◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 117 (God’s faithfulness endures forever); Jeremiah 30:18-24 (You shall be my people); Revelation 22:8-21 (Surely I am coming soon) (New English Translation)

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November 22, 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 117

Psalm 117^[a]

117 Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Applaud him, all you foreigners.^[b]
²For his loyal love towers^[c] over us,
and the Lord’s faithfulness endures.
Praise the Lord.

Jeremiah 30:18-24

The Lord Will Restore Israel and Judah

¹⁸The Lord says:

“I will restore the ruined houses of the descendants of Jacob.
I will show compassion on their ruined homes.^[a]
Every city will be rebuilt on its former ruins.^[b]
Every fortified dwelling will occupy its traditional site.^[c]
¹⁹Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving^[d]
and the sounds of laughter and merriment.
I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away.^[e]
I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.
²⁰The descendants of Jacob will enjoy their former privileges.
Their community will be reestablished in my favor,^[f]
and I will punish all who try to oppress them.
²¹One of their own people will be their leader.
Their ruler will come from their own number.^[g]
I will invite him to approach me, and he will do so.^[h]
For no one would dare approach me on his own.^[i]
I, the Lord, affirm it!^[j]
²²Then you will again be my people,
and I will be your God.^[k]
²³Just watch! The wrath of the Lord
will come like a storm.
Like a raging storm it will rage down
on the heads of those who are wicked.
²⁴The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has fully carried out his intended purposes.
In future days you will come to understand this.^[l]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 30:18 tn Heb “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and will have compassion on his habitations.” For the meaning of the idiom “restore the fortunes of,” see the translator’s note on 29:14. The “tents of Jacob” refer to their homes or houses (see BDB 14 s.v. אֹהֶל 2, and compare usage in Judg 19:9 and Mal 2:12). The word “ruined” has been supplied in the translation to show more clearly the idea of restoration of their houses on their former sites, in conformity to the concepts in the latter half of the verse.
Jeremiah 30:18 sn Heb “on its tel.” A tel is a site where successive layers of occupation are built upon one another after the destruction or decay of the former city. The original site was not abandoned because it had been chosen for strategic purposes, such as proximity to water or ease of defense. Many modern archaeological sites have the designation “Tel” as a component of their name because of this practice.
Jeremiah 30:18 tn Heb “according to its custom [or plan].” See BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 6.d, and compare usage in 1 Sam 27:11.
Jeremiah 30:19 tn Heb “Out of them will come thanksgiving and a sound of those who are playful.”
Jeremiah 30:19 sn Compare Jer 29:6.
Jeremiah 30:20 tn Heb “his children will be as in former times, and his congregation/community will be established before me.” “His” in the phrase “his children” refers to “Jacob,” who was mentioned in v. 18 in the phrase “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob.” “His children” are thus the restored exiles. Some commentaries see the reference here to the restoration of numbers in accordance with the previous verse. However, the last line of this verse and the reference to the ruler in the following verse suggest rather restoration of the religious and political institutions to their former state. For the use of the word translated “community” (עֵדָה, ʿedah) to refer to a political congregation, as well as its normal use to denote a religious one, see 1 Kgs 12:20. For the idea of “in my favor” (i.e., under the eye and regard of) for the Hebrew phrase used here (לְפָנַי, l^efanay), see BDB 817 s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a(b).
Jeremiah 30:21 sn The statement their ruler will come from their own number accords with the regulation in Deut 17:15. They would not be ruled by a foreign leader but by one of their own people. In v. 9 he is specifically said to come from the Davidic line. See the study note there.
Jeremiah 30:21 sn Ordinarily this prerogative was confined to the priests and the Levites and even then under strict regulations (cf., e.g., Num 8:19; 16:10; Lev 16:10; 21:17; 22:3). Uzziah, king of Judah, violated this and suffered leprosy for having done so (2 Chr 26:16-20). It is clear, however, that both David and Solomon on occasion exercised priestly functions in the presence of the ark or the altar, which it was normally lawful for only the priests to approach (cf., e.g., 2 Sam 6:13-14; 1 Kgs 8:22, 54-55). The invited approach here is probably not for normal prerogatives of offering sacrifice or burning incense but for access to God’s special presence at special times with the purpose of consultation.
Jeremiah 30:21 tn Heb “For who is he who would pledge his heart to draw near to me?” The question is a rhetorical one expecting the answer “no one” and is a way of expressing an emphatic negative (see BDB 566 s.v. מִי f[c]). The concept of “pledging” something refers to putting up security in guarantee of payment. Here the word is used figuratively of “putting up one’s heart [i.e., his very being (cf. BDB 524 s.v. לֵב 7, and Ps 22:26)]” for the privilege of access to God. The rhetorical question denies that any one would do that if he were not bidden by God to do so.
Jeremiah 30:21 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”
Jeremiah 30:22 sn This was their highest privilege (cf. Exod 6:7, Lev 26:12; Jer 24:7) but also their greatest responsibility (cf. Jer 7:3; 11:4). It is a formula referring to a covenant relationship in which God pledges to protect, provide, and be present with his people and they in turn promise to be loyal and obedient to him (see Deut 26:17-18; 29:10-13).
Jeremiah 30:24 sn Jer 30:23-24 are almost a verbatim repetition of 23:19-20. There the verses were addressed to the people of Jerusalem as a warning that the false prophets had no intimate awareness of the Lord’s plans, which were plans of destruction for wicked Israel, not plans of peace and prosperity. Here they function as further assurance that the Lord will judge the wicked nations oppressing them when he reverses their fortunes and restores them once again to the land as his special people (cf. vv. 18-22).

