◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 112:1-9 [10] (Light shines in the darkness); Isaiah 29:13-16 (Hearts far from God); Mark 7:1-8 (The hypocrisy of lip service) (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 112:1-9

Psalm 112^[a]

112 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one^[b] who obeys^[c] the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands.^[d]
²His descendants^[e] will be powerful on the earth;
the godly^[f] will be blessed.
³His house contains wealth and riches;
his integrity endures.^[g]
⁴In the darkness a light^[h] shines for the godly,
for each one who is merciful, compassionate, and just.^[i]
⁵It goes well for the one^[j] who generously lends money,
and conducts his business honestly.^[k]
⁶For he will never be shaken;
others will always remember one who is just.^[l]
⁷He does not fear bad news.
He^[m] is confident; he trusts in the Lord.
⁸His resolve^[n] is firm; he will not succumb to fear
before he looks in triumph on his enemies.
⁹He generously gives^[o] to the needy;
his integrity endures.^[p]
He will be vindicated and honored.^[q]

Footnotes

Psalm 112:1 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “fears.”
Psalm 112:1 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.
Psalm 112:2 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
Psalm 112:2 tn Heb “His seed will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the godly.” The Hebrew term דוֹר (dor, “generation”) could be taken as parallel to “offspring” and translated “posterity,” but the singular more likely refers to the godly as a class. See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.
Psalm 112:3 tn Heb “stands forever.”
Psalm 112:4 tn In this context “light” symbolizes divine blessing in its various forms (see v. 2), including material prosperity and stability.
Psalm 112:4 tn Heb “merciful and compassionate and just.” The Hebrew text has three singular adjectives, which are probably substantival and in apposition to the “godly” (which is plural, however). By switching to the singular, the psalmist focuses on each individual member of the group known as the “godly.” Note how vv. 5-9, like vv. 1-2a, use the singular to describe the representative godly individual who typifies the whole group.
Psalm 112:5 tn Heb “man.”
Psalm 112:5 tn Heb “he sustains his matters with justice.”
Psalm 112:6 tn Heb “for an eternal memorial a just [one] will be.”
Psalm 112:7 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition and emotions (see Ps 108:1).
Psalm 112:8 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition.
Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “he scatters, he gives.”
Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “stands forever.”
Psalm 112:9 tn Heb “his horn will be lifted up in honor.” The horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (see Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17).

Psalm 112:10

¹⁰When the wicked^[a] see this, they will worry;
they will grind their teeth in frustration^[b] and melt away.
The desire of the wicked will perish.^[c]

Isaiah 29:13-16

¹³The Lord^[a] says,
“These people say they are loyal to me;^[b]
they say wonderful things about me,^[c]
but they are not really loyal to me.^[d]
Their worship consists of
nothing but man-made ritual.^[e]
¹⁴Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people—
an absolutely extraordinary deed.^[f]
Wise men will have nothing to say,
the sages will have no explanations.”^[g]
¹⁵Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead,^[h]
who do their work in secret and boast,^[i]
“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?”^[j]
¹⁶Your thinking is perverse!^[k]
Should the potter be regarded as clay?^[l]
Should the thing made say^[m] about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Mark 7:1-8

Breaking Human Traditions

7 Now^[a] the Pharisees^[b] and some of the experts in the law^[c] who came from Jerusalem gathered around him. ²And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples^[d] ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed. ³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing,^[e] holding fast to the tradition of the elders. ⁴And when they come from the marketplace,^[f] they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.^[g])^[h] ⁵The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat^[i] with unwashed hands?” ⁶He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart^[j] is far from me.
⁷They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’^[k]

⁸Having no regard^[l] for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.”^[m]

Footnotes

Mark 7:1 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
Mark 7:1 sn See the note on Pharisees in 2:16.
Mark 7:1 tn Or “and some of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.
Mark 7:2 tn Grk “his disciples.”
Mark 7:3 tn Grk “except they wash the hands with a fist,” a ceremonial washing (though the actual method is uncertain).
Mark 7:4 sn See the note on marketplaces in Mark 6:56.
Mark 7:4 tc Several significant witnesses (P^45vid א B L Δ 28*) lack “and dining couches” (καὶ κλινῶν, kai klinōn), while the majority of mss (A D W Θ ƒ^1,13 33 M latt) have the reading. Although normally the shorter reading is to be preferred, especially when it is backed by excellent witnesses as in this case, there are some good reasons to consider καὶ κλινῶν as authentic: (1) Although the addition of κλινῶν could be seen as motivated by a general assimilation to the purity regulations in Lev 15 (as some have argued), there are three problems with such a supposition: (a) the word κλίνη (klinē) does not occur in the LXX of Lev 15; (b) nowhere in Lev 15 is the furniture washed or sprinkled; and (c) the context of Lev 15 is about sexual impurity, while the most recent evidence suggests that κλίνη in Mark 7:4, in keeping with the other terms used here, refers to a dining couch (cf. BDAG 549 s.v. κλίνη 2). Thus, it is difficult to see καὶ κλινῶν as a motivated reading. (2) κλίνη, though a relatively rare term in the NT, is in keeping with Markan usage (cf. Mark 4:21; 7:30). (3) The phrase could have been dropped accidentally, at least in some cases, via homoioteleuton. (4) The phrase may have been deliberately expunged by some scribes who thought the imagery of washing a dining couch quite odd. The longer reading, in this case, can thus be argued as the harder reading. On balance, even though a decision is difficult (especially because of the weighty external evidence for the shorter reading), it is preferable to retain καὶ κλινῶν in the text.
Mark 7:4 sn Verses 3-4 represent parenthetical remarks by the author, giving background information.
Mark 7:5 tn Grk “eat bread.”
Mark 7:6 tn The term “heart” is a collective singular in the Greek text.
Mark 7:7 sn A quotation from Isa 29:13.
Mark 7:8 tn Grk “Having left the command.”
Mark 7:8 tc The majority of mss, mostly Byzantine ([A] ƒ¹³ 33 M), have at the end of v. 8 material that seems to have come from v. 4 and v. 13: “the washing of pots and cups, and you do many other similar things.” A slight variation on the wording occurs at the very beginning of v. 8 in mostly Western witnesses (D Θ 0131^vid 28 565 it). Such floating texts are usually signs of scribal emendations. The fact that the earliest and most reliable mss, as well as other significant witnesses (P⁴⁵ א B L W Δ 0274 ƒ¹ co), lacked this material also strongly suggests that the longer reading is secondary.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 112[a]

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Breaking Human Traditions

Footnotes

Psalm 112^[a]