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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 57

Psalm 57^[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;^[b] a prayer^[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.^[d]

57 Have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me.
For in you I have taken shelter.^[e]
In the shadow of your wings^[f] I take shelter
until trouble passes.
²I cry out for help to God Most High,^[g]
to the God who vindicates^[h] me.
³May he send help from heaven and deliver me^[i]
from my enemies who hurl insults.^[j] (Selah)
May God send his loyal love and faithfulness.
⁴I am surrounded by lions;
I lie down^[k] among those who want to devour me,^[l]
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.^[m]
⁵Rise up^[n] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.^[o]
⁶They have prepared a net to trap me;^[p]
I am discouraged.^[q]
They have dug a pit for me.^[r]
They will fall^[s] into it. (Selah)
⁷I am determined,^[t] O God. I am determined.
I will sing and praise you.
⁸Awake, my soul!^[u]
Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!
I will wake up at dawn.^[v]
⁹I will give you thanks before the nations, O Lord.
I will sing praises to you before foreigners.^[w]
¹⁰For your loyal love extends beyond the sky,^[x]
and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.
¹¹Rise up^[y] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.^[z]

Footnotes

Psalm 57:1 sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.
Psalm 57:1 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 58-59, 75.
Psalm 57:1 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56, 58-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
Psalm 57:1 sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.
Psalm 57:1 tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.
Psalm 57:1 sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).
Psalm 57:2 sn The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ʿelyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.
Psalm 57:2 tn Or “avenges in favor of.”
Psalm 57:3 tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).
Psalm 57:3 tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”
Psalm 57:4 tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (ʾeshk^evah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).
Psalm 57:4 tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).
Psalm 57:4 tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”
Psalm 57:5 tn Or “be exalted.”
Psalm 57:5 tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “for my feet.”
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “before me.”
Psalm 57:6 tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.
Psalm 57:7 tn Or perhaps “confident”; Heb “my heart is steadfast.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and/or emotions.
Psalm 57:8 tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (k^evedi, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”
Psalm 57:8 tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.
Psalm 57:9 tn Or “the peoples.”
Psalm 57:10 tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”
Psalm 57:11 tn Or “be exalted.”
Psalm 57:11 tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)

2 Samuel 15:13-31

David Flees from Jerusalem

¹³Then a messenger came to David and reported, “The men of Israel are loyal to Absalom!”^[a] ¹⁴So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Come on!^[b] Let’s escape!^[c] Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring^[d] disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.”^[e] ¹⁵The king’s servants replied to the king, “We will do whatever our lord the king decides.”^[f]

¹⁶So the king and all the members of his royal court^[g] set out on foot, though the king left behind ten concubines^[h] to attend to the palace. ¹⁷The king and all the people set out on foot, pausing^[i] at a spot^[j] some distance away. ¹⁸All his servants were leaving with him,^[k] along with all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites—some 600 men who had come on foot from Gath. They were leaving with^[l] the king.

¹⁹Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new^[m] king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country.^[n] ²⁰It seems as if you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men^[o] with you. May genuine loyal love^[p] protect^[q] you!”

²¹But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether it means death or life, there I^[r] will be as well!” ²²So David said to Ittai, “Come along then.”^[s] So Ittai the Gittite went along,^[t] accompanied by all his men and all the dependents^[u] who were with him.

²³All the land was weeping loudly^[v] as all these people were leaving.^[w] As the king was crossing over the Kidron Valley, all the people were leaving^[x] on the road that leads to the desert. ²⁴Zadok and all the Levites who were with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. When they positioned the ark of God, Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished leaving^[y] the city.

²⁵Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s sight he will bring me back and enable me to see both it and his dwelling place again. ²⁶However, if he should say, ‘I do not take pleasure in you,’ then he will deal with me in a way that he considers appropriate.”^[z]

²⁷The king said to Zadok the priest, “Are you a seer?^[aa] Go back to the city in peace! Your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan may go with you and Abiathar.^[ab] ²⁸Look, I will be waiting at the fords of the desert until word from you^[ac] reaches me.” ²⁹So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and remained there.

³⁰As David was going up the Mount of Olives, he was weeping as he went; his head was covered and his feet were bare. All the people who were with him also had their heads covered and were weeping as they went up. ³¹Now David^[ad] had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom.” So David prayed,^[ae] “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord.”

Footnotes

2 Samuel 15:13 tn Heb “the heart of the men of Israel is with Absalom.”
2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “Arise!”
2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “let’s flee.”
2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “thrust.”
2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
2 Samuel 15:15 tn Heb “according to all that my lord the king will choose, behold your servants!”
2 Samuel 15:16 tn Heb “and all his house.”
2 Samuel 15:16 tn Heb “women, concubines.”
2 Samuel 15:17 tn Heb “and they stood.”
2 Samuel 15:17 tn Heb “house.”
2 Samuel 15:18 tn Heb “crossing over near his hand.”
2 Samuel 15:18 tn Heb “crossing over near the face of.”
2 Samuel 15:19 tn The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.
2 Samuel 15:19 tn Heb “place.”
2 Samuel 15:20 tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.
2 Samuel 15:20 tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.
2 Samuel 15:20 tn Heb “be with.”
2 Samuel 15:21 tn Heb “your servant.”
2 Samuel 15:22 tn Heb “Come and cross over.”
2 Samuel 15:22 tn Heb “crossed over.”
2 Samuel 15:22 tn Heb “all the little ones.”
2 Samuel 15:23 tn Heb “with a great voice.”
2 Samuel 15:23 tn Heb “crossing over.”
2 Samuel 15:23 tn Heb “crossing near the face of.”
2 Samuel 15:24 tn Heb “crossing from.”
2 Samuel 15:26 tn Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”
2 Samuel 15:27 tn The Greek tradition understands the Hebrew word as an imperative (“see”). Most Greek mss have ἴδετε (idete); the Lucianic recension has βλέπε (blepe). It could just as well be taken as a question: “Don’t you see what is happening?” The present translation takes the word as a question, with the implication that Zadok is a priest and not a prophet (i.e., “seer”) and therefore unable to know what the future holds.
2 Samuel 15:27 tn Heb “And Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, two of your sons, with you.” The pronominal suffix on the last word is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.
2 Samuel 15:28 tn The pronoun is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.
2 Samuel 15:31 tc The translation follows 4QSam^a, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (v^edavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).
2 Samuel 15:31 tn Heb “said.”

Ephesians 5:1-14

Live in Love

5 Therefore, be^[a] imitators of God as dearly loved children ²and live^[b] in love, just as Christ also loved us^[c] and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering^[d] to God. ³But^[e] among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind,^[f] or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints.^[g] ⁴Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting—all of which are out of character—but rather thanksgiving. ⁵For you can be confident of this one thing:^[h] that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Live in the Light

⁶Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience.^[i] ⁷Therefore do not be sharers with them,^[j] ⁸for you were at one time darkness, but now you are^[k] light in the Lord. Live^[l] like children of light— ⁹for the fruit of the light^[m] consists in^[n] all goodness, righteousness, and truth— ¹⁰trying to learn^[o] what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather^[p] expose them.^[q] ¹²For the things they do^[r] in secret are shameful even to mention. ¹³But all things being exposed by the light are made visible. ¹⁴For everything made visible is light, and for this reason it says:^[s]

“Awake,^[t] O sleeper!^[u]
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!”^[v]

