◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 119:105-112 (The law is light); 2 Kings 23:1-8 21-25 (King Josiah keeps the law); 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 (Christ the light) (New English Translation)

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February 7, 2023

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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 119:105-112

נ (Nun)

¹⁰⁵Your word^[a] is a lamp to walk by,
and a light to illumine my path.^[b]
¹⁰⁶I have vowed and solemnly sworn
to keep your just regulations.
¹⁰⁷I am suffering terribly.
O Lord, revive me with your word.^[c]
¹⁰⁸O Lord, please accept the freewill offerings of my praise.^[d]
Teach me your regulations.
¹⁰⁹My life is in continual danger,^[e]
but I do not forget your law.
¹¹⁰The wicked lay a trap for me,
but I do not wander from your precepts.
¹¹¹I claim your rules as my permanent possession,
for they give me joy.^[f]
¹¹²I am determined to obey^[g] your statutes
at all times, to the very end.

2 Kings 23:1-8

The King Institutes Religious Reform

23 The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.^[a] ²The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud^[b] all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. ³The king stood by the pillar and renewed^[c] the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow^[d] the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being,^[e] by carrying out the terms^[f] of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant.^[g]

⁴The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests,^[h] and the guards^[i] to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of^[j] Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky.^[k] The king^[l] burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces^[m] of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵He eliminated^[n] the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices^[o] on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices^[p] to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) ⁶He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it.^[q] He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard.^[r] ⁷He tore down the quarters^[s] of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines^[t] for Asherah.

⁸He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined^[u] the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.^[v] He tore down the high place of the goat idols^[w] situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

Footnotes

2 Kings 23:1 tn Heb “and the king sent and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him.”
2 Kings 23:2 tn Heb “read in their ears.”
2 Kings 23:3 tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”
2 Kings 23:3 tn Heb “walk after.”
2 Kings 23:3 tn Or “soul.”
2 Kings 23:3 tn Heb “words.”
2 Kings 23:3 tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”
2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
2 Kings 23:4 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “for.”
2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 Kings 23:4 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
2 Kings 23:5 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
2 Kings 23:5 tn Or “burn incense.”
2 Kings 23:5 tn Or “burned incense.”
2 Kings 23:6 tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
2 Kings 23:6 tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.” tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.
2 Kings 23:7 tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
2 Kings 23:7 tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.
2 Kings 23:8 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
2 Kings 23:8 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
2 Kings 23:8 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hash^eʿarim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.

2 Kings 23:21-25

²¹The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.” ²²He issued this edict because^[a] a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges who led Israel; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah.^[b] ²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.

²⁴Josiah also got rid of^[c] the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits,^[d] the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images,^[e] and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law^[f] recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple. ²⁵No king before or after repented before the Lord as he did, with his whole heart, soul, and being in accordance with the whole law of Moses.^[g]

2 Corinthians 4:1-12

Paul’s Perseverance in Ministry

4 Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy,^[a] we do not become discouraged.^[b] ²But we have rejected^[c] shameful hidden deeds,^[d] not behaving^[e] with deceptiveness^[f] or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. ³But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, ⁴among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe^[g] so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel^[h] of Christ,^[i] who is the image of God. ⁵For we do not proclaim^[j] ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves^[k] for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[l] is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge^[m] of God in the face of Christ.^[n]

An Eternal Weight of Glory

⁷But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power^[o] belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸We are experiencing trouble on every side,^[p] but are not crushed; we are perplexed,^[q] but not driven to despair; ⁹we are persecuted, but not abandoned;^[r] we are knocked down,^[s] but not destroyed, ¹⁰always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus,^[t] so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible^[u] in our body. ¹¹For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible^[v] in our mortal body.^[w] ¹²As a result,^[x] death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.^[y]

Footnotes

2 Corinthians 4:1 tn Grk “just as we have been shown mercy”; ἠλεήθημεν (ēleēthēmen) has been translated as a “divine passive” which is a circumlocution for God as the active agent. For clarity this was converted to an active construction with God as subject in the translation.
2 Corinthians 4:1 tn Or “we do not lose heart.”
2 Corinthians 4:2 tn L&N 13.156; the word can also mean “to assert opposition to,” thus here “we have denounced” (L&N 33.220).
2 Corinthians 4:2 tn Grk “the hidden things [deeds] of shame”; here αἰσχύνης (aischunēs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
2 Corinthians 4:2 tn Or “not conducting ourselves”; Grk “not walking” (a common NT idiom for conduct, way of life, or behavior).
2 Corinthians 4:2 tn Or “craftiness.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 tn Or “of unbelievers.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 tn Grk “the gospel of the glory”; δόξης (doxēs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
2 Corinthians 4:4 tn Or “so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ would not be evident to them” (L&N 28.37).
2 Corinthians 4:5 tn Or “preach.”
2 Corinthians 4:5 tn Traditionally, “servants.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). One good translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος) in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force. Also, many slaves in the Roman world became slaves through Rome’s subjugation of conquered nations, kidnapping, or by being born into slave households.
2 Corinthians 4:6 sn An allusion to Gen 1:3; see also Isa 9:2.
2 Corinthians 4:6 tn Grk “the light of the knowledge of the glory”; δόξης (doxēs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
2 Corinthians 4:6 tc ‡ Most witnesses, including several early and significant ones (P⁴⁶ א C H Ψ 0209 1739^c M sy), read ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Iēsou Christou, “Jesus Christ”), while other significant witnesses, especially of the Western text (D F G 0243 630 1739* 1881 lat Ambst), have Χριστοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ. The reading with just Χριστοῦ is found in A B 33 sa Tert Or Ath Chr. Even though the witnesses for the shorter reading are not numerous, they are weighty. And in light of the natural scribal proclivity to fill out the text, particularly with reference to divine names, as well as the discrepancy among the witnesses as to the order of the names, the simple reading Χριστοῦ seems to be the best candidate for authenticity. NA²⁸ reads ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ with ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
2 Corinthians 4:7 tn Grk “the surpassingness of the power”; δυνάμεως (dunameōs) has been translated as an attributed genitive (“extraordinary power”).
2 Corinthians 4:8 tn Grk “we are hard pressed [by crowds] on every side.”
2 Corinthians 4:8 tn Or “at a loss.”
2 Corinthians 4:9 tn Or “forsaken.”
2 Corinthians 4:9 tn Or “badly hurt.” It is possible to interpret καταβαλλόμενοι (kataballomenoi) here as “badly hurt”: “[we are] badly hurt, but not destroyed” (L&N 20.21).
2 Corinthians 4:10 tn The first clause of 2 Cor 4:10 is elliptical and apparently refers to the fact that Paul was constantly in danger of dying in the same way Jesus died (by violence at least). According to L&N 23.99 it could be translated, “at all times we live in the constant threat of being killed as Jesus was.”
2 Corinthians 4:10 tn Or “may also be revealed.”
2 Corinthians 4:11 tn Or “may also be revealed.”
2 Corinthians 4:11 tn Grk “mortal flesh.”
2 Corinthians 4:12 tn Or “So then.”
2 Corinthians 4:12 tn Grk “death is at work in us, but life in you”; the phrase “is at work in” is repeated in the translation for clarity.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

נ (Nun)

Footnotes

The King Institutes Religious Reform

Footnotes

Footnotes

Paul’s Perseverance in Ministry

An Eternal Weight of Glory

Footnotes