◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 76 (God breaks the weapons of war); Isaiah 60:17-22 (Walls of salvation); Ephesians 4:25—5:2 (Be imitators of God) (New English Translation)

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November 14, 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 76

Psalm 76^[a]

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaph, a song.

76 God has revealed himself in Judah;^[b]
in Israel his reputation^[c] is great.
²He lives in Salem;^[d]
he dwells in Zion.^[e]
³There he shattered the arrows,^[f]
the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war.^[g] (Selah)
⁴You shine brightly and reveal your majesty,
as you descend from the hills where you killed your prey.^[h]
⁵The bravehearted^[i] were plundered;^[j]
they “fell asleep.”^[k]
All the warriors were helpless.^[l]
⁶At the sound of your battle cry,^[m] O God of Jacob,
both rider^[n] and horse “fell asleep.”^[o]
⁷You are awesome! Yes, you!
Who can withstand your intense anger?^[p]
⁸From heaven you announced what their punishment would be.^[q]
The earth^[r] was afraid and silent
⁹when God arose to execute judgment,
and to deliver all the oppressed of the earth. (Selah)
¹⁰Certainly^[s] your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise;^[t]
you reveal your anger in full measure.^[u]
¹¹Make vows to the Lord your God and repay them.
Let all those who surround him^[v] bring tribute to the awesome one.
¹²He humbles princes;^[w]
the kings of the earth regard him as awesome.^[x]

Footnotes

Psalm 76:1 sn Psalm 76. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior who destroys Israel’s enemies.
Psalm 76:1 tn Or “God is known in Judah.”
Psalm 76:1 tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
Psalm 76:2 sn Salem is a shorter name for Jerusalem (see Gen 14:18).
Psalm 76:2 tn Heb “and his place of refuge is in Salem, and his lair in Zion.” God may be likened here to a lion (see v. 4).
Psalm 76:3 tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.
Psalm 76:3 tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.sn This verse may allude to the miraculous defeat of the Assyrians in 701 b.c. (see Isa 36-37).
Psalm 76:4 tn Heb “radiant [are] you, majestic from the hills of prey.” God is depicted as a victorious king and as a lion that has killed its victims.
Psalm 76:5 tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).
Psalm 76:5 tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).
Psalm 76:5 tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”
Psalm 76:5 tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”
Psalm 76:6 tn Heb “from your shout.” The noun is derived from the Hebrew verb גָּעַר (gaʿar), which is often understood to mean “rebuke.” In some cases it is apparent that scolding or threatening is in view (see Gen 37:10; Ruth 2:16; Zech 3:2). However, in militaristic contexts this translation is inadequate, for the verb refers in this setting to the warrior’s battle cry, which terrifies and paralyzes the enemy. See A. Caquot, TDOT 3:53, and note the use of the verb in Pss 68:30; 106:9; Nah 1:4, as well as the related noun in Job 26:11; Pss 9:5; 18:15; 104:7; Isa 50:2; 51:20; 66:15.
Psalm 76:6 tn Or “chariot,” but even so the term is metonymic for the charioteer.
Psalm 76:6 tn Heb “he fell asleep, and [the] chariot and [the] horse.” Once again (see v. 5) “sleep” refers here to the “sleep” of death.
Psalm 76:7 tc Heb “and who can stand before you from the time of your anger?” The Hebrew expression מֵאָז (meʾaz, “from the time of”) is better emended to מֵאֹז (meʾoz, “from [i.e., “because of”] the strength of your anger”; see Ps 90:11).
Psalm 76:8 tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”
Psalm 76:8 tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.
Psalm 76:10 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 76:10 tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).
Psalm 76:10 tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.
Psalm 76:11 tn The phrase “all those who surround him” may refer to the surrounding nations (v. 12 may favor this), but in Ps 89:7 the phrase refers to God’s heavenly assembly.
Psalm 76:12 tn Heb “he reduces the spirit of princes.” According to HALOT 148 s.v. II בצר, the Hebrew verb בָּצַר (batsar) is here a hapax legomenon meaning “reduce, humble.” The statement is generalizing, with the imperfect tense highlighting God’s typical behavior.
Psalm 76:12 tn Heb “[he is] awesome to the kings of the earth.”

