◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 36:5-10 (We feast on the abundance of God’s house); Jeremiah 3:1-5 (Unfaithful Israel); Acts 8:18-24 (God’s gifts cannot be purchased) (New English Translation)

Prev Day

January 16, 2025

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

January 2025
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Return to today's reading

Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 36:5-10

⁵O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky,^[a]
your faithfulness to the clouds.^[b]
⁶Your justice is like the highest mountains,^[c]
your fairness like the deepest sea;
you, Lord, preserve^[d] mankind and the animal kingdom.^[e]
⁷How precious^[f] is your loyal love, O God!
The human race finds shelter under your wings.^[g]
⁸They are filled with food from your house,
and you allow them to drink from the river of your delicacies.
⁹For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.^[h]
¹⁰Extend^[i] your loyal love to your faithful followers,^[j]
and vindicate^[k] the morally upright.^[l]

Jeremiah 3:1-5

3 “If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,
he may not take her back again.^[a]
Doing that would utterly defile the land.^[b]
But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods.^[c]
So what makes you think you can return to me?”^[d]
says the Lord.
²“Look up at the hilltops and consider this.^[e]
Where have you not been ravished?^[f]
You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the wilderness.^[g]
You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.^[h]
³That is why the rains have been withheld
and the spring rains have not come.
Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute.^[i]
You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.
⁴Even now you say to me, ‘You are my father!^[j]
You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young.
⁵You will not always be angry with me, will you?
You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’^[k]
That is what you say,
but you continually do all the evil that you can.”^[l]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 3:1 tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.sn For the legal background for the illustration that is used here, see Deut 24:1-4.
Jeremiah 3:1 tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
Jeremiah 3:1 tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”
Jeremiah 3:1 tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive, which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative: “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.
Jeremiah 3:2 tn Heb “and see.”
Jeremiah 3:2 sn The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which asserts the widespread nature of the nation’s idolatry. The prophets often compare Judah’s religious infidelity, idolatry, to adultery or prostitution. Jeremiah goes a step further in exposing their folly by portraying their willing acts of idolatry as being sexually violated.
Jeremiah 3:2 tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”
Jeremiah 3:2 tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.
Jeremiah 3:3 tn Heb “you have the forehead of a prostitute.”
Jeremiah 3:4 tn Heb “Have you not just now called out to me, ‘[You are] My father!’?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer.
Jeremiah 3:5 tn Heb “Will he keep angry forever? Will he maintain [it] to the end?” The questions are rhetorical and expect a negative answer. The change to direct address in the English translation is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, common in Hebrew style (but not in English), from second person direct address in the preceding lines to third person indirect address in these two lines. See GKC 462 §144.p.
Jeremiah 3:5 tn Heb “You do the evil and you are able.” This is an example of hendiadys, meaning, “You do all the evil that you are able to do.”

Acts 8:18-24

¹⁸Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit^[a] was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, offered them money, ¹⁹saying, “Give me this power^[b] too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you,^[c] because you thought you could acquire^[d] God’s gift with money! ²¹You have no share or part^[e] in this matter^[f] because your heart is not right before God! ²²Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord^[g] that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart.^[h] ²³For I see that you are bitterly envious^[i] and in bondage to sin.” ²⁴But Simon replied,^[j] “You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said may happen to^[k] me.”

Footnotes

Acts 8:18 tc Most witnesses (P^45,74 A* C D E Ψ 33 1739 M latt sy bo) here read “the Holy Spirit” (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, to pneuma to hagion), while a few key mss have simply τὸ πνεῦμα (א A^c B sa mae). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted τὸ ἅγιον because of its perceived superfluity (note vv. 15, 17, 19), it is far more likely that others added the adjective out of pious motives.
Acts 8:19 tn Or “ability”; Grk “authority.”
Acts 8:20 tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.
Acts 8:20 tn Or “obtain.”
Acts 8:21 tn The translation “share or part” is given by L&N 63.13.
Acts 8:21 tn Since the semantic range for λόγος (logos) is so broad, a number of different translations could be given for the prepositional phrase here. Something along the lines of “in this thing” would work well, but is too colloquial for the present translation.
Acts 8:22 tn Or “and implore the Lord.”
Acts 8:22 tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.
Acts 8:23 tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.
Acts 8:24 tn Grk “Simon answered and said.”sn Given that Simon does not follow Peter’s call for repentance, many interpreters read this reply as flippant rather than sincere. But the exact nature of Simon’s reply is not entirely clear.
Acts 8:24 tn Grk “may come upon.”

New English Translation (NET)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes