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August 12, 2025

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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 11

Psalm 11^[a]

For the music director, by David.

11 In the Lord I have taken shelter.^[b]
How can you say to me,^[c]
“Flee to a mountain like a bird.^[d]
²For look, the wicked^[e] prepare^[f] their bows,^[g]
they put their arrows on the strings,
to shoot in the darkness^[h] at the morally upright.^[i]
³When the foundations^[j] are destroyed,
what can the godly^[k] accomplish?”^[l]
⁴The Lord is in his holy temple;^[m]
the Lord’s throne is in heaven.^[n]
His eyes^[o] watch;^[p]
his eyes^[q] examine^[r] all people.^[s]
⁵The Lord approves of^[t] the godly,^[u]
but he^[v] hates^[w] the wicked and those who love to do violence.^[x]
⁶May he rain down^[y] burning coals^[z] and brimstone^[aa] on the wicked!
A whirlwind is what they deserve.^[ab]
⁷Certainly^[ac] the Lord is just;^[ad]
he rewards godly deeds.^[ae]
The upright will experience his favor.^[af]

Footnotes

Psalm 11:1 sn Psalm 11. The psalmist rejects the advice to flee from his dangerous enemies. Instead he affirms his confidence in God’s just character and calls down judgment on evildoers.
Psalm 11:1 tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.
Psalm 11:1 tn The pronominal suffix attached to נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is equivalent to a personal pronoun. See Ps 6:3.
Psalm 11:1 tc The MT is uncertain here. The Kethib (consonantal text) reads: “flee [masculine plural!] to your [masculine plural!] mountain, bird.” The Qere (marginal reading) has “flee” in a feminine singular form, agreeing grammatically with the addressee, the feminine noun “bird.” Rather than being a second masculine plural pronominal suffix, the ending כֶם- (-khem) attached to “mountain” is better interpreted as a second feminine singular pronominal suffix followed by an enclitic mem (ם). “Bird” may be taken as vocative (“O bird”) or as an adverbial accusative of manner (“like a bird”). Either way, the psalmist’s advisers compare him to a helpless bird whose only option in the face of danger is to fly away to an inaccessible place.
Psalm 11:2 tn In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, r^eshaʿim) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and threaten his people (Ps 3:8).
Psalm 11:2 tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form depicts the enemies’ hostile action as underway.
Psalm 11:2 tn Heb “a bow.”
Psalm 11:2 sn In the darkness. The enemies’ attack, the precise form of which is not indicated, is compared here to a night ambush by archers; the psalmist is defenseless against this deadly attack.
Psalm 11:2 tn Heb “pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).
Psalm 11:3 tn The precise meaning of this rare word is uncertain. An Ugaritic cognate is used of the “bottom” or “base” of a cliff or mountain (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47, 159). The noun appears in postbiblical Hebrew with the meaning “foundation” (see Jastrow 1636 s.v. שָׁת).
Psalm 11:3 tn The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form “pure [of heart]” in the previous verse.
Psalm 11:3 sn The quotation of the advisers’ words (which begins in 11:1c) ends at this point. They advise the psalmist to flee because the enemy is poised to launch a deadly attack. In such a lawless and chaotic situation godly people like the psalmist can accomplish nothing, so they might as well retreat to a safe place.
Psalm 11:4 tn Because of the royal imagery involved here, one could translate “lofty palace.” The Lord’s heavenly temple is in view here (see Mic 1:2-4).
Psalm 11:4 sn The Lord’s throne is in heaven. The psalmist is confident that the Lord reigns as sovereign king, “keeps an eye on” all people, and responds in a just manner to the godly and wicked.
Psalm 11:4 sn His eyes. The anthropomorphic language draws attention to God’s awareness of and interest in the situation on earth. Though the enemies are hidden by the darkness (v. 2), the Lord sees all.
Psalm 11:4 tn The two Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in this verse describe the Lord’s characteristic activity.
Psalm 11:4 tn Heb “eyelids.”
Psalm 11:4 tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 7:9; 26:2; 139:23.
Psalm 11:4 tn Heb “test the sons of men.”
Psalm 11:5 tn Heb “examines,” the same verb used in v. 4b. But here it is used in a metonymic sense of “examine and approve” (see Jer 20:12).
Psalm 11:5 tn The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form “pure (of heart)” in v. 2.
Psalm 11:5 tn Heb “his [very] being.” A נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, soul”) is also attributed to the Lord in Isa 1:14, where a suffixed form of the noun appears as the subject of the verb “hate.” Both there and here the term is used of the seat of one’s emotions and passions.
