◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 85 (Righteousness and peace); Hosea 1:11—2:15 (God’s people are unfaithful); Luke 8:22-25 (Jesus’ disciples cry out for safety) (New English Translation)

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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 85

Psalm 85^[a]

For the music director, written by the Korahites, a psalm.

85 O Lord, you showed favor to your land;
you restored the well-being of Jacob.^[b]
²You pardoned^[c] the wrongdoing of your people;
you forgave^[d] all their sin. (Selah)
³You withdrew all your fury;
you turned back from your raging anger.^[e]
⁴Restore us, O God our deliverer.
Do not be displeased with us.^[f]
⁵Will you stay mad at us forever?
Will you remain angry throughout future generations?^[g]
⁶Will you not revive us once more?
Then your people will rejoice in you.
⁷O Lord, show us your loyal love.
Bestow on us your deliverance.
⁸I will listen to what God the Lord says.^[h]
For he will make^[i] peace with his people, his faithful followers.^[j]
Yet they must not^[k] return to their foolish ways.
⁹Certainly his loyal followers will soon experience his deliverance;^[l]
then his splendor will again appear in our land.^[m]
¹⁰Loyal love and faithfulness meet;^[n]
deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss.^[o]
¹¹Faithfulness grows from the ground,
and deliverance looks down from the sky.^[p]
¹²Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings,^[q]
and our land will yield^[r] its crops.
¹³Deliverance goes^[s] before him,
and prepares^[t] a pathway for him.^[u]

Footnotes

Psalm 85:1 sn Psalm 85. God’s people recall how he forgave their sins in the past, pray that he might now restore them to his favor, and anticipate renewed blessings.
Psalm 85:1 tn Heb “you turned with a turning [toward] Jacob.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (sh^evut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv). See Pss 14:7; 53:6.
Psalm 85:2 tn Heb “lifted up.”
Psalm 85:2 tn Heb “covered over.”
Psalm 85:3 tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81. See Pss 69:24; 78:49.
Psalm 85:4 tn Heb “break your displeasure with us.” Some prefer to emend הָפֵר (hafer, “break”) to הָסֵר (haser, “turn aside”).
Psalm 85:5 tn Heb “Will your anger stretch to a generation and a generation?”
Psalm 85:8 sn I will listen. Having asked for the Lord’s favor, the psalmist (who here represents the nation) anticipates a divine word of assurance.
Psalm 85:8 tn Heb “speak.” The idiom “speak peace” refers to establishing or maintaining peaceful relations with someone (see Gen 37:4; Zech 9:10; cf. Ps 122:8).
Psalm 85:8 tn Heb “to his people and to his faithful followers.” The translation assumes that “his people” and “his faithful followers” are viewed as identical here.
Psalm 85:8 tn Or “yet let them not.” After the negative particle אֵל (ʾel), the prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating the speaker’s desire or wish.
Psalm 85:9 tn Heb “certainly his deliverance [is] near to those who fear him.”
Psalm 85:9 tn Heb “to dwell, glory, in our land.” “Glory” is the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive with ל (lamed), “to dwell,” probably indicates result here (“then”). When God delivers his people and renews his relationship with them, he will once more reveal his royal splendor in the land.
Psalm 85:10 tn The psalmist probably uses the perfect verbal forms in v. 10 in a dramatic or rhetorical manner, describing what he anticipates as if it were already occurring or had already occurred.
Psalm 85:10 sn Deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. The psalmist personifies these abstract qualities to emphasize that God’s loyal love and faithfulness will yield deliverance and peace for his people.
Psalm 85:11 sn The psalmist already sees undeniable signs of God’s faithfulness and expects deliverance to arrive soon.
Psalm 85:12 tn Heb “what is good.”
Psalm 85:12 tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.
Psalm 85:13 tn Or “will go.”
Psalm 85:13 tn Or “will prepare.”
Psalm 85:13 tn Heb “and it prepares for a way his footsteps.” Some suggest emending וְיָשֵׂם (v^eyasem, “and prepares”) to וְשָׁלוֹם (v^eshalom, “and peace”) since “deliverance” and “peace” are closely related earlier in v. 13. This could be translated, “and peace [goes ahead, making] a pathway for his footsteps” (cf. NEB).