Isaiah 60:17-22

¹⁷Instead of bronze, I will bring you gold;
instead of iron, I will bring you silver;
instead of wood, I will bring you^[a] bronze;
instead of stones, I will bring you^[b] iron.
I will make prosperity^[c] your overseer,
and vindication your sovereign ruler.^[d]
¹⁸Sounds of violence will no longer be heard in your land,
or the sounds of^[e] destruction and devastation within your borders.
You will name your walls, ‘Deliverance,’
and your gates, ‘Praise.’
¹⁹The sun will no longer supply light for you by day,
nor will the moon’s brightness shine on you;
the Lord will be your permanent source of light—
the splendor of your God will shine upon you.^[f]
²⁰Your sun will no longer set;
your moon will not disappear;^[g]
the Lord will be your permanent source of light;
your time^[h] of sorrow will be over.
²¹All your people will be godly;^[i]
they will possess the land permanently.
I will plant them like a shoot;
they will be the product of my labor,
through whom I reveal my splendor.^[j]
²²The least of you will multiply into^[k] a thousand;
the smallest of you will become a large nation.
When the right time comes, I the Lord will quickly do this!”^[l]

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

²⁵Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor,^[a] because we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry and do not sin;^[b] do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger.^[c] ²⁷Do not give the devil an opportunity. ²⁸The one who steals must steal no longer; instead he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. ²⁹You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need,^[d] that it would give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice.^[e] ³²Instead,^[f] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

Live in Love

5 Therefore, be^[g] imitators of God as dearly loved children ²and live^[h] in love, just as Christ also loved us^[i] and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering^[j] to God.

Footnotes

Ephesians 4:25 sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.
Ephesians 4:26 sn A quotation from Ps 4:4. Although several translations render the phrase Be angry and do not sin as “If you are angry, do not sin” such is unlikely on a grammatical, lexical, and historical level (see D. B. Wallace, “᾿Οργίζεσθε in Ephesians 4:26: Command or Condition?” CTR 3 [1989]: 352-72). The idea of vv. 26-27 is as follows: Christians are to exercise a righteous indignation over sin in the midst of the believing community (v. 26a; note that v. 25 is restricting the discussion to those in the body of Christ). When other believers sin, such people should be gently and quickly confronted (v. 26b), for if the body of Christ does not address sin in its midst, the devil gains a foothold (v. 27). “Entirely opposite of the ‘introspective conscience’ view, this text seems to be a shorthand expression for church discipline, suggesting that there is a biblical warrant for δικαία ὀργή [dikaia orgē] (as the Greeks put it)—righteous indignation” (ExSyn 492).
Ephesians 4:26 tn The word παροργισμός (parorgismos), typically translated “anger” in most versions is used almost exclusively of the source of anger rather than the results in Greek literature (thus, it refers to an external cause or provocation rather than an internal reaction). The notion of “cause of your anger” is both lexically and historically justified. The apparently proverbial nature of the statement (“Do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger”) finds several remarkable parallels in Pss. Sol. 8:8-9: “(8) God laid bare their sins in the full light of day; All the earth came to know the righteous judgments of God. (9) In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger” (R. H. Charles’ translation). Not only is παροργισμός used, but righteous indignation against God’s own people and the laying bare of their sins in broad daylight are also seen.
Ephesians 4:29 tn Grk “but if something good for the building up of the need.” The final genitive τῆς χρείας (tēs chreias) may refer to “the need of the moment” or it may refer to the need of a particular person or group of people as the next phrase “give grace to those who hear” indicates.
Ephesians 4:31 tn Grk “with all malice.” This final phrase provides a cumulative point of focus for this list and presents a summary vice encompassing all the others. The translation attempts to make this nuance clear.
Ephesians 4:32 tc ‡ Although most witnesses have either δέ (de; P⁴⁹ א A D² Ψ 33 1505 1739^mg 2464 M lat) or οὖν (oun; D* F G 1175) here, a few significant mss lack a conjunction (P⁴⁶ B 0278 6 1739* 1881). If either conjunction were originally in the text, it is difficult to explain how the asyndetic construction could have arisen (although the dropping of δέ could have occurred via homoioteleuton). Further, although Hellenistic Greek rarely joined sentences without a conjunction, such does occur in the corpus Paulinum on occasion, especially to underscore a somber point. “Instead” has been supplied in the translation because of stylistic requirements, not textual basis. NA²⁸ places δέ in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
Ephesians 5:1 tn Or “become.”
Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripateō) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).
Ephesians 5:2 tc A number of significant witnesses have ὑμᾶς (humas, “you”; e.g., א*^,2b A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally valuable witnesses read ἡμᾶς (hēmas, “us”; P⁴⁶ א^2a D F G Ψ 0278 33 1505 1739 1881 2464 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, ēgapēsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (humin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being authentic.
Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosphoran kai thusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (eis osmēn euōdias, “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 76[a]

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaph, a song.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Live in Love

Footnotes

Psalm 76^[a]