Psalm 11:5 sn He hates the wicked. The Lord “hates” the wicked in the sense that he despises their wicked character and deeds, and actively opposes and judges them for their wickedness. See Ps 5:5.
Psalm 11:5 tn Heb “the wicked [one] and the lover of violence.” The singular form is used here in a collective or representative sense. Note the plural form רְשָׁעִים (r^eshaʿim, “wicked [ones]”) in vv. 2 and 6.
Psalm 11:6 tn The verb form is a jussive, indicating that the statement is imprecatory (“May the Lord rain down”), not indicative (“The Lord rains down”; see also Job 20:23). The psalmist appeals to God to destroy the wicked, rather than simply stating his confidence that God will do so. In this way the psalmist seeks to activate divine judgment by appealing to God’s just character. For an example of the power of such a curse, see Judg 9:7-57.
Psalm 11:6 tc The MT reads “traps, fire, and brimstone,” but the image of God raining traps, or snares, down from the sky is bizarre and does not fit the fire and storm imagery of this verse. The noun פַּחִים (pakhim, “traps, snares”) should be emended to פַּחֲמֵי (pakhame, “coals of [fire]”). The rare noun פֶּחָם (pekham, “coal”) occurs in Prov 26:21 and Isa 44:12; 54:16.
Psalm 11:6 sn The image of God “raining down” brimstone on the objects of his judgment also appears in Gen 19:24 and Ezek 38:22.
Psalm 11:6 tn Heb “[may] a wind of rage [be] the portion of their cup.” The precise meaning of the rare noun זִלְעָפוֹת (zilʿafot) is uncertain. It may mean “raging heat” (BDB 273 s.v. זַלְעָפָה) or simply “rage” (HALOT 272 s.v. זַלְעָפָה). If one understands the former sense, then one might translate “hot wind” (cf. NEB, NRSV). The present translation assumes the latter nuance, “a wind of rage” (the genitive is attributive) referring to a “whirlwind” symbolic of destructive judgment. In this mixed metaphor, judgment is also compared to an allotted portion of a beverage poured into one’s drinking cup (see Hab 2:15-16).
Psalm 11:7 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 11:7 tn Or “righteous.”
Psalm 11:7 tn Heb “he loves righteous deeds.” The “righteous deeds” are probably those done by godly people (see v. 5). The Lord “loves” such deeds in the sense that he rewards them. Another option is to take צְדָקוֹת (ts^edaqot) as referring to God’s acts of justice (see Ps 103:6). In this case one could translate, “he loves to do just deeds.”
Psalm 11:7 tn Heb “the upright will see his face.” The singular subject (“upright”) does not agree with the plural verb. However, collective singular nouns can be construed with a plural predicate (see GKC 462 §145.b). Another possibility is that the plural verb יֶחֱזוּ (yekhezu) should be emended to an original singular form. To “see” God’s “face” means to have access to his presence and to experience his favor (see Ps 17:15 and Job 33:26 [where רָאָה (raʾah), not חָזָה (khazah), is used]). On the form פָנֵימוֹ (fanemo, “his face”) see GKC 300-301 §103.b, n. 3.

Isaiah 24:1-13

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

24 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth
and leave it in ruins;
he will mar its surface
and scatter its inhabitants.
²Everyone will suffer—the priest as well as the people,^[a]
the master as well as the servant,^[b]
the elegant lady as well as the female attendant,^[c]
the seller as well as the buyer,^[d]
the borrower as well as the lender,^[e]
the creditor as well as the debtor.^[f]
³The earth will be completely devastated
and thoroughly ransacked.
For the Lord has decreed this judgment.^[g]
⁴The earth^[h] dries up^[i] and withers,
the world shrivels up and withers;
the prominent people of the earth^[j] fade away.
⁵The earth is defiled by^[k] its inhabitants,^[l]
for they have violated laws,
disregarded the regulation,^[m]
and broken the permanent treaty.^[n]
⁶So a treaty curse^[o] devours the earth;
its inhabitants pay for their guilt.^[p]
This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear,^[q]
and are reduced to just a handful of people.^[r]
⁷The new wine dries up,
the vines shrivel up,
all those who like to celebrate^[s] groan.
⁸The happy sound^[t] of the tambourines stops,
the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,
the happy sound of the harp ceases.
⁹They no longer sing and drink wine;^[u]
the beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰The ruined town^[v] is shattered;
all the houses are shut up tight.^[w]
¹¹They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine;^[x]
all joy turns to sorrow;^[y]
celebrations disappear from the earth.^[z]
¹²The city is left in ruins;^[aa]
the gate is reduced to rubble.^[ab]
¹³This is what will happen throughout^[ac] the earth,
among the nations.
It will be like when they beat an olive tree,
and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest.^[ad]