Hosea 1:11-2:15

¹¹Then the people^[a] of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves one leader,^[b] and will flourish in the land.^[c] Certainly,^[d] the day of Jezreel will be great!

2 Then you will call^[e] your^[f] brother, “My People” (Ammi)! You will call your sister, “Pity” (Ruhamah)!

Idolatrous Israel Will Be Punished Like a Prostitute

²“Plead earnestly^[g] with your^[h] mother
(for^[i] she is not my wife, and I am not her husband),
so that^[j] she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle,^[k]
and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.^[l]
³Otherwise, I will strip her naked,
and expose her like she was when she was born.
I will turn her land into a wilderness
and make her country a parched land,
so that I might kill^[m] her with thirst.
⁴I will have no pity on her children,^[n]
because they are children conceived in adultery.^[o]
⁵For their mother has committed adultery;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will seek out^[p] my lovers;^[q]
they are the ones who give me my bread and my water,
my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.^[r]

The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

⁶“Therefore, I will soon^[s] fence her in^[t] with thorns;
I will wall her in^[u] so that^[v] she cannot find her way.^[w]
⁷Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch^[x] them;
she will seek them, but she will not find them.^[y]
Then she will say,
‘I will go back^[z] to my husband,^[aa]
because I was better off then than I am now.’^[ab]

Agricultural Fertility Withdrawn from Israel

⁸“Yet^[ac] until now^[ad] she has refused to acknowledge^[ae] that I^[af] was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;
and that it was I who^[ag] lavished on her the silver and gold—
that they^[ah] used in worshiping Baal!^[ai]
⁹Therefore, I will take back^[aj] my grain during the harvest time^[ak]
and my new wine when it ripens;^[al]
I will take away my wool and my flax
that I had provided^[am] in order to clothe her.^[an]
¹⁰Soon^[ao] I will expose her lewd nakedness^[ap] in front of her lovers,
and no one will be able to rescue her from me!^[aq]
¹¹I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her annual religious festivals,
monthly new moon celebrations,
and weekly Sabbath festivities—
all her appointed festivals.
¹²I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
about which she said, ‘These are my wages for prostitution^[ar]
that my lovers gave to me!’
I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees^[as] into an uncultivated thicket,
so that wild animals^[at] will devour them.
¹³I will punish her for the festival days
when she burned incense to the Baal idols;^[au]
she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but^[av] she forgot me!”^[aw] says the Lord.

Future Repentance and Restoration of Israel

¹⁴“However, in the future I will allure her;^[ax]
I will lead^[ay] her back into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵From there I will give back her vineyards to her,
and turn the ‘Valley of Trouble’^[az] into an ‘Opportunity^[ba] for Hope.’
There she will sing as she did when she was young,^[bb]
when^[bc] she came up from the land of Egypt.

