◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 122 (Gladness in God’s house); Genesis 6:11-22 (The command to build an ark: Noah’s obedience); Matthew 24:1-22 (The day of the Lord is coming) (New American Bible (Revised Edition))

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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 122

Psalm 122^[a]

A Pilgrim’s Prayer for Jerusalem

¹A song of ascents. Of David.

I

I rejoiced when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”^(A)
²And now our feet are standing
    within your gates, Jerusalem.
³Jerusalem, built as a city,
    walled round about.^[b]^(B)
⁴There the tribes go up,
    the tribes of the Lord,
As it was decreed for Israel,
    to give thanks to the name of the Lord.^(C)
⁵There are the thrones of justice,
    the thrones of the house of David.

II

⁶For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
    “May those who love you prosper!
⁷May peace be within your ramparts,
    prosperity within your towers.”^(D)
⁸For the sake of my brothers and friends I say,
    “Peace be with you.”^(E)
⁹For the sake of the house of the Lord, our God,
    I pray for your good.

Genesis 6:11-22

¹¹But the earth was corrupt^[a] in the view of God and full of lawlessness.^(A) ¹²When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals had corrupted their ways on earth,^(B) ¹³God said to Noah: I see that the end of all mortals has come, for the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I am going to destroy them with the earth.^(C)

Preparation for the Flood. ¹⁴Make yourself an ark of gopherwood,^[b] equip the ark with various compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵This is how you shall build it: the length of the ark will be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.^[c] ¹⁶Make an opening for daylight^[d] and finish the ark a cubit above it. Put the ark’s entrance on its side; you will make it with bottom, second and third decks. ¹⁷I, on my part, am about to bring the flood waters on the earth, to destroy all creatures under the sky in which there is the breath of life; everything on earth shall perish.^(D) ¹⁸I will establish my covenant with you. You shall go into the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives with you.^(E) ¹⁹Of all living creatures you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, one male and one female,^[e] to keep them alive along with you. ²⁰Of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of thing that crawls on the ground, two of each will come to you, that you may keep them alive. ²¹Moreover, you are to provide yourself with all the food that is to be eaten, and store it away, that it may serve as provisions for you and for them. ²²Noah complied; he did just as God had commanded him.^[f]

Footnotes

6:11 Corrupt: God does not punish arbitrarily but simply brings to its completion the corruption initiated by human beings.
6:14 Gopherwood: an unidentified wood mentioned only in connection with the ark. It may be the wood of the cypress, which in Hebrew sounds like “gopher” and was widely used in antiquity for shipbuilding.
6:15 Hebrew “cubit,” lit., “forearm,” is the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about eighteen inches (a foot and a half). The dimensions of Noah’s ark were approximately 440 × 73 × 44 feet. The ark of the Babylonian flood story was an exact cube, 120 cubits (180 feet) in length, width, and height.
6:16 Opening for daylight: a conjectural rendering of the Hebrew word sohar, occurring only here. The reference is probably to an open space on all sides near the top of the ark to admit light and air. The ark also had a window or hatch, which could be opened and closed (8:6).
6:19–21 You shall bring two of every kind…, one male and one female: For the Priestly source (P), there is no distinction between clean and unclean animals until Sinai (Lv 11), no altars or sacrifice until Sinai, and all diet is vegetarian (Gn 1:29–30); even after the flood P has no distinction between clean and unclean, since “any living creature that moves about” may be eaten (9:3). Thus P has Noah take the minimum to preserve all species, one pair of each, without distinction between clean and unclean, but he must also take on provisions for food (6:21). The Yahwist source (J), which assumes the clean-unclean distinction always existed but knows no other restriction on eating meat (Abel was a shepherd and offered meat as a sacrifice), requires additional clean animals (“seven pairs”) for food and sacrifice (7:2–3; 8:20).
6:22 Just as God had commanded him: as in the creation of the world in chap. 1 and in the building of the tabernacle in Ex 25–31, 35–40 (all from the Priestly source), everything takes place by the command of God. In this passage and in Exodus, the commands of God are carried out to the letter by human agents, Noah and Moses. Divine speech is important. God speaks to Noah seven times in the flood story.

Matthew 24:1-22

Chapter 24

The Destruction of the Temple Foretold. ¹^[a]^(A)Jesus left the temple area and was going away, when his disciples approached him to point out the temple buildings. ²^[b]He said to them in reply, “You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”

The Beginning of Calamities. ³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives,^[c] the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be of your coming, and of the end of the age?” ⁴^[d]Jesus said to them in reply, “See that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many. ⁶^(B)You will hear of wars^[e] and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end. ⁷^(C)Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place. ⁸^[f]All these are the beginning of the labor pains. ⁹^[g]^(D)Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name. ¹⁰And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another. ¹¹Many false prophets will arise and deceive many; ¹²and because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³^(E)But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. ¹⁴^(F)And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations,^[h] and then the end will come.

The Great Tribulation.^[i] ¹⁵^(G)“When you see the desolating abomination^[j] spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶then those in Judea must flee^[k] to the mountains, ¹⁷^[l]^(H)a person on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house, ¹⁸a person in the field must not return to get his cloak. ¹⁹Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days. ²⁰^[m]Pray that your flight not be in winter or on the sabbath, ²¹^[n]^(I)for at that time there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be. ²²And if those days had not been shortened, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect they will be shortened.

Footnotes

24:1–25:46 The discourse of the fifth book, the last of the five around which the gospel is structured. It is called the “eschatological” discourse since it deals with the coming of the new age (the eschaton) in its fullness, with events that will precede it, and with how the disciples are to conduct themselves while awaiting an event that is as certain as its exact time is unknown to all but the Father (Mt 24:36). The discourse may be divided into two parts, Mt 24:1–44 and Mt 24:45–25:46. In the first, Matthew follows his Marcan source (Mk 13:1–37) closely. The second is drawn from Q and from the evangelist’s own traditional material. Both parts show Matthew’s editing of his sources by deletions, additions, and modifications. The vigilant waiting that is emphasized in the second part does not mean a cessation of ordinary activity and concentration only on what is to come, but a faithful accomplishment of duties at hand, with awareness that the end, for which the disciples must always be ready, will entail the great judgment by which the everlasting destiny of all will be determined.
24:2 As in Mark, Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple. By omitting the Marcan story of the widow’s contribution (Mk 12:41–44) that immediately precedes the prediction in that gospel, Matthew has established a close connection between it and Mt 23:38, “…your house will be abandoned desolate.”
24:3 The Mount of Olives: see note on Mt 21:1. The disciples: cf. Mk 13:3–4 where only Peter, James, John, and Andrew put the question that is answered by the discourse. In both gospels, however, the question is put privately: the ensuing discourse is only for those who are disciples of Jesus. When will this happen…end of the age?: Matthew distinguishes carefully between the destruction of the temple (this) and the coming of Jesus that will bring the end of the age. In Mark the two events are more closely connected, a fact that may be explained by Mark’s believing that the one would immediately succeed the other. Coming: this translates the Greek word parousia, which is used in the gospels only here and in Mt 24:27, 37, 39. It designated the official visit of a ruler to a city or the manifestation of a saving deity, and it was used by Christians to refer to the final coming of Jesus in glory, a term first found in the New Testament with that meaning in 1 Thes 2:19. The end of the age: see note on Mt 13:39.
24:4–14 This section of the discourse deals with calamities in the world (Mt 24:6–7) and in the church (Mt 24:9–12). The former must happen before the end comes (Mt 24:6), but they are only the beginning of the labor pains (Mt 24:8). (It may be noted that the Greek word translated the end in Mt 24:6 and in Mt 24:13–14 is not the same as the phrase “the end of the age” in Mt 24:3, although the meaning is the same.) The latter are sufferings of the church, both from within and without, that will last until the gospel is preached…to all nations. Then the end will come and those who have endured the sufferings with fidelity will be saved (Mt 24:13–14).
24:6–7 The disturbances mentioned here are a commonplace of apocalyptic language, as is the assurance that they must happen (see Dn 2:28 LXX), for that is the plan of God. Kingdom against kingdom: see Is 19:2.
24:8 The labor pains: the tribulations leading up to the end of the age are compared to the pains of a woman about to give birth. There is much attestation for rabbinic use of the phrase “the woes (or birth pains) of the Messiah” after the New Testament period, but in at least one instance it is attributed to a rabbi who lived in the late first century