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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 121

Psalm 121^[a]

A song of ascents.^[b]

121 I look up^[c] toward the hills.
From where^[d] does my help come?
²My help comes from the Lord,^[e]
the Creator^[f] of heaven and earth.
³May he not allow your foot to slip.
May your Protector^[g] not sleep.^[h]
⁴Look! Israel’s Protector^[i]
does not sleep or slumber.
⁵The Lord is your protector;
the Lord is the shade at your right hand.
⁶The sun will not harm you by day,
or the moon by night.^[j]
⁷The Lord will protect you from all harm;
he will protect your life.
⁸The Lord will protect you in all you do,^[k]
now and forevermore.

Footnotes

Psalm 121:1 sn Psalm 121. The psalm affirms that the Lord protects his people Israel. Unless the psalmist addresses an observer (note the second person singular forms in vv. 3-8), it appears there are two or three speakers represented in the psalm, depending on how one takes v. 3. The translation assumes that speaker one talks in vv. 1-2, that speaker two responds to him with a prayer in v. 3 (this assumes the verbs are true jussives of prayer), and that speaker three responds with words of assurance in vv. 4-8. If the verbs in v. 3 are taken as a rhetorical use of the jussive, then there are two speakers. Verses 3-8 are speaker two’s response to the words of speaker one. See the note on the word “sleep” at the end of v. 3.
Psalm 121:1 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
Psalm 121:1 tn Heb “I lift my eyes.”
Psalm 121:1 tn The Hebrew term מֵאַיִן (meʾayin) is interrogative, not relative, in function. Rather than directly stating that his source of help descends from the hills, the psalmist is asking, “From where does my help come?” Nevertheless, the first line does indicate that he is looking toward the hills for help, probably indicating that he is looking up toward the sky, or up toward the temple, in anticipation of supernatural intervention. The psalmist assumes the dramatic role of one needing help. He answers his own question in v. 2.
Psalm 121:2 tn Heb “my help [is] from with the Lord.”
Psalm 121:2 tn Or “Maker.”
Psalm 121:3 tn Heb “the one who guards you.”
Psalm 121:3 tn The prefixed verbal forms following the negative particle אַל (ʾal) appear to be jussives. As noted above, if they are taken as true jussives of prayer, then the speaker in v. 3 would appear to be distinct from both the speaker in vv. 1-2 and the speaker in vv. 4-8. However, according to GKC 322 §109.e), the jussives are used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one should probably translate, “he will not allow your foot to slip, your protector will not sleep,” and understand just one speaker in vv. 4-8. But none of the examples in GKC for this use of the jussive are compelling.
Psalm 121:4 tn Heb “the one who guards Israel.”
Psalm 121:6 sn One hardly thinks of the moon’s rays as being physically harmful, like those of the sun. The reference to the moon may simply lend poetic balance to the verse, but it is likely that the verse reflects an ancient, primitive belief that the moon could have an adverse effect on the mind (note the English expression “moonstruck,” which reflects such a belief). Another possibility is that the sun and moon stand by metonymy for harmful forces characteristic of the day and night, respectively.
Psalm 121:8 tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.”

Exodus 12:29-42

The Deliverance from Egypt

²⁹^[a] It happened^[b] at midnight—the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. ³⁰Pharaoh got up^[c] in the night,^[d] along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house^[e] in which there was not someone dead. ³¹Pharaoh^[f] summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out^[g] from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!^[h] ³²Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.”^[i]

³³The Egyptians were urging^[j] the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly,^[k] for they were saying, “We are all dead!” ³⁴So the people took their dough before the yeast was added,^[l] with their kneading troughs bound up in their clothing on their shoulders. ³⁵Now the Israelites had done^[m] as Moses told them—they had requested from the Egyptians^[n] silver and gold items and clothing. ³⁶The Lord^[o] gave the people favor^[p] in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever they wanted,^[q] and so they plundered Egypt.^[r]

³⁷The Israelites journeyed^[s] from Rameses^[t] to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men^[u] on foot, plus their dependents.^[v] ³⁸A mixed multitude^[w] also went up with them, and flocks and herds—a very large number of cattle.^[x] ³⁹They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast. Because they were thrust out^[y] of Egypt and were not able to delay, they^[z] could not prepare^[aa] food for themselves either.

⁴⁰Now the length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.^[ab] ⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, on the very day, all the regiments^[ac] of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. ⁴²It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt,^[ad] and so^[ae] on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil^[af] to the Lord for generations to come.

