◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 14 (Who seeks after God?); Jeremiah 4:13-21 29-31 (Judgment like a whirlwind); John 10:11-21 (Jesus the good shepherd) (New English Translation)

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September 10, 2022

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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 14

Psalm 14^[a]

For the music director, by David.

14 Fools say to themselves,^[b] “There is no God.”^[c]
They sin and commit evil deeds;^[d]
none of them does what is right.^[e]
²The Lord looks down from heaven^[f] at the human race,^[g]
to see if there is anyone who is wise^[h] and seeks God.^[i]
³Everyone rejects God;^[j]
they are all morally corrupt.^[k]
None of them does what is right,^[l]
not even one.
⁴All those who behave wickedly^[m] do not understand—^[n]
those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,
and do not call out to the Lord.
⁵They are absolutely terrified,^[o]
for God defends the godly.^[p]
⁶You want to humiliate the oppressed,^[q]
even though^[r] the Lord is their^[s] shelter.
⁷I wish the deliverance^[t] of Israel would come from Zion!
When the Lord restores the well-being of his people,^[u]
may Jacob rejoice,^[v]
may Israel be happy!^[w]

Footnotes

Psalm 14:1 sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.
Psalm 14:1 tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.
Psalm 14:1 sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).
Psalm 14:1 tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism—living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions—makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.
Psalm 14:1 tn Heb “there is none that does good.”
Psalm 14:2 sn The picture of the Lord looking down from heaven draws attention to his sovereignty over the world.
Psalm 14:2 tn Heb “upon the sons of man.”
Psalm 14:2 tn Or “acts wisely.” The Hiphil is exhibitive.
Psalm 14:2 sn Anyone who is wise and seeks God refers to the person who seeks to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him.
Psalm 14:3 tn Heb “everyone turns aside.”
Psalm 14:3 tn Heb “together they are corrupt.”
Psalm 14:3 tn Heb “there is none that does good.”
Psalm 14:4 tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.
Psalm 14:4 tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).
Psalm 14:5 tn Heb “there they are afraid [with] fear.” The perfect verbal form is probably used in a rhetorical manner; the psalmist describes the future demise of the oppressors as if it were already occurring. The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is also used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the wicked standing in fear at a spot that is this vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.). The cognate accusative following the verb emphasizes the degree of their terror.
Psalm 14:5 tn Heb “for God is with a godly generation.” The Hebrew noun דּוֹר (dor, “generation”) refers here to the general class of people who are characterized by godliness. See BDB 190 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.
Psalm 14:6 tn Heb “the counsel of the oppressed you put to shame.” Using a second person plural verb form, the psalmist addresses the wicked. Since the context indicates their attempt to harm the godly will be thwarted, the imperfect should be taken in a subjunctive (cf. NASB, NRSV) rather than an indicative manner (cf. NIV). Here it probably expresses their desire or intent (“want to humiliate”).
Psalm 14:6 tn It is unlikely that כִּי (ki) has a causal force here. The translation assumes a concessive force; another option is to understand an asseverative use (“certainly, indeed”).
Psalm 14:6 tn Heb “his.” The antecedent of the singular pronoun is the singular form עָנִי (ʿani, “oppressed”) in the preceding line. The singular is collective or representative here (and thus translated as plural, “they”).
Psalm 14:7 sn The deliverance of Israel. This refers metonymically to God, the one who lives in Zion and provides deliverance for Israel.
Psalm 14:7 tn Heb “turns with a turning [toward] his people.” The Hebrew term שְׁבוּת (sh^evut) is apparently a cognate accusative of שׁוּב (shuv).
Psalm 14:7 tn The verb form is jussive.
Psalm 14:7 tn Because the parallel verb is jussive, this verb, which is ambiguous in form, should be taken as a jussive as well.

Jeremiah 4:13-21

¹³Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds.^[a]
The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind.^[b]
His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”
I cry out,^[c] “We are doomed,^[d] for we will be destroyed!”
¹⁴O people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil^[e]
so that you may yet be delivered.
How long will you continue to harbor up
wicked schemes within you?
¹⁵For messengers are coming, heralding disaster,
from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim.^[f]
¹⁶They are saying,^[g]
“Announce to the surrounding nations,^[h]
‘The enemy is coming!’^[i]
Proclaim this message^[j] to Jerusalem:
‘Those who besiege cities^[k] are coming from a distant land.
They are ready to raise the battle cry against^[l] the towns in Judah.’
¹⁷They will surround Jerusalem^[m]
like men guarding a field^[n]
because they have rebelled against me,”
says the Lord.
¹⁸“The way you have lived and the things you have done^[o]
will bring this on you.
This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed.^[p]
The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart.”^[q]

¹⁹I said,^[r]