Footnotes

Ephesians 5:1 tn Or “become.”
Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripateō) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).
Ephesians 5:2 tc A number of significant witnesses have ὑμᾶς (humas, “you”; e.g., א*^,2b A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally valuable witnesses read ἡμᾶς (hēmas, “us”; P⁴⁶ א^2a D F G Ψ 0278 33 1505 1739 1881 2464 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, ēgapēsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (humin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being authentic.
Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosphoran kai thusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (eis osmēn euōdias, “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”
Ephesians 5:3 tn The term “But” translates the δέ (de) in a contrastive way in light of the perfect obedience of Jesus in vv. 1-2 and the vices mentioned in v. 3.
Ephesians 5:3 tn Grk “all impurity.”
Ephesians 5:3 tn Grk “just as is fitting for saints.” The καθώς (kathōs) was rendered with “as” and the sense is causal, i.e., “for” or “because.” The negative particle “not” (“for these are not proper for the saints”) in this clause was supplied in English so as to make the sense very clear, i.e., that these vices are not befitting of those who name the name of Christ.
Ephesians 5:5 tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prōton ginōskontes).
Ephesians 5:6 sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 2:2-3.
Ephesians 5:7 tn The genitive αὐτῶν (autōn) has been translated as a genitive of association because of its use with συμμέτοχοι (summetochoi)—a verb which implies association in the σύν- (sun-) prefix.
Ephesians 5:8 tn The verb “you are” is implied in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to make it clear.
Ephesians 5:8 tn Grk “Walk,” a common biblical idiom for one’s conduct of life.
Ephesians 5:9 tc Several mss (P⁴⁶ D² Ψ 1175* 1505 M) have πνεύματος (pneumatos, “Spirit”) instead of φωτός (phōtos, “light”). Although most today regard φωτός as obviously the reading of the initial text (UBS⁵ gives it an “A” rating), a case could be made that πνεύματος is what the author wrote. First, although this is largely a Byzantine reading (D² often, if not normally, assimilates to the Byzantine text), P⁴⁶ gives the reading much greater credibility. Internally, the φωτός at the end of v. 8 could have lined up above the πνεύματος in v. 9 in a scribe’s exemplar, thus occasioning dittography. (It is interesting to note that in both P⁴⁹ and א the two instances of φωτός line up.) However, written in a contracted form, as a nomen sacrum (pMnMs)—a practice found even in the earliest mss—πνεύματος would not have been easily confused with fwtos (there being only the last letter to occasion homoioteleuton rather than the last three). Further, the external evidence for φωτός is quite compelling (P⁴⁹ א A B D* F G P 33 81 1175^c 1739 1881 2464 latt co). It is thus doubtful that the early and widespread witnesses all mistook πνεύματος for φωτός. In addition, πνεύματος can be readily explained as harking back to Gal 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). Thus, on balance, φωτός appears to be autographic, giving rise to the reading πνεύματος.
Ephesians 5:9 tn Grk “in.” The idea is that the fruit of the light is “expressed in” or “consists of.”
Ephesians 5:10 tn BDAG 255 s.v. δοκιμάζω 1 translates δοκιμάζοντες (dokimazontes) in Eph 5:10 as “try to learn.”
Ephesians 5:11 tn The Greek conjunction καὶ (kai) seems to be functioning here ascensively, (i.e., “even”), but is difficult to render in this context using good English. It may read something like: “but rather even expose them!”
Ephesians 5:11 tn Grk “rather even expose.”
Ephesians 5:12 tn The participle τὰ…γινόμενα (ta…ginomena) usually refers to “things happening” or “things which are,” but with the following genitive phrase ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν (hup’ autōn), which indicates agency, the idea seems to be “things being done.” This passive construction was translated as an active one to simplify the English style.
Ephesians 5:14 sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.
Ephesians 5:14 tn Grk “Rise up.”
Ephesians 5:14 tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (ho katheudōn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. To reflect this, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”
Ephesians 5:14 sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19; 51:17; 52:1; and 60:1.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 57[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;[b] a prayer[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.[d]

Footnotes

David Flees from Jerusalem

Footnotes

Live in Love

Live in the Light

Footnotes

Psalm 57^[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;^[b] a prayer^[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.^[d]