Footnotes

Exodus 12:29 sn The next section records the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and so becomes the turning point of the book. Verses 28 and 29 could be included in the exposition of the previous section as the culmination of that part. The message might highlight God’s requirement for deliverance from bondage through the application of the blood of the sacrifice, God’s instruction for the memorial of deliverance through the purging of corruption, and the compliance of those who believed the message. But these verses also form the beginning of this next section (and so could be used transitionally). This unit includes the judgment on Egypt (29-30), the exodus from Egypt (31-39) and the historical summation and report (40-42).
Exodus 12:29 tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vay^ehi), often translated “and it came to pass.” Here it could be left untranslated: “In the middle of the night Yahweh attacked.” The word order of the next and main clause furthers the emphasis by means of the vav disjunctive on the divine name preceding the verb. The combination of these initial and disjunctive elements helps to convey the suddenness of the attack, while its thoroughness is stressed by the repetition of “firstborn” in the rest of the verse, the merism (“from the firstborn of Pharaoh…to the firstborn of the captive”), and the mention of cattle.
Exodus 12:30 tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.
Exodus 12:30 tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time—“in the night” or “at night.”
Exodus 12:30 sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.
Exodus 12:31 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Exodus 12:31 tn The urgency in Pharaoh’s words is caught by the abrupt use of the imperatives—“get up, go” (קוּמוּ צְּאוּ, qumu ts^eʾu), and “go, serve” (וּלְכוּ עִבְדוּ, ul^ekhu ʿiv^edu) and “take” and “leave/go” (וָלֵכוּ…קְחוּ, q^ekhu…valekhu).
Exodus 12:31 tn Heb “as you have said.” The same phrase also occurs in the following verse.sn It appears from this clause that Pharaoh has given up attempting to impose restrictions as he had earlier. With the severe judgment on him for his previous refusals he should now know that these people are no longer his subjects, and he is no longer sovereign. As Moses had insisted, all the Israelites would leave, and with all their possessions, to worship Yahweh.
Exodus 12:32 tn The form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive (וּבֵרַכְתֶּם, uverakhtem); coming in the sequence of imperatives this perfect tense would be volitional—probably a request rather than a command.sn Pharaoh probably meant that they should bless him also when they were sacrificing to Yahweh in their religious festival—after all, he might reason, he did let them go (after divine judgment). To bless him would mean to invoke good gifts from God for him.
Exodus 12:33 tn The verb used here (חָזַק, khazaq) is the same verb used for Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. It conveys the idea of their being resolved or insistent in this—they were not going to change.
Exodus 12:33 tn The phrase uses two construct infinitives in a hendiadys, the first infinitive becoming the modifier.
Exodus 12:34 tn The imperfect tense after the adverb טֶרֶם (terem) is to be treated as a preterite: “before it was leavened,” or “before the yeast was added.” See GKC 314-15 §107.c.
Exodus 12:35 tn The verbs “had done” and then “had asked” were accomplished prior to the present narrative (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 99). The verse begins with disjunctive word order to introduce the reminder of earlier background information.
Exodus 12:35 tn Heb “from Egypt.” Here the Hebrew text uses the name of the country to represent the inhabitants (a figure known as metonymy).
Exodus 12:36 tn The holy name (“Yahweh,” represented as “the Lord” in the translation) has the vav disjunctive with it. It may have the force: “Now it was Yahweh who gave the people favor….”
Exodus 12:36 sn God was destroying the tyrant and his nobles and the land’s economy because of their stubborn refusal. But God established friendly, peaceful relations between his people and the Egyptians. The phrase is used outside Exod only in Gen 39:21, referring to Joseph.
Exodus 12:36 tn The verb וַיַּשְׁאִלוּם (vayyashʾilum) is a Hiphil form that has the root שָׁאַל (shaʾal), used earlier in Qal with the meaning “requested” (12:35). The verb here is frequently translated “and they lent them,” but lending does not fit the point. What they gave the Israelites were farewell gifts sought by demanding or asking for them. This may exemplify a “permissive” use of the Hiphil stem, in which “the Hiphil designates an action that is agreeable to the object and allowed by the subject” (B. T. Arnold and J. H. Choi, A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, 52).
Exodus 12:36 sn See B. Jacob, “The Gifts of the Egyptians; A Critical Commentary,” Journal of Reformed Judaism 27 (1980): 59-69.
Exodus 12:37 tn Heb “and the sons of Israel journeyed.”
Exodus 12:37 sn The wilderness itinerary begins here. W. C. Kaiser records the identification of these two places as follows: The name Rameses probably refers to Qantir rather than Tanis, which is more remote, because Qantir was by the water; Sukkoth is identified as Tel el Maskhuta in the Wadi Tumilat near modern Ismailia—or the region around the city (“Exodus,” EBC 2:379). Of the extensive bibliography, see G. W. Coats, “The Wilderness Itinerary,” CBQ 34 (1972): 135-52; G. I. Davies, “The Wilderness Itineraries: A Comparative Study,” TynBul 25 (1974): 46-81; and J. T. Walsh, “From Egypt to Moab. A Source Critical Analysis of the Wilderness Itinerary,” CBQ 39 (1977): 20-33.