“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach!^[s]
I writhe in anguish.
Oh, the pain in my heart!^[t]
My heart pounds within me.
I cannot keep silent.
For I hear the sound of the trumpet;^[u]
the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul!^[v]
²⁰I see^[w] one destruction after another taking place,
so that the whole land lies in ruins.
I see our^[x] tents suddenly destroyed,
their^[y] curtains torn down in a mere instant.^[z]
²¹How long must I see the enemy’s battle flags
and hear the military signals of their bugles?”^[aa]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 4:13 tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent, and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.
Jeremiah 4:13 tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.
Jeremiah 4:13 tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the Lord’s. They are either those of the people or of Jeremiah. Taking them as Jeremiah’s parallels the interjection of Jeremiah’s response in 4:10 that is formally introduced.
Jeremiah 4:13 tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.
Jeremiah 4:14 tn Heb “O, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”
Jeremiah 4:15 tn Heb “For a voice declaring from Dan and making heard disaster from the hills of Ephraim.”
Jeremiah 4:16 tn The words “They are saying” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Jeremiah 4:16 tn The word “surrounding” is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.
Jeremiah 4:16 tc Or “Here they come!” Heb “Look!” or “Behold!” Or “Announce to the surrounding nations, indeed [or yes], proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers…’” The text is very elliptical here. Some of the modern English versions appear to be emending the text from הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) to either הֵנָּה (hennah, “these things”; so NEB), or הַזֶּה (hazzeh, “this”; so NIV). The solution proposed here is as old as the LXX, which reads, “Behold, they have come.”
Jeremiah 4:16 tn The words, “this message,” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to make the introduction of the quote easier.
Jeremiah 4:16 tn Heb “Besiegers.” For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city, compare Isa 1:8.
Jeremiah 4:16 tn Heb “They have raised their voices against.” The verb here, a vav (ו) consecutive with an imperfect, continues the nuance of the preceding participle “are coming.”
Jeremiah 4:17 tn Heb “will surround her.” The antecedent is Jerusalem in the preceding verse. The referent is again made explicit in the translation to avoid any possible lack of clarity. The verb form here emphasizes the fact as being as good as done (i.e., it is a prophetic perfect).
Jeremiah 4:17 sn There is some irony involved in the choice of the simile since the men guarding a field were there to keep thieves from getting in and stealing the crops. Here the besiegers are guarding the city to keep people from getting out.
Jeremiah 4:18 tn Heb “Your way and your deeds.”
Jeremiah 4:18 tn Heb “How bitter!”
Jeremiah 4:18 tn Heb “Indeed, it reaches to your heart.” The subject must be the pain alluded to in the last half of the preceding line; the verb is masculine, agreeing with the adjective translated “painful.” The only other possible antecedent, “punishment,” is feminine.
Jeremiah 4:19 tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the Lord’s promise of judgment to Jeremiah’s lament concerning it.
Jeremiah 4:19 tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”
Jeremiah 4:19 tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”
Jeremiah 4:19 tn Heb “ram’s horn.” But the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.
Jeremiah 4:19 tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “[to] my soul the battle cry.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).
Jeremiah 4:20 tn The words “I see” are not in the text here or at the beginning of the third line. They are supplied in the translation to show that this is Jeremiah’s vision of what will happen as a result of the invasion announced in 4:5-9, 11-17a.
Jeremiah 4:20 tn Heb “my.” This is probably not a reference to Jeremiah’s own tents since he foresees the destruction of the whole land. Jeremiah so identifies with the plight of his people that he sees the destruction of their tents as though they were his very own. It would probably lead to confusion to translate literally, and it is not uncommon in Hebrew laments for the community or its representative to speak of the community as an “I.” See, for example, the interchange between first singular and first plural pronouns in Ps 44:4-8.
Jeremiah 4:20 tn Heb “my.”
Jeremiah 4:20 tn It is not altogether clear what Jeremiah intends by the use of this metaphor. In all likelihood he means that the defenses of Israel’s cities and towns have offered no more resistance than nomads’ tents. However, in light of the fact that the word “tent” came to be used generically for a person’s home (cf. 1 Kgs 8:66; 12:16), it is possible here that Jeremiah is referring to the destruction of their homes and the resultant feeling of homelessness and loss of even elementary protection. Given the lack of certainty, the present translation is rather literal here.
Jeremiah 4:21 tn Heb “the sound of ram’s horns.” But the modern equivalent is “bugles” and is more readily understandable.

Jeremiah 4:29-31

²⁹At the sound of the approaching horsemen and archers
the people of every town will flee.
Some of them will hide in the thickets.
Others will climb up among the rocks.
All the cities will be deserted.
No one will remain in them.
³⁰And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction,^[a]
you accomplish nothing^[b] by wearing a beautiful dress,^[c]
decking yourself out in jewels of gold,
and putting on eye shadow!^[d]
You are making yourself beautiful for nothing.
Your lovers spurn you.
They want to kill you.^[e]
³¹In fact,^[f] I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor,
a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby.
It is the cry of Daughter Zion^[g] gasping for breath,
reaching out for help,^[h] saying, “I am done in!^[i]
My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

John 10:11-21

¹¹“I am the good^[a] shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life^[b] for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand,^[c] who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons^[d] the sheep and runs away.^[e] So the wolf attacks^[f] the sheep and scatters them. ¹³Because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep,^[g] he runs away.^[h]

¹⁴“I am the good shepherd. I^[i] know my own^[j] and my own know me— ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life^[k] for^[l] the sheep. ¹⁶I have^[m] other sheep that do not come from^[n] this sheepfold.^[o] I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice,^[p] so that^[q] there will be one flock and^[r] one shepherd. ¹⁷This is why the Father loves me^[s]—because I lay down my life,^[t] so that I may take it back again. ¹⁸No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down^[u] of my own free will.^[v] I have the authority^[w] to lay it down, and I have the authority^[x] to take it back again. This commandment^[y] I received from my Father.”

