name of the first is the Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹²The gold of that land is good; bdellium and lapis lazuli are also there. ¹³The name of the second river is the Gihon; it is the one that winds all through the land of Cush.^(D) ¹⁴The name of the third river is the Tigris; it is the one that flows east of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.^(E) ¹⁶The Lord God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden^(F) ¹⁷except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die.^[h]^(G)

¹⁸The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.^[i]^(H) ¹⁹So the Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name. ²⁰The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man.

²¹So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.^(I) ²²The Lord God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, ²³the man said:

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
This one shall be called ‘woman,’
for out of man this one has been taken.”^[j]

²⁴^(J)That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.^[k]

²⁵The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.^[l]

Footnotes

2:4
This is the story: the distinctive Priestly formula introduces older traditions, belonging to the tradition called Yahwist, and gives them a new setting. In the first part of Genesis, the formula “this is the story” (or a similar phrase) occurs five times (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10), which corresponds to the five occurrences of the formula in the second part of the book (11:27; 25:12, 19; 36:1[9]; 37:2). Some interpret the formula here as retrospective (“Such is the story”), referring back to chap. 1, but all its other occurrences introduce rather than summarize. It is introductory here; the Priestly source would hardly use the formula to introduce its own material in chap. 1.
The cosmogony that begins in v. 4 is concerned with the nature of human beings, narrating the story of the essential institutions and limits of the human race through their first ancestors. This cosmogony, like 1:1–3 (see note there), uses the “when…then” construction common in ancient cosmogonies. The account is generally attributed to the Yahwist, who prefers the divine name “Yhwh” (here rendered Lord) for God. God in this story is called “the Lord God” (except in 3:1–5); “Lord” is to be expected in a Yahwist account but the additional word “God” is puzzling.
2:5 Man: the Hebrew word ’adam is a generic term meaning “human being.” In chaps. 2–3, however, the archetypal human being is understood to be male (Adam), so the word ’adam is translated “man” here.
2:6 Stream: the water wells up from the vast flood below the earth. The account seems to presuppose that only the garden of God was irrigated at this point. From this one source of all the fertilizing water on the earth, water will be channeled through the garden of God over the entire earth. It is the source of the four rivers mentioned in vv. 10–14. Later, with rain and cultivation, the fertility of the garden of God will appear in all parts of the world.
2:7 God is portrayed as a potter molding the human body out of earth. There is a play on words in Hebrew between ’adam (“human being,” “man”) and ’adama (“ground”). It is not enough to make the body from earth; God must also breathe into the man’s nostrils. A similar picture of divine breath imparted to human beings in order for them to live is found in Ez 37:5, 9–10; Jn 20:22. The Israelites did not think in the (Greek) categories of body and soul.
2:8
Eden, in the east: the place names in vv. 8–14 are mostly derived from Mesopotamian geography (see note on vv. 10–14). Eden may be the name of a region in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), the term derived from the Sumerian word eden, “fertile plain.” A similar-sounding Hebrew word means “delight,” which may lie behind the Greek translation, “The Lord God planted a paradise [= pleasure park] in Eden.” It should be noted, however, that the garden was not intended as a paradise for the human race, but as a pleasure park for God; the man tended it for God. The story is not about “paradise lost.”
The garden in the precincts of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem seems to symbolize the garden of God (like gardens in other temples); it is apparently alluded to in Ps 1:3; 80:10; 92:14; Ez 47:7–12; Rev 22:1–2.
2:9 The second tree, the tree of life, is mentioned here and at the end of the story (3:22, 24). It is identified with Wisdom in Prv 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4, where the pursuit of wisdom gives back to human beings the life that is made inaccessible to them in Gn 3:24. In the new creation described in the Book of Revelation, the tree of life is once again made available to human beings (Rev 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19). Knowledge of good and evil: the meaning is disputed. According to some, it signifies moral autonomy, control over morality (symbolized by “good and evil”), which would be inappropriate for mere human beings; the phrase would thus mean refusal to accept the human condition and finite freedom that God gives them. According to others, it is more broadly the knowledge of what is helpful and harmful to humankind, suggesting that the attainment of adult experience and responsibility inevitably means the loss of a life of simple subordination to God.
2:10–14 A river rises in Eden: the stream of water mentioned in v. 6, the source of all water upon earth, comes to the surface in the garden of God and from there flows out over the entire earth. In comparable religious literature, the dwelling of god is the source of fertilizing waters. The four rivers represent universality, as in the phrase “the four quarters of the earth.” In Ez 47:1–12; Zec 14:8; Rev 22:1–2, the waters that irrigate the earth arise in the temple or city of God. The place names in vv. 11–14 are mainly from southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), where Mesopotamian literature placed the original garden of God. The Tigris and the Euphrates, the two great rivers in that part of the world, both emptied into the Persian Gulf. Gihon is the modest stream issuing from Jerusalem (2 Sm 5:8; 1 Kgs 1:9–10; 2 Chr 32:4), but is here regarded as one of the four great world rivers and linked to Mesopotamia, for Cush here seems to be the territory of the Kassites (a people of Mesopotamia) as in Gn 10:8. The word Pishon is otherwise unknown but is probably formed in imitation of Gihon. Havilah seems, according to Gn 10:7 and 1 Chr 1:9, to be in Cush in southern Mesopotamia though other locations have been suggested.
2:17 You shall die: since they do not die as soon as they eat from the forbidden tree, the meaning seems to be that human beings have become mortal, destined to die by virtue of being human.
2:18 Helper suited to him: lit., “a helper in accord with him.” “Helper” need not imply subordination, for God is called a helper (Dt 33:7; Ps 46:2). The language suggests a profound affinity between the man and the woman and a relationship that is supportive and nurturing.
2:23 The man recognizes an affinity with the woman God has brought him. Unlike the animals who were made from the ground, she is made from his very self. There is a play on the similar-sounding Hebrew words ’ishsha (“woman,” “wife”) and ’ish (“man,” “husband”).
2:24 One body: lit., “one flesh.” The covenant of marriage establishes kinship bonds of the first rank between the partners.
2:25 They felt no shame: marks a new stage in the drama, for the reader knows that only young children know no shame. This draws the reader into the next episode, where the couple’s disobedience results in their loss of innocence.

Romans 9:6-13

God’s Free Choice. ⁶But it is not that the word of God has failed. For not all who are of Israel are Israel,^(A) ⁷nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.”^(B) ⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.^(C) ⁹For this is the wording of the promise, “About this time I shall return and Sarah will have a son.”^(D) ¹⁰And not only that,^(E) but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one husband, our father Isaac^[a]— ¹¹before they had yet been born or had done anything, good or bad, in order that God’s elective plan might continue, ¹²not by works but by his call—she was told, “The older shall serve the younger.”^(F) ¹³As it is written:^(G)

“I loved Jacob
but hated Esau.”^[b]

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 46^[a]

God, the Protector of Zion

I

II

III

Footnotes

Cross references

I. The Story of the Nations

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 46[a]

God, the Protector of Zion

I

II

III

Footnotes

Cross references

I. The Story of the Nations

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 46^[a]