Footnotes

Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”
Isaiah 24:2 tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”
Isaiah 24:3 tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”
Isaiah 24:4 tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (ʾerets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37; 12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).
Isaiah 24:4 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.
Isaiah 24:4 tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (m^erom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (m^erome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.
Isaiah 24:5 tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”
Isaiah 24:5 sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.
Isaiah 24:5 tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”
Isaiah 24:5 tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”sn For a lengthy discussion of the identity of this covenant/treaty, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24, ” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In this context, where judgment comes upon both the pagan nations and God’s covenant community, the phrase “permanent treaty” is intentionally ambiguous. For the nations this treaty is the Noahic mandate of Gen 9:1-7 with its specific stipulations and central regulation (Gen 9:7). By shedding blood, the warlike nations violated this treaty, which promotes population growth and prohibits murder. For Israel, which was also guilty of bloodshed (see Isa 1:15, 21; 4:4), this “permanent treaty” would refer more specifically to the Mosaic Law and its regulations prohibiting murder (Exod 20:13; Num 35:6-34), which are an extension of the Noahic mandate.
Isaiah 24:6 sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.
Isaiah 24:6 tn The verb אָשַׁם (ʾasham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).
Isaiah 24:6 tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).
Isaiah 24:6 tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”
Isaiah 24:7 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “all the joyful in heart,” but the context specifies the context as parties and drinking bouts.
Isaiah 24:8 tn Heb “the joy” (again later in this verse).
Isaiah 24:9 tn Heb “with a song they do not drink wine.”
Isaiah 24:10 tn Heb “the city of chaos” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Isaiah uses the term תֹּהוּ (tohu) rather frequently of things (like idols) that are empty and worthless (see BDB 1062 s.v.), so the word might characterize the city as rebellious or morally worthless. However, in this context, which focuses on the effects of divine judgment, it probably refers to the ruined or worthless condition in which the city is left (note the use of the word in Isa 34:11). For a discussion of the identity of this city, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24, ” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In the context of universal judgment depicted in Isa 24, this city represents all the nations and cities of the world which, like Babylon of old and the powers/cities mentioned in chapters 13-23, rebel against God’s authority. Behind the stereotypical language one can detect various specific manifestations of this symbolic and paradigmatic city, including Babylon, Moab, and Jerusalem, all of which are alluded or referred to in chapters 24-27.
Isaiah 24:10 tn Heb “every house is closed up from entering.”
Isaiah 24:11 tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”
Isaiah 24:11 tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.
Isaiah 24:11 tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”
Isaiah 24:12 tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”
Isaiah 24:12 tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”
Isaiah 24:13 tn Heb “in the midst of” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
Isaiah 24:13 sn The judgment will severely reduce the earth’s population. See v. 6.

Hebrews 11:17-28

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises,^[a] yet he was ready to offer up^[b] his only son. ¹⁸God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,”^[c] ¹⁹and he reasoned^[d] that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense^[e] he received him back from there. ²⁰By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future. ²¹By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped as he leaned on his staff.^[f] ²²By faith Joseph, at the end of his life,^[g] mentioned the exodus of the sons of Israel^[h] and gave instructions about his burial.^[i]

²³By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him^[j] for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. ²⁴By faith, when he grew up, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure. ²⁶He regarded abuse suffered for Christ^[k] to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on^[l] the reward. ²⁷By faith he left Egypt without fearing the king’s anger, for he persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood,^[m] so that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 11[a]

For the music director, by David.

Footnotes

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 11^[a]