¹⁹Another sharp division took place among the Jewish people^[z] because of these words. ²⁰Many of them were saying, “He is possessed by a demon and has lost his mind!^[aa] Why do you listen to him?” ²¹Others said, “These are not the words^[ab] of someone possessed by a demon. A demon cannot cause the blind to see,^[ac] can it?”^[ad]

Footnotes

John 10:11 tn Or “model” (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:386, who argues that “model” is a more exact translation of καλός [kalos] here).
John 10:11 tn Or “The good shepherd dies willingly.”sn Jesus speaks openly of his vicarious death twice in this section (John 10:11, 15). Note the contrast: The thief takes the life of the sheep (10:10), the good shepherd lays down his own life for the sheep. Jesus is not speaking generally here, but specifically: He has his own substitutionary death on the cross in view. For a literal shepherd with a literal flock, the shepherd’s death would have spelled disaster for the sheep; in this instance it spells life for them (Compare the worthless shepherd of Zech 11:17, by contrast).
John 10:12 sn Jesus contrasts the behavior of the shepherd with that of the hired hand. This is a worker who is simply paid to do a job; he has no other interest in the sheep and is certainly not about to risk his life for them. When they are threatened, he simply runs away.
John 10:12 tn Grk “leaves.”
John 10:12 tn Or “flees.”
John 10:12 tn Or “seizes.” The more traditional rendering, “snatches,” has the idea of seizing something by force and carrying it off, which is certainly possible here. However, in the sequence in John 10:12, this action precedes the scattering of the flock of sheep, so “attacks” is preferable.
John 10:13 tn Grk “does not have a care for the sheep.”
John 10:13 tc The phrase “he runs away” is lacking in several significant mss (P^{44vid,45, 66, 75} א A*^vid B D L [W] Θ 1 33 1241 al co). Most likely it was added by a later scribe to improve the readability of vv. 12-13, which is one long sentence in Greek. It has been included in the translation for the same stylistic reasons.
John 10:14 tn Grk “And I.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
John 10:14 tn The direct object is frequently omitted in Greek and must be supplied from the context. Here it could be “sheep,” but Jesus was ultimately talking about “people.”
John 10:15 tn Or “I die willingly.”
John 10:15 tn Or “on behalf of” or “for the sake of.”
John 10:16 tn Grk “And I have.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
John 10:16 tn Or “that do not belong to”; Grk “that are not of.”
John 10:16 sn The statement I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold almost certainly refers to Gentiles. Jesus has sheep in the fold who are Jewish; there are other sheep which, while not of the same fold, belong to him also. This recalls the mission of the Son in 3:16-17, which was to save the world—not just the nation of Israel. Such an emphasis would be particularly appropriate to the author if he were writing to a non-Palestinian and primarily non-Jewish audience.
John 10:16 tn Grk “they will hear my voice.”
John 10:16 tn Grk “voice, and.”
John 10:16 tn The word “and” is not in the Greek text, but must be supplied to conform to English style. In Greek it is an instance of asyndeton (omission of a connective), usually somewhat emphatic.
John 10:17 tn Grk “Because of this the Father loves me.”
John 10:17 tn Or “die willingly.”
John 10:18 tn Or “give it up.”
John 10:18 tn Or “of my own accord.” “Of my own free will” is given by BDAG 321 s.v. ἐμαυτοῦ c.
John 10:18 tn Or “I have the right.”
John 10:18 tn Or “I have the right.”
John 10:18 tn Or “order.”
John 10:19 tn Or perhaps “the Jewish religious leaders”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase could be taken to refer to the Jewish religious leaders, since the Pharisees were the last to be mentioned specifically by name, in John 9:40. However, in light of the charge about demon possession, which echoes 8:48, it is more likely that Jewish people in general (perhaps in Jerusalem, if that is understood to be the setting of the incident) are in view here.
John 10:20 tn Or “is insane.” To translate simply “he is mad” (so KJV, ASV, RSV; “raving mad” NIV) could give the impression that Jesus was angry, while the actual charge was madness or insanity.
John 10:21 tn Or “the sayings.”
John 10:21 tn Grk “open the eyes of the blind” (“opening the eyes” is an idiom referring to restoration of sight).
John 10:21 tn Questions prefaced with μή (mē) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “can it?”).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 14[a]

For the music director, by David.

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Psalm 14^[a]