Footnotes

Hosea 1:11 tn Heb “sons” (twice in this verse, so NASB); cf. KJV, ASV “children,” and NIV, NRSV, TEV “people.”
Hosea 1:11 tn Heb “head” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).
Hosea 1:11 tn Alternatively, “gain possession of the land” (cf. NRSV) or “rise up from the land” (cf. NIV). This clause may be understood in two ways: (1) Israel will gain ascendancy over the land or conquer the land (e.g., Exod 1:10; cf. NAB “come up from other lands”) or (2) Israel will be “planted” in the land (Hos 2:22, 23; cf. NLT “will…plant his people”).
Hosea 1:11 tn Or “For” (so NASB); cf. NCV “because,” and TEV “Yes.”
Hosea 2:1 tn Heb “Say to….” The imperative אִמְרוּ (ʾim^eru, Qal imperative masculine plural) functions rhetorically, where one verbal form (imperative) substitutes for another (indicative). The imperative is used as a rhetorical device to emphasize the certainty of a future action.
Hosea 2:1 sn The suffixes on the nouns אֲחֵיכֶם (ʾakhekhem, “your brother”) and אֲחוֹתֵיכֶם (ʾakhotekhem, “your sister”) are both plural forms. The brother/sister imagery is being applied to Israel and Judah collectively.
Hosea 2:2 tn Heb “Plead with your mother; plead!” The imperative רִיבוּ (rivu, “plead!”) is repeated twice in this line for emphasis. This rhetorical expression is handled in a woodenly literal sense by most English translations: NASB “Contend…contend”; NAB “Protest…protest!”; NIV “Rebuke…rebuke”; NRSV “Plead…plead”; and CEV “Accuse! Accuse your mother!”
Hosea 2:2 sn The suffix on the noun אִמְּכֶם (ʾimm^ekhem, “your mother”) is a plural form (second person masculine). The children of Gomer represent the “children” (i.e., people) of Israel; Gomer represents the nation as a whole.
Hosea 2:2 tn The particle כִּי (ki) introduces a parenthetical explanatory clause (however, cf. NCV “because”).sn The reason that Hosea (representing the Lord) calls upon his children (representing the children of Israel) to plead with Gomer (representing the nation as a whole), rather than pleading directly with her himself, is because Hosea (the Lord) has turned his back on his unfaithful wife (Israel). He no longer has a relationship with her (“for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband”) because she abandoned him for her lovers.
Hosea 2:2 tn The dependent volitive sequence of imperative followed by vav + jussive (רִיבוּ, rivu followed by וְתָסֵר, v^etaser) creates a purpose clause: “so that she might turn away from” (= “put an end to”); cf. NRSV “that she put away,” and KJV “let her therefore put away.” Many English translations begin a new sentence here, presumably to improve the English style (so NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT), but this obscures the connection with the preceding clause.
Hosea 2:2 tn Heb “put away her adulteries from her face.” The plural noun זְנוּנֶיהָ (z^enuneha, “adulteries”) is an example of the plural of repeated (or habitual) action: she has had multiple adulterous affairs.
Hosea 2:2 tn Heb “[put away] her immoral behavior from between her breasts.” Cf. KJV “her adulteries,” and NIV “the unfaithfulness.”
Hosea 2:3 tn Heb “and kill her with thirst.” The vav prefixed to the verb (וַהֲמִתִּיהָ, vahamittiha) introduces a purpose/result clause: “in order to make her die of thirst” (purpose), or “and thus make her die of thirst” (result).
Hosea 2:4 tn Heb “her sons.” English versions have long translated this as “children,” however; cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, and NLT.sn The word order is rhetorical: the accusative וְאֶת־בָּנֶיהָ (v^eʾet baneha, “her sons”) is moved forward for emphasis.
Hosea 2:4 tn Heb “sons of adulteries”; cf. KJV “children of whoredoms.”sn The word order is rhetorical: the construct clause בְנֵי זְנוּנִים (v^ene z^enunim, “sons of adulteries”), which functions as the predicate nominative, is moved forward, before the independent personal pronoun הֵמָּה (hemmah, “they”), which functions as the subject, to focus on the immoral character of her children.
Hosea 2:5 tn Heb “I will go after” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).
Hosea 2:5 sn This statement alludes to the practice of sexual rites in the Canaanite fertility cult that attempted to secure agricultural fertility from the Canaanite gods (note the following reference to wool, flax, olive oil, and wine).
Hosea 2:5 tn Heb “my drinks.” Many English versions use the singular “drink” here (but cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “wine”).
Hosea 2:6 tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hin^eni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time-reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).
Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; cf. NIV “block her path.”
Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (v^egadarti ʾet-g^ederah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The third person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means: “I will build a wall to bar her way” (cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in”).
Hosea 2:6 tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause that can be understood as either purpose or result.
Hosea 2:6 tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).
Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “overtake” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); cf. NLT “be able to catch up with.”
Hosea 2:7 tn In the Hebrew text the accusative direct-object pronoun אֹתָם (ʾotam, “them”) is omitted/elided for balanced poetic parallelism. The LXX supplies αὐτούς (autous, “them”); but it is not necessary to emend the MT because this is a poetic literary convention rather than a textual problem.
Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “I will go and return” (so NRSV). The two verbs joined with vav form a verbal hendiadys. Normally, the first verb functions adverbially, and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h). The Hebrew phrase אֵלְכָה וְאָשׁוּבָה (ʾel^ekhah v^eʾashuvah, “I will go and I will return”) connotes, “I will return again.” As cohortatives, both verbs emphasize the resolution of the speaker.
Hosea 2:7 tn Heb “to my man, the first.” Many English translations (e.g., KJV, NAB, NRSV, TEV) take this as “my first husband,” although this implies that there was more than one husband involved. The text refers to multiple lovers, but these were not necessarily husbands.
Hosea 2:7 tn Or “because it was better for me then than now” (cf. NCV).
Hosea 2:8 tn Or “For” (so KJV, NASB); or “But” (so NCV).
Hosea 2:8 tn The phrase “until now” does not appear in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
Hosea 2:8 tn Heb “she does not know” (so NASB, NCV); or “she does not acknowledge.”
Hosea 2:8 tn The first person common singular independent personal pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) is emphatic, since the subject of this verbal clause is already explicit in the verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, Qal perfect first person common singular: “I gave”).
Hosea 2:8 tn The phrase “that it was I who” does not appear in the Hebrew text here but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
Hosea 2:8 sn The third person plural here is an obvious reference to the Israelites, who had been unfaithful to the Lord in spite of all that he had done for them. To maintain the imagery of Israel as the prostitute, a third person feminine singular would be called for; in the interest of literary consistency this has been supplied in some English translations (e.g., NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
Hosea 2:8 tn Heb “for Baal” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. TEV “in the worship of Baal.”
Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “I will return and I will take.” The two verbs joined with vav conjunction form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h): אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי (’ashuv v^elaqakhti) means: “I will take back.”
Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).
Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).
Hosea 2:9 tn The words “which I had provided” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NIV “intended to cover.”
Hosea 2:9 tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); cf. TEV “for clothing.”sn This announcement of judgment is extremely ironic and forcefully communicates poetic justice: the punishment will fit the crime. The Israelites were literally uncovering their nakedness in temple prostitution in the Baal fertility cult rituals. Yahweh will, in effect, give them what they wanted (nakedness) but not in the way they wanted it: Yahweh will withhold the agricultural fertility they sought from Baal, which will lead to nakedness caused by impoverishment.
Hosea 2:10 tn The particle עַתָּה (ʿattah) often refers to the imminent or the impending future: “very soon” (BDB 774 s.v. עַתָּה 1.b). In Hosea it normally introduces imminent judgment (Hos 2:12; 4:16; 5:7; 8:8, 13; 10:2).
Hosea 2:10 tn Heb “her lewdness” (so KJV, NIV); cf. NAB, NRSV “her shame.”
Hosea 2:10 tn Heb “out of my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); cf. TEV “save her from my power.”
Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “my wages.” The words “for prostitution” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied for clarity; cf. CEV “gave…as payment for sex.”
Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
Hosea 2:12 tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18.
Hosea 2:13 tn Heb “the days of the Baals, to whom she burned incense.” The word “festival” is supplied to clarify the referent of “days,” and the word “idols” is supplied in light of the plural “Baals” (cf. NLT “her images of Baal”).
Hosea 2:13 tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, v^eʾoti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.
Hosea 2:13 tn The accusative direct-object pronoun וְאֹתִי (v^eʾoti, “me”) is emphatic in the word order of this clause (cf. NIV “but me she forgot”), emphasizing the heinous inappropriateness of Israel’s departure from the Lord.
Hosea 2:14 tn The participle מְפַתֶּיהָ (m^efatteha, Piel participle masculine singular + third feminine singular suffix from פָּתָה, patah, “to allure”) following the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “Now!”) describes an event that will occur in the immediate or near future.
Hosea 2:14 tn Following the future-time-referent participle (מְפַתֶּיהָ, méfatteha), there is a string of perfects introduced by vav consecutive that refer to future events.
Hosea 2:15 tn Heb “Valley of Achor,” so named because of the unfortunate incident recorded in Josh 7:1-26 (the name is explained in v. 26; the Hebrew term Achor means “disaster” or “trouble” [cf. TEV, CEV “Trouble Valley”]).
Hosea 2:15 tn Heb “door” or “doorway”; cf. NLT “gateway.” Unlike the days of Joshua, when Achan’s sin jeopardized Israel’s mission and cast a dark shadow over the nation, Israel’s future return to the land will be marked by renewed hope.
Hosea 2:15 tn Heb “as in the days of her youth” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
Hosea 2:15 tn Heb “as in the day when” (so KJV, NASB).

Luke 8:22-25

Stilling of a Storm

²²One^[a] day Jesus^[b] got into a boat^[c] with his disciples and said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So^[d] they set out, ²³and as they sailed he fell asleep. Now a violent windstorm^[e] came down on the lake,^[f] and the boat^[g] started filling up with water, and they were in danger. ²⁴They^[h] came^[i] and woke him, saying, “Master, Master,^[j] we are about to die!” So^[k] he got up and rebuked^[l] the wind and the raging waves;^[m] they died down, and it was calm. ²⁵Then^[n] he said to them, “Where is your faith?”^[o] But they were afraid and amazed,^[p] saying to one another, “Who then is this? He commands even the winds and the water,^[q] and they obey him!”

Footnotes

Luke 8:22 tn Grk “Now it happened that one.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here δέ (de) has not been translated either.
Luke 8:22 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Luke 8:22 sn A boat that held all the disciples would be of significant size. See the note at Luke 5:3 for a description of the first-century fishing boat discovered in 1986 near Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Luke 8:22 tn Grk “lake, and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the response to Jesus’ request. In addition, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
Luke 8:23 tn Or “a squall.”
Luke 8:23 sn A violent windstorm came down on the lake. The Sea of Galilee is located in a depression some 700 ft (200 m) below sea level and is surrounded by hills. Frequently a rush of wind and the right mix of temperatures can cause a storm to come suddenly on the lake. Storms on the Sea of Galilee were known for their suddenness and violence.
Luke 8:23 tn Grk “they were being swamped,” but English idiom speaks of the boat being swamped rather than the people in it, so the referent (the boat) has been supplied to reflect this usage.
Luke 8:24 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Luke 8:24 tn The participle προσελθόντες (proselthontes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
Luke 8:24 tn The double vocative shows great emotion.
Luke 8:24 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the connection to the preceding events.
Luke 8:24 tn Or “commanded” (often with the implication of a threat, L&N 33.331).
Luke 8:24 sn Who has authority over the seas and winds is discussed in the OT: Pss 104:3; 135:7; 107:23-30. When Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waves he was making a statement about who he was.
Luke 8:25 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
Luke 8:25 sn “Where is your faith?” The call is to trust God and realize that those who exercise faith can trust in his care.
Luke 8:25 sn The combination of fear and respect (afraid and amazed) shows that the disciples are becoming impressed with the great power at work in Jesus, a realization that fuels their question. For a similar reaction, see Luke 5:9.
Luke 8:25 sn Jesus’ authority over creation raised a question for the disciples about who he was exactly (“Who then is this?”). This verse shows that the disciples followed Jesus even though they did not know all about him yet.

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 85[a]

For the music director, written by the Korahites, a psalm.

Footnotes

Idolatrous Israel Will Be Punished Like a Prostitute

The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

Agricultural Fertility Withdrawn from Israel

Future Repentance and Restoration of Israel

Footnotes

Stilling of a Storm

Footnotes

Psalm 85^[a]