◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 139:13-18 (Wonderful are God’s works); Genesis 35:16-29 (Benjamin is born; Rachel Isaac die); Matthew 12:15-21 (God’s chosen servant) (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 139:13-18

¹³Certainly^[a] you made my mind and heart;^[b]
you wove me together^[c] in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing.^[d]
You knew me thoroughly;^[e]
¹⁵my bones were not hidden from you,
when^[f] I was made in secret
and sewed together in the depths of the earth.^[g]
¹⁶Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb.^[h]
All the days ordained for me
were recorded in your scroll
before one of them came into existence.^[i]
¹⁷How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God!^[j]
How vast is their sum total.^[k]
¹⁸If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you.^[l]

Footnotes

Psalm 139:13 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 139:13 tn Heb “my kidneys.” The kidneys were sometimes viewed as the seat of one’s emotions and moral character (cf. Pss 7:9; 26:2). A number of translations, recognizing that “kidneys” does not communicate this idea to the modern reader, have generalized the concept: “inmost being” (NAB, NIV); “inward parts” (NASB, NRSV); “the delicate, inner parts of my body” (NLT). In the last instance, the focus is almost entirely on the physical body rather than the emotions or moral character. The present translation, by using a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms), links the concepts of emotion (heart) and moral character (mind).
Psalm 139:13 tn The Hebrew verb סָכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave together”) is an alternate form of שָׂכַךְ (sakhakh, “to weave”) used in Job 10:11.
Psalm 139:14 tc Heb “because awesome things, I am distinct, amazing [are] your works.” The text as it stands is syntactically problematic and makes little, if any, sense. The Niphal of פָּלָה (palah) occurs elsewhere only in Exod 33:16. Many take the form from פָלָא (palaʾ; see GKC 216 §75.qq), which in the Niphal perfect means “to be amazing” (see 2 Sam 1:26; Ps 118:23; Prov 30:18). Some, following the LXX and some other ancient witnesses, also prefer to emend the verb from first to second person, “you are amazing” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 249, 251). The present translation assumes the text conflates two variants: נִפְלָאִים (niflaʾim), the otherwise unattested masculine plural participle of פָלָא, and נִפְלָאוֹת (niflaʾot), the usual (feminine) plural form of the Niphal participle. The latter has been changed to a verb by later scribes in an attempt to accommodate it syntactically. The original text likely read, נוראות נפלאותים מעשׂיך (“your works [are] awesome [and] amazing”).
Psalm 139:14 tc Heb “and my being knows very much.” Better parallelism is achieved (see v. 15a) if one emends יֹדַעַת (yodaʿat), a Qal active participle, feminine singular form, to יָדַעְתָּ (yadaʿta), a Qal perfect second masculine singular perfect. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252.
Psalm 139:15 tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (kaʾasher, “when”). The כ (kaf) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).
Psalm 139:15 sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.
Psalm 139:16 tn Heb “Your eyes saw my shapeless form.” The Hebrew noun גֹּלֶם (golem) occurs only here in the OT. In later Hebrew the word refers to “a lump, a shapeless or lifeless substance,” and to “unfinished matter, a vessel wanting finishing” (Jastrow 222 s.v. גּוֹלֶם). The translation employs the dynamic rendering “when I was inside the womb” to clarify that the speaker was still in his mother’s womb at the time he was “seen” by God.
Psalm 139:16 tn Heb “and on your scroll all of them were written, [the] days [which] were formed, and [there was] not one among them.” This “scroll” may be the “scroll of life” mentioned in Ps 69:28 (see the note on the word “living” there).
Psalm 139:17 tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).
Psalm 139:17 tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.
Psalm 139:18 tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.

Genesis 35:16-29

¹⁶They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away,^[a] Rachel went into labor^[b]—and her labor was hard. ¹⁷When her labor was at its hardest,^[c] the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.”^[d] ¹⁸With her dying breath,^[e] she named him Ben Oni.^[f] But his father called him Benjamin instead.^[g] ¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).^[h] ²⁰Jacob set up a marker^[i] over her grave; it is^[j] the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day.