Revelation 22:8-21

⁸I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things,^[a] and when I heard and saw them,^[b] I threw myself down^[c] to worship at the feet of the angel who was showing them to me. ⁹But^[d] he said to me, “Do not do this!^[e] I am a fellow servant^[f] with you and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who obey^[g] the words of this book. Worship God!” ¹⁰Then^[h] he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near. ¹¹The evildoer must continue to do evil,^[i] and the one who is morally filthy^[j] must continue to be filthy. The^[k] one who is righteous must continue to act righteously, and the one who is holy must continue to be holy.”

¹²(Look ! I am coming soon,
and my reward is with me to pay^[l] each one according to what he has done!
¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last,
the beginning and the end!)^[m]

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access^[n] to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers^[o] and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood!^[p]

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star!”^[q] ¹⁷And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.

¹⁸I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described^[r] in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life^[s] and in the holy city that are described in this book.

²⁰The one who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! ²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.^[t]

Footnotes

Revelation 22:8 tn Or “I am John, the one who heard and saw these things.”
Revelation 22:8 tn The pronoun “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
Revelation 22:8 tn Grk “I fell down and worshiped at the feet.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
Revelation 22:9 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.
Revelation 22:9 tn On the elliptical expression ὅρα μή (hora mē) BDAG 720 s.v. ὁράω B.2 states: “Elliptically…ὅρα μή (sc. ποιήσῃς) watch out! don’t do that! Rv 19:10; 22:9.”
Revelation 22:9 tn Grk “fellow slave.” Though σύνδουλος (sundoulos) is here translated “fellow servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
Revelation 22:9 tn Grk “keep” (an idiom for obedience).
Revelation 22:10 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
Revelation 22:11 tn Grk “must do evil still.”
Revelation 22:11 tn For this translation see L&N 88.258; the term refers to living in moral filth.
Revelation 22:11 tn Grk “filthy, and the.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek, but because of the length and complexity of the construction a new sentence was started in the translation.
Revelation 22:12 tn The Greek term may be translated either “pay” or “pay back” and has something of a double meaning here. However, because of the mention of “wages” (“reward,” another wordplay with two meanings) in the previous clause, the translation “pay” for ἀποδοῦναι (apodounai) was used here.
Revelation 22:13 sn These lines are parenthetical, forming an aside to the narrative. The speaker here is the Lord Jesus Christ himself rather than the narrator.
Revelation 22:14 tn Grk “so that there will be to them authority over the tree of life.”
Revelation 22:15 tn On the term φάρμακοι (pharmakoi) see L&N 53.101.
Revelation 22:15 tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”
Revelation 22:16 tn On this expression BDAG 892 s.v. πρωϊνός states, “early, belonging to the morning ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρ. the morning star, Venus Rv 2:28; 22:16.”
Revelation 22:18 tn Grk “written.”
Revelation 22:19 tc The Textus Receptus, on which the KJV rests, reads “the book” of life (ἀπὸ βίβλου, apo biblou) instead of “the tree” of life. When the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the NT he had access to no Greek mss for the last six verses of Revelation. So he translated the Latin Vulgate back into Greek at this point. As a result he created seventeen textual variants which were not in any Greek mss. The most notorious of these is this reading. It is thus decidedly inauthentic, while “the tree” of life, found in the best and virtually all Greek mss, is clearly authentic. The confusion was most likely due to an intra-Latin switch: The form of the word for “tree” in Latin in this passage is ligno; the word for “book” is libro. The two-letter difference accounts for an accidental alteration in some Latin mss; that “book of life” as well as “tree of life” is a common expression in the Apocalypse probably accounts for why this was not noticed by Erasmus or the KJV translators. (This textual problem is not discussed in NA²⁷.)
Revelation 22:21 tc Most mss (א M) read “amen” (ἀμήν, amēn) after “all” (πάντων, pantōn). It is, however, not found in other significant mss (A 1006 1841). It is easier to account for its addition than its omission from the text if original. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 117[a]

Footnotes

The Lord Will Restore Israel and Judah

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 117^[a]