Exodus 12:37 tn The word for “men” (הַגְּבָרִים, hagg^evarim) stresses their hardiness and capability—strong men, potential soldiers—in contrast with the word that follows and designates noncombatants.sn There have been many attempts to calculate the population of the exodus group, but nothing in the text gives the exact number other than the 600,000 people on foot who were men. Estimates of two million people are very large, especially since the Bible says there were seven nations in the land of Canaan mightier than Israel. It is probably not two million people (note, the Bible never said it was—this is calculated by scholars). But attempts to reduce the number by redefining the word “thousand” to mean clan or tribe or family unit have not been convincing, primarily because of all the tabulations of the tribes in the different books of the Bible that have to be likewise reduced. B. Jacob (Exodus, 347) rejects the many arguments and calculations as the work of eighteenth century deists and rationalists, arguing that the numbers were taken seriously in the text. Some writers interpret the numbers as inflated due to a rhetorical use of numbers, arriving at a number of 60,000 or so for the men here listed (reducing it by a factor of ten), and insisting this is a literal interpretation of the text as opposed to a spiritual or allegorical approach (see R. Allen, “Numbers,” EBC 2:686-96; see also G. Mendenhall, “The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26, ” JBL 77 [1958]: 52-66). This proposal removes the “embarrassingly” large number for the exodus, but like other suggestions, lacks completely compelling evidence. For a more extensive discussion of the large numbers used to describe the Israelites in their wilderness experience, see the note on “46,500” in Num 1:21.
Exodus 12:37 tn For more on this word see 10:10 and 24.
Exodus 12:38 tn The “mixed multitude” (עֵרֶב רַב, ʿerev rav) refers to a great “swarm” (see a possible cognate in 8:21 [17]) of folk who joined the Israelites, people who were impressed by the defeat of Egypt, who came to faith, or who just wanted to escape Egypt (maybe slaves or descendants of the Hyksos). The expression prepares for later references to riffraff who came along.
Exodus 12:38 tn Heb “and very much cattle.”
Exodus 12:39 sn For the use of this word in developing the motif, see Exod 2:17, 22; 6:1; and 11:1.
Exodus 12:39 tn Heb “and also.”
Exodus 12:39 tn The verb is עָשׂוּ (ʿasu, “they made”); here, with a potential nuance, it is rendered “they could [not] prepare.”
Exodus 12:40 sn Here as well some scholars work with the number 430 to try to reduce the stay in Egypt for the bondage. Some argue that if the number included the time in Canaan, that would reduce the bondage by half. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 102) notes that P thought Moses was the fourth generation from Jacob (6:16-27), if those genealogies are not selective. Exodus 6 has Levi—Kohath—Amram—Moses. This would require a period of about 100 years, and that is unusual. There is evidence, however, that the list is selective. In 1 Chr 2:3-20 the text has Bezalel (see Exod 31:2-5) a contemporary of Moses and yet the seventh from Judah. Elishama, a leader of the Ephraimites (Num 10:22), was in the ninth generation from Jacob (1 Chr 7:22-26). Joshua, Moses’ assistant, was the eleventh from Jacob (1 Chr 7:27). So the “four generations” leading up to Moses are not necessarily complete. With regard to Exod 6, K. A. Kitchen has argued that the four names do not indicate successive generations, but tribe (Levi), clan (Kohath), family (Amram), and individual (Moses; K. A. Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament, 54-55). For a detailed discussion of the length of the sojourn, see E. H. Merrill, A Kingdom of Priests, 75-79.
Exodus 12:41 sn This military term is used elsewhere in Exodus (e.g., 6:26; 7:4; 12:17, 51), but here the Israelites are called “the regiments of the Lord.”
Exodus 12:42 tn There is some ambiguity in לֵיל שִׁמֻּרִים הוּא לַיהוָה (lel shimmurim huʾ laʾadonay [layhvah]). It is likely that this first clause means that Yahweh was on watch for Israel to bring them out, as the next clause says. He was protecting his people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 102). Then, the night of vigil will be transferred to Israel, who now must keep it “to” him.
Exodus 12:42 tn “and so” has been supplied.
Exodus 12:42 tn Heb “this night is for Yahweh a vigil for all Israelites for their generations.”

Romans 13:1-7

Submission to Civil Government

13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment,^[a] and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ²So the person who resists such authority^[b] resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment ³(for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation ⁴because it is God’s servant for your well-being. But be afraid if you do wrong because government^[c] does not bear the sword for nothing. It is God’s servant to administer punishment on the person who does wrong. ⁵Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities^[d] but also because of your conscience.^[e] ⁶For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities^[f] are God’s servants devoted to governing.^[g] ⁷Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 121[a]

A song of ascents.[b]

Footnotes

The Deliverance from Egypt

Footnotes

Submission to Civil Government

Footnotes

Psalm 121^[a]

A song of ascents.^[b]