²¹Then Israel traveled on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.^[k] ²²While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went to bed with^[l] Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had twelve sons:

²³The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, as well as Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
²⁴The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali.
²⁶The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

²⁷So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre,^[m] to Kiriath Arba^[n] (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.^[o] ²⁸Isaac lived to be 180 years old.^[p] ²⁹Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors.^[q] He died an old man who had lived a full life.^[r] His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Footnotes

Genesis 35:16 tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”
Genesis 35:16 tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”
Genesis 35:17 tn The construction uses a Hiphil infinitive, which E. A. Speiser classifies as an elative Hiphil. The contrast is with the previous Piel: there “she had hard labor,” and here, “her labor was at its hardest.” Failure to see this, Speiser notes, has led to redundant translations and misunderstandings (Genesis [AB], 273).
Genesis 35:17 sn Another son. The episode recalls and fulfills the prayer of Rachel at the birth of Joseph (Gen 30:24): “may he add” another son.
Genesis 35:18 tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.
Genesis 35:18 sn The name Ben Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.
Genesis 35:18 tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.sn His father called him Benjamin. There was a preference for giving children good or positive names in the ancient world, and “son of my suffering” would not do (see the incident in 1 Chr 4:9-10), because it would be a reminder of the death of Rachel (in this connection, see also D. Daube, “The Night of Death,” HTR 61 [1968]: 629-32). So Jacob named him Benjamin, which means “son of the [or “my”] right hand.” The name Benjamin appears in the Mari texts. There have been attempts to connect this name to the resident tribe listed at Mari, “sons of the south” (since the term “right hand” can also mean “south” in Hebrew), but this assumes a different reading of the story. See J. Muilenburg, “The Birth of Benjamin,” JBL 75 (1956): 194-201.
Genesis 35:19 sn This explanatory note links the earlier name Ephrath with the later name Bethlehem.
Genesis 35:20 tn Heb “standing stone.”
Genesis 35:20 tn Or perhaps “it is known as” (cf. NEB).
Genesis 35:21 sn The location of Migdal Eder is not given. It appears to be somewhere between Bethlehem and Hebron. Various traditions have identified it as at the shepherds’ fields near Bethlehem (the Hebrew name Migdal Eder means “tower of the flock”; see Mic 4:8) or located it near Solomon’s pools.
Genesis 35:22 tn Heb “lay down with.” The verb שָׁכַב (shakhav) “to lie down” can imply going to bed to sleep or be a euphemism for sexual relations.sn Reuben’s act of having sexual relations with Bilhah probably had other purposes than merely satisfying his sexual desire. By having sex with Bilhah, Reuben (Leah’s oldest son) would have prevented Bilhah from succeeding Rachel as the favorite wife, and by sleeping with his father’s concubine he would also be attempting to take over leadership of the clan—something Absalom foolishly attempted later on in Israel’s history (2 Sam 16:21-22).
Genesis 35:27 tn This is an adverbial accusative of location.
Genesis 35:27 tn The name “Kiriath Arba” is in apposition to the preceding name, “Mamre.”
Genesis 35:27 tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” refers to temporary settlement without ownership rights.
Genesis 35:28 tn Heb “And the days of Isaac were 180 years.”
Genesis 35:29 tn Heb “and Isaac expired and died and he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.
Genesis 35:29 tn Heb “old and full of years.”

Matthew 12:15-21

God’s Special Servant

¹⁵Now when Jesus learned of this, he went away from there. Great^[a] crowds^[b] followed him, and he healed them all. ¹⁶But he sternly warned them not to make him known. ¹⁷This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:^[c]

¹⁸“Here is^[d] my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I take great delight.^[e]
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
¹⁹He will not quarrel or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
²⁰He will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick,
until he brings justice to victory.
²¹And in his name the Gentiles^[f] will hope.”^[g]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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God’s Special Servant

Footnotes