◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 50:1-8 22-23 (The salvation of God); Isaiah 1:2-9 21-23 (The wickedness of Judah); Matthew 6:19-24 (Treasures and masters) (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 50:1-8

Psalm 50^[a]

A psalm by Asaph.

50 El, God, the Lord^[b] has spoken,
and summoned the earth to come from the east and west.^[c]
²From Zion, the most beautiful of all places,^[d]
God has come in splendor.^[e]
³“May our God come
and not be silent.”
Consuming fire goes ahead of him,
and all around him a storm rages.^[f]
⁴He summons the heavens above,
as well as the earth, so that he might judge his people.^[g]
⁵He says:^[h]
“Assemble my covenant people before me,^[i]
those who ratified a covenant with me by sacrifice.”^[j]
⁶The heavens declare his fairness,^[k]
for God is judge.^[l] (Selah)
⁷He says:^[m]
“Listen, my people. I am speaking!
Listen, Israel. I am accusing you.^[n]
I am God, your God!
⁸I am not condemning^[o] you because of your sacrifices,
or because of your burnt sacrifices that you continually offer me.^[p]

Footnotes

Psalm 50:1 sn Psalm 50. This psalm takes the form of a covenant lawsuit in which the Lord comes to confront his people in a formal manner (as in Isa 1:2-20). The Lord emphasizes that he places priority on obedience and genuine worship, not empty ritual.
Psalm 50:1 sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: El (אֵל [ʾel], or “God”), Elohim (אֱלֹהִים [ʾelohim], or “God”), and Yahweh (יְהוָה [y^ehvah] or “the Lord”). There is an obvious allusion here to Josh 22:22, the only other passage where these three names appear in succession. In that passage the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh declare, “El, God, the Lord! El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, don’t spare us today!” In that context the other tribes had accused the trans-Jordanian tribes of breaking God’s covenant by worshiping idols. The trans-Jordanian tribes appealed to “El, God, the Lord” as their witness that they were innocent of the charges brought against them. Ironically here in Ps 50 “El, God, the Lord” accuses his sinful covenant people of violating the covenant and warns that he will not spare them if they persist in their rebellion.
Psalm 50:1 tn Heb “and calls [the] earth from the sunrise to its going.”
Psalm 50:2 tn Heb “the perfection of beauty.”
Psalm 50:2 tn Or “shone forth.”sn Has come in splendor. The psalmist may allude ironically to Deut 33:2, where God “shone forth” from Sinai.
Psalm 50:3 tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”
Psalm 50:4 tn Or perhaps “to testify against his people.”sn The personified heavens and earth (see v. 1 as well) are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people (see Isa 1:2). Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
Psalm 50:5 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s summons to the defendant follows.
Psalm 50:5 tn Or “Gather to me my covenant people.” The Hebrew term חָסִיד (khasid, “covenant people”) elsewhere in the psalms is used in a positive sense of God’s loyal followers (see the note at Ps 4:3), but here, as the following line makes clear, the term has a neutral sense and simply refers to those who have outwardly sworn allegiance to God, not necessarily to those whose loyalty is genuine.
Psalm 50:5 tn Heb “the cutters of my covenant according to sacrifice.” A sacrifice accompanied the covenant-making ceremony and formally ratified the agreement (see Exod 24:3-8).
Psalm 50:6 tn Or “justice.”
Psalm 50:6 tn Or “for God, he is about to judge.” The participle may be taken as substantival (as in the translation above) or as a predicate (indicating imminent future action in this context).
Psalm 50:7 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s charges against his people follow.
Psalm 50:7 tn Heb “Israel, and I will testify against you.” The imperative “listen” is understood in the second line by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
Psalm 50:8 tn Or “rebuking.”
Psalm 50:8 tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

Psalm 50:22-23

²²Carefully consider this, you who reject God.^[a]
Otherwise I will rip you to shreds^[b]
and no one will be able to rescue you.
²³Whoever presents a thank offering honors me.^[c]
To whoever obeys my commands, I will reveal my power to deliver.”^[d]

Isaiah 1:2-9

Obedience, not Sacrifice

²Listen, O heavens,
pay attention, O earth!^[a]
For the Lord speaks:
“I raised children,^[b] I brought them up,^[c]
but^[d] they have rebelled^[e] against me!
³An ox recognizes its owner,
a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food;^[f]
but Israel does not recognize me,^[g]
my people do not understand.”
⁴^[h] Beware sinful nation,
the people weighed down by evil deeds.
They are offspring who do wrong,
children^[i] who do wicked things.
They have abandoned the Lord,
and rejected the Holy One of Israel.^[j]
They are alienated from him.^[k]
⁵^[l] Why do you insist on being battered?
Why do you continue to rebel?^[m]
Your head has a massive wound,^[n]
your whole heart is sick.
⁶From the soles of your feet to your head,
there is no spot that is unharmed.^[o]
There are only bruises, cuts,
and open wounds.
They have not been cleansed^[p] or bandaged,
nor have they been treated^[q] with olive oil.^[r]
⁷Your land is devastated,
your cities burned with fire.
Right before your eyes your crops
are being destroyed by foreign invaders.^[s]
They leave behind devastation and destruction.^[t]
⁸Daughter Zion^[u] is left isolated,
like a hut in a vineyard,
or a shelter in a cucumber field;
she is a besieged city.^[v]
⁹If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies^[w] had not left us a few survivors,
we would have quickly been like Sodom,^[x]
we would have become like Gomorrah.

Footnotes

Isaiah 1:2 sn The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
Isaiah 1:2 tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).sn “Father” and “son” occur as common terms in ancient Near Eastern treaties and covenants, delineating the suzerain and vassal as participants in the covenant relationship. The prophet uses these terms, the reference to heavens and earth as witnesses, and allusions to deuteronomic covenant curses (1:7-9, 19-20) to set his prophecy firmly against the backdrop of Israel’s covenantal relationship with Yahweh.
Isaiah 1:2 sn The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל (gadal, “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם (rum, “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).
Isaiah 1:2 sn Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.
Isaiah 1:2 sn To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע (peshaʿ, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).
Isaiah 1:3 tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.
Isaiah 1:3 tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).
Isaiah 1:4 sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.
Isaiah 1:4 tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege—nation, people, offspring, children—with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day—sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).
Isaiah 1:4 sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.
Isaiah 1:4 tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.
Isaiah 1:5 sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).
Isaiah 1:5 tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”
Isaiah 1:5 tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”
Isaiah 1:6 tn Heb “there is not in it health”; NAB “there is no sound spot.”
Isaiah 1:6 tn Heb “pressed out.”
Isaiah 1:6 tn Heb “softened” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “soothed.”
Isaiah 1:6 sn This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.
Isaiah 1:7 tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”
Isaiah 1:7 tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כ (kaf, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”
Isaiah 1:8 tn Heb “daughter of Zion” (so KJV, NASB, NIV). The genitive is appositional, identifying precisely which daughter is in view. By picturing Zion as a daughter, the prophet emphasizes her helplessness and vulnerability before the enemy.
Isaiah 1:8 tn Heb “like a city besieged.” Unlike the preceding two comparisons, which are purely metaphorical, this third one identifies the reality of Israel’s condition. In this case the comparative preposition, as in v. 7b, has the force, “in every way like,” indicating that all the earmarks of a siege are visible because that is indeed what is taking place. The verb form in MT is Qal passive participle of נָצַר (natsar, “guard”), but since this verb is not often used of a siege (see BDB 666 s.v. I נָצַר), some prefer to repoint the form as a Niphal participle from II צוּר (tsur, “besiege”). However, the latter is not attested elsewhere in the Niphal (see BDB 848 s.v. II צוּר).
Isaiah 1:9 tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts.” The title pictures God as the sovereign king who has at his disposal a multitude of attendants, messengers, and warriors to do his bidding. In some contexts, like this one, the military dimension of his rulership is highlighted. In this case, the title pictures him as one who leads armies into battle against his enemies.
Isaiah 1:9 tc The translation assumes that כִּמְעָט (kimʿat, “quickly,” literally, “like a little”) goes with what follows, contrary to the MT accents, which take it with what precedes. In this case, one could translate the preceding line, “If the Lord who commands armies had not left us a few survivors.” If כִּמְעָט goes with the preceding line (following the MT accents), this expression highlights the idea that there would only be a few survivors (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:20; H. Zobel, TDOT 8:456). Israel would not be almost like Sodom but exactly like Sodom.

Isaiah 1:21-23

Purifying Judgment

²¹How tragic that the once-faithful city
has become a prostitute!^[a]
She was once a center of^[b] justice;
fairness resided in her—
but now only murderers!^[c]
²²Your^[d] silver has become scum,^[e]
your beer is diluted with water.^[f]
²³Your officials are rebels,^[g]
they associate with^[h] thieves.
All of them love bribery,
and look for^[i] payoffs.^[j]
They do not take up the cause of the orphan,^[k]
or defend the rights of the widow.^[l]

Footnotes

Isaiah 1:21 tn Heb “How she has become a prostitute, the faithful city!” The exclamatory אֵיכָה (ʾekhah, “how!”) is used several times as the beginning of a lament (see Lam 1:1; 2:1; 4:1-2). Unlike a number of other OT passages that link references to Israel’s harlotry to idolatry, Isaiah here makes the connection with social and moral violations.
Isaiah 1:21 tn Heb “filled with.”
Isaiah 1:21 tn Or “assassins.” This refers to the oppressive rich and/or their henchmen. R. Ortlund (Whoredom, 78) posits that it serves as a synecdoche for all varieties of criminals, the worst being mentioned to imply all lesser ones. Since Isaiah often addressed his strongest rebuke to the rulers and leaders of Israel, he may have in mind the officials who bore the responsibility to uphold justice and righteousness.
Isaiah 1:22 tn The pronoun is feminine singular; personified Jerusalem (see v. 21) is addressed.
Isaiah 1:22 tn Or “dross.” The word refers to the scum or impurites floating on the top of melted metal.
Isaiah 1:22 sn The metaphors of silver becoming impure and beer being watered down picture the moral and ethical degeneration that had occurred in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 1:23 tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”
Isaiah 1:23 tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”
Isaiah 1:23 tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”
Isaiah 1:23 sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomenon here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).
Isaiah 1:23 sn See the note at v. 17.
Isaiah 1:23 sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth-century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.

Matthew 6:19-24

Lasting Treasure

¹⁹“Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth^[a] and devouring insect^[b] destroy and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and devouring insect do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your^[c] treasure^[d] is, there your heart will be also.

²²“The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy,^[e] your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eye is diseased,^[f] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate^[g] the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise^[h] the other. You cannot serve God and money.^[i]

Footnotes

Matthew 6:19 tn The term σής (sēs) refers to moths in general. It is specifically the larvae of moths that destroy clothing by eating holes in it (L&N 4.49; BDAG 922 s.v.). See Jas 5:2, which mentions “moth-eaten” clothing.
Matthew 6:19 tn Traditionally “rust,” literally “eating” or “consuming.” Greek has a specific word for “rust” (James 5:3), whereas the term used here is not used of rust anywhere else. In the present context where moths are mentioned, some interpreters see a reference to some other kind of consuming insect. Mal 3:11 LXX does appear to use the Greek term as a translation of the Hebrew term for some type of grasshopper. Two OT passages (Job 13:28; Hos 5:12) mention “moth” in parallel with “rot” or “wood rot”; the physician Galen used the Greek term in medical texts to refer to the decay of teeth (6.422; 12.879). It is thus possible to see the second term in Matt 6:19 as referring to some type of rot, decay, or corrosion rather than as a specific reference to damage by insects or other pests. However, a surviving fragment by the Greek poet Pindar (fragment 209; Oxford Text = 222) mentions the inability of moths or weevils to destroy gold: “Gold is the child of Zeus; neither moth nor weevil consumes it” (cf. BDAG 922 s.v. σής where the word for “weevil,” κίς, is mistranslated as “rust”). In light of this usage and the context it was decided to render the Greek term as “devouring insect.”
Matthew 6:21 tn The pronouns in this verse are singular while the pronouns in vv. 19-20 are plural. The change to singular emphasizes personal responsibility as opposed to corporate responsibility; even if others do not listen, the individual who hears Jesus’ commands is responsible to obey.
Matthew 6:21 sn Seeking heavenly treasure means serving others and honoring God by doing so.
Matthew 6:22 tn Or “sound” (so L&N 23.132 and most scholars). A few scholars take this word to mean something like “generous” here (L&N 57.107). partly due to the immediate context concerning money, in which case the “eye” is a metonymy for the entire person (“if you are generous”).
Matthew 6:23 tn Or “if your eye is sick” (L&N 23.149). sn There may be a slight wordplay here, as this term can also mean “evil,” so the figure uses a term that points to the real meaning of being careful as to what one pays attention to or looks at. Ancient understanding of vision involved light coming into the body from outside, and “light” thus easily becomes a metaphor for teaching. As a “diseased” eye would hinder the passage of light, so in the metaphor Jesus’ teaching would be blocked from being internalized in the hearer.
Matthew 6:24 sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.
Matthew 6:24 tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”
Matthew 6:24 tn Grk “God and mammon.”sn The term money is used to translate mammon, the Aramaic term for wealth or possessions. The point is not that money is inherently evil, but that it is often misused so that it is a means of evil; see 1 Tim 6:6-10, 17-19. Here “money” is personified as a potential master and thus competes with God for the loyalty of the disciple. The passage is ultimately not a condemnation of wealth (there is no call here for absolute poverty) but a call for unqualified discipleship. God must be first, not money or possessions.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 50[a]

A psalm by Asaph.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Obedience, not Sacrifice

Footnotes

Purifying Judgment

Footnotes

Lasting Treasure

Footnotes

Psalm 50^[a]