◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 86:11-17 (Give strength to your servant); Jeremiah 42:18-22 (Warning people not to go to Egypt); Matthew 10:5-23 (Jesus speaks about persecution) (New English Translation)

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June 28, 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 86:11-17

¹¹O Lord, teach me how you want me to live.^[a]
Then I will obey your commands.^[b]
Make me wholeheartedly committed to you.^[c]
¹²O Lord, my God, I will give you thanks with my whole heart.
I will honor your name continually.^[d]
¹³For you will extend your great loyal love to me,^[e]
and will deliver my life^[f] from the depths of Sheol.^[g]
¹⁴O God, arrogant men attack me;^[h]
a gang^[i] of ruthless men, who do not respect you, seek my life.^[j]
¹⁵But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.
You are patient^[k] and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness.^[l]
¹⁶Turn toward me and have mercy on me.
Give your servant your strength.
Deliver this son of your female servant.^[m]
¹⁷Show me evidence of your favor.^[n]
Then those who hate me will see it and be ashamed,^[o]
for you, O Lord, will help me and comfort me.^[p]

Footnotes

Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “teach me your way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the moral principles he expects the psalmist to follow. See Pss 25:4; 27:11.
Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “I will walk in your truth.” The Lord’s commandments are referred to as “truth” here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will. See Ps 25:5.
Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “Bind my heart to the fearing of your name.” The verb translated “bind” occurs only here in the Piel stem. It appears twice in the Qal, meaning “be joined” in both cases (Gen 49:6; Isa 14:20). To “fear” God’s name means to have a healthy respect for him which in turn motivates one to obey his commands (see Pss 61:5; 102:15).
Psalm 86:12 tn Or “forever.”
Psalm 86:13 tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”
Psalm 86:13 tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.
Psalm 86:13 tn Or “lower Sheol.”
Psalm 86:14 tn Heb “rise up against me.”
Psalm 86:14 tn Or “assembly.”
Psalm 86:14 tn Heb “seek my life and do not set you before them.” See Ps 54:3.
Psalm 86:15 tn Heb “slow to anger.”
Psalm 86:15 tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”sn The psalmist’s confession of faith in this verse echoes Exod 34:6.
Psalm 86:16 tn Heb “the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 116:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The phrase may be used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant. Or it may be a reference to the psalmist’s own mother who also was a servant of the Lord.
Psalm 86:17 tn Heb “Work with me a sign for good.” The expression “work a sign” also occurs in Judg 6:17.
Psalm 86:17 tn After the imperative in the preceding line (“work”), the prefixed verb forms with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose or result.
Psalm 86:17 tn The perfect verbal forms are understood here as dramatic/rhetorical, expressing the psalmist’s certitude that such a sign from the Lord will be followed by his intervention. Another option is to understand the forms as future perfects (“for you, O Lord, will have helped me and comforted me”).

Jeremiah 42:18-22

¹⁸For^[a] the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel,^[b] says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse.^[c] You will never see this place again.’^[d]

¹⁹“The Lord has told you people who remain in Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be very sure of this: I warn you^[e] here and now.^[f] ²⁰You are making a fatal mistake.^[g] For you sent me to the Lord your God and asked me, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us what the Lord our God says, and we will do it.’^[h] ²¹This day^[i] I have told you what he said.^[j] But you do not want to obey the Lord your God by doing what he sent me to tell you.^[k] ²²So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 42:18 tn Or “Indeed.”
Jeremiah 42:18 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.
Jeremiah 42:18 tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.
Jeremiah 42:18 tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.
Jeremiah 42:19 tn Heb “Know for certain that I warn you…” The idea of “for certain” is intended to reflect the emphatic use of the infinitive absolute before the volitive use of the imperfect (see IBHS 587-88 §35.3.1h and 509 §31.5b). The substitution “of this:” for “that” has been made to shorten the sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.
Jeremiah 42:19 tn Heb “today.”
Jeremiah 42:20 tn Heb “you are erring at the cost of your own lives” (BDB 1073 s.v. תָּעָה Hiph.3 and HALOT 1626 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4; cf. BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3 and see parallels in 1 Kgs 2:23 and 2 Sam 23:17 for the nuance of “at the cost of your lives”). This fits the context better than “you are deceiving yourselves” (KBL 1035 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4). The reading here follows the Qere הִתְעֵיתֶם (hitʿetem) rather than the Kethib, which has a metathesis of י (yod) and ת (tav), i.e., הִתְעֵתֶים. The Greek text presupposes הֲרֵעֹתֶם (hareʿotem, “you have done evil”), but that reading is generally rejected as secondary.
Jeremiah 42:20 tn Heb “And according to all that the Lord our God says, thus declare to us, and we will act.” The restructuring of the sentence is intended to better reflect contemporary English style.
Jeremiah 42:21 tn Or “Today.”
Jeremiah 42:21 tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit and seem necessary for clarity.
Jeremiah 42:21 tn Heb “But you have not hearkened to the voice of [idiomatic for “obeyed”; see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.m] the Lord your God, namely [cf. BDB 252 s.v. וְ 1.b] in regard to [cf. BDB 514 s.v. לְ 5.f(c)] all about which he has sent me to you.” Because they have not yet expressed their refusal or their actual disobedience, several commentaries, sensing this apparent discrepancy, suggest that 42:19-22 are to be transposed after 43:1-3 (see, e.g., BHS note 18a; W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:275; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 252, 256, 258). However, there is no textual evidence for the transposition and little reason to suspect an early scribal error (in spite of Holladay’s suggestion). It is possible that Jeremiah here anticipates this answer in 43:1-3 through the response on their faces (so Bright, 256; F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 361). G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 249) also call attention to the stated intention in 41:17 and the fact that the strong warning in 42:15-17 seems to imply that a negative response is expected). The use of the perfect here is perhaps to be related to the perfect expressing resolve or determination (see IBHS 489 §30.5.1d). It seems conceivable that these two verses are part of a conditional sentence that has no formal introduction, i.e., “And if you will not obey…then you should know for certain that…” For examples of this kind of conditional statement with two clauses introduced by vav (ו), see Joüon 2:628-29 §167.b, and compare Jer 18:4 and Judg 6:13.

Matthew 10:5-23

⁵Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them as follows:^[a] “Do not go on a road that leads to Gentile regions^[b] and do not enter any Samaritan town.^[c] ⁶Go^[d] instead to the lost sheep^[e] of the house of Israel. ⁷As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead,^[f] cleanse lepers,^[g] cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. ⁹Do not take gold, silver, or copper^[h] in your belts, ¹⁰no bag^[i] for the journey, or an extra tunic,^[j] or sandals or staff,^[k] for the worker deserves his provisions. ¹¹Whenever^[l] you enter a town or village,^[m] find out who is worthy there^[n] and stay with them^[o] until you leave. ¹²As you enter the house, greet those within it.^[p] ¹³And if the house is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.^[q] ¹⁴And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, shake the dust off^[r] your feet as you leave that house or that town. ¹⁵I tell you the truth,^[s] it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah^[t] on the day of judgment than for that town!

Persecution of Disciples

¹⁶“I^[u] am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves,^[v] so be wise as serpents^[w] and innocent as doves.^[x] ¹⁷Beware^[y] of people, because they will hand you over to councils^[z] and flog^[aa] you in their synagogues.^[ab] ¹⁸And you will be brought before governors and kings^[ac] because of me, as a witness to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹Whenever^[ad] they hand you over for trial,^[ae] do not worry about how to speak or what to say,^[af] for what you should say will be given to you at that time.^[ag] ²⁰For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹“Brother^[ah] will hand over brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against^[ai] parents and have them put to death. ²²And you will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved! ²³Whenever^[aj] they persecute you in one town,^[ak] flee to another! I tell you the truth,^[al] you will not finish going through all the towns^[am] of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Footnotes

Matthew 10:5 tn Grk “instructing them, saying.”
Matthew 10:5 tn Grk “on the way/road of the Gentiles.” The objective genitive “of the Gentiles” indicates the direction (BDAG 554 s.v. ὁδός 1.a); the restriction is on the territory to be visited rather than contact with individual Gentiles or Samaritans (compare the mission of the seventy-two in Luke 10:4 where even standard greetings along the road are prohibited). sn Since Galilee was surrounded on all sides by Gentile territory except the south, where it bordered on Samaria, this restriction effectively limited the mission of the twelve to Galilee on this occasion.
Matthew 10:5 tn Grk “town [or city] of the Samaritans.”sn This is the only mention of Samaritans or Samaria in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 10:6 tn Grk “But go.” The Greek μᾶλλον (mallon, “rather, instead”) conveys the adversative nuance here so that δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 10:6 sn The imagery of lost sheep probably alludes to Jer 50:6, where the Jewish people have been abandoned by their leaders (“shepherds”) and allowed to go astray.
Matthew 10:8 tc The majority of Byzantine minuscules, along with a few other witnesses (C³ K L Γ Θ 579 700^txt* 1424^c sa mae), lack νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε (nekrous egeirete, “raise the dead”), most likely because of oversight due to a string of similar endings (-ετε in the second person imperatives, occurring five times in v. 8). The longer version of this verse is found in several diverse and ancient witnesses such as א B C* (D) N 0281^vid ƒ^{1, 13} 33 565 579^mg lat bo; P W Δ 348 sy^h have a word-order variation, but nevertheless include νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε. Although some Byzantine-text proponents charge the Alexandrian witnesses with theologically-motivated alterations toward heterodoxy, it is interesting to find a variant such as this in which the charge could be reversed (do the Byzantine scribes have something against the miracle of resurrection?). In reality, such charges of wholesale theologically-motivated changes toward heterodoxy are immediately suspect due to lack of evidence of intentional changes (here the change is evidently due to accidental omission).
Matthew 10:8 sn See the note on leper in Matt 8:2.
Matthew 10:9 sn The gold, silver, and copper probably represent varying degrees of provision, with gold the most valuable and copper the least. Jesus’ point appears to be that not even minimal provision (copper) was to be taken along, forcing the disciple to be totally dependent on God.
Matthew 10:10 tn Or “no traveler’s bag”; or possibly “no beggar’s bag” (L&N 6.145; BDAG 811 s.v. πήρα).
Matthew 10:10 tn Grk “two tunics,” that is, wearing one and carrying one as a spare. See the note on the word “tunic” in Matt 5:40.
Matthew 10:10 tn Mark 6:8 allows one staff. It is possible that Matthew’s “two” with regard to the tunics (NET “an extra tunic”) extends to cover the sandals and staff as well (although “staff” is singular), making this a summary (cf. Luke 9:3) meaning not taking an extra pair of sandals or an extra staff (like the tunics). It is also possible the expression is merely rhetorical for “traveling light” which has been rendered in two slightly different ways.sn The point of the prohibitions seems to be not so much urgency as total dependence on God. Lack of a staff, in particular, would leave the traveler extremely vulnerable to wild animals and robbers.
Matthew 10:11 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 10:11 tn Grk “Into whatever town or village you enter.” This acts as a distributive, meaning every town or village they enter; this is expressed more naturally in English as “whenever you enter a town or village.”
Matthew 10:11 tn Grk “in it” (referring to the city or village).
Matthew 10:11 tn Grk “there.” This was translated as “with them” to avoid redundancy in English and to clarify where the disciples were to stay.sn Jesus telling his disciples to stay with them in one house contrasts with the practice of religious philosophers in the ancient world who went from house to house begging. Staying in one location would give the disciples a base of operations for mission in the area as long as they were there.
Matthew 10:12 tn Grk “give it greetings.” The expression “give it greetings” is a metonymy; the “house” is put for those who live in it. The translation clarifies this because it sounds odd in contemporary English to speak of greeting a building.
Matthew 10:13 sn The response to these messengers determines how God’s blessing is bestowed—if the messengers are not welcomed, their blessing will return to them. Jesus shows just how important their mission is by this remark.
Matthew 10:14 sn To shake the dust off represented, on one level, shaking off the uncleanness from one’s feet; see Luke 10:11; Acts 13:51; 18:6. At another level, however, it is similar to a prophetic sign, representing the termination of all fellowship with those individuals or localities that have rejected the messengers along with their message of the coming kingdom of heaven. This in essence constitutes a sign of eschatological judgment, as confirmed in the following verse.
Matthew 10:15 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amēn), I say to you.”
Matthew 10:15 sn Sodom and Gomorrah were widely regarded as the most wicked of OT cities from the actions described in Gen 19:1-29; even in OT times their wickedness had become proverbial (Isa 1:9-10). The allusion to God’s judgment on these cities is not intended to indicate that they might be shown mercy on the day of judgment, but to warn that rejecting the messengers with their current message about the coming kingdom is even more serious than the worst sins of Sodom and Gomorrah and will result in even more severe punishment.
Matthew 10:16 tn Grk “Behold I.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
Matthew 10:16 sn This imagery of wolves is found in intertestamental Judaism (see Pss. Sol. 8:23, 30; also 1 Enoch 89:55). For more on the sheep imagery see H. Preisker and S. Schulz, TDNT 6:690. The imagery of sheep surrounded by wolves suggests violence, and prepares the hearers for the persecutions of disciples described in vv. 17-26.
Matthew 10:16 sn The craftiness of serpents is proverbial and can be traced as far back as Gen 3:1. As for how it applies to Jesus’ disciples sent out with the message of the coming kingdom, interpreters have been far less certain, and there is a great diversity of opinion.
Matthew 10:16 sn Doves were regarded in both Greek and Jewish culture of the first century as symbols of purity, integrity, and harmlessness (see H. Greeven, TDNT 6:65-67).
Matthew 10:17 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 10:17 sn Councils in this context has a non-technical sense referring to local judicial bodies (courts) attached to the Jewish synagogue (cf. BDAG 967 s.v. συνέδριον 1.a). These courts would be responsible for meting out justice and discipline within the Jewish community.
Matthew 10:17 tn Or “and have you flogged” (a causative sense). BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”
Matthew 10:17 sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.
Matthew 10:18 sn These statements look at persecution both from a Jewish context as the mention of councils and synagogues suggests, and from a Gentile one as the reference to governors and kings suggests. Some fulfillment of Jewish persecution can be seen in Acts 4:3; 5:17-18, 40-41; 6:12; 7:1-60; 8:1-3, and of Gentile persecution in Acts 25:2-12, 24-27.
Matthew 10:19 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 10:19 tn Or “hand you over into custody,” in particular “as a t.t. of police and courts ‘hand over into [the] custody [of]’” (BDAG 762 s.v. παραδίδωμι 1.b). In context some sort of trial is implied (cf. Luke 12:11).
Matthew 10:19 tn Grk “how or what you might speak.”
Matthew 10:19 tn Grk “in that hour.”
Matthew 10:21 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.sn The mention of father and child in the following clause indicates that brother here refers to actual siblings, the members of one’s own family.
Matthew 10:21 tn Or “will rebel against.”
Matthew 10:23 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
Matthew 10:23 tn The Greek word πόλις (polis) can mean either “town” or “city” depending on the context (BDAG 844 s.v. 1, “population center of varying size, city, town”).
Matthew 10:23 tn Grk “For truly (ἀμήν, amēn) I say to you.” Here γάρ (gar, “for”) has not been translated.
Matthew 10:23 tn The Greek word πόλις (polis), can mean either “town” or “city” (see previous note in this verse). “Town” was employed here to emphasize the large number of places to visit (not just the largest cities) and thus the extensive nature of the disciples’ ministry.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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Persecution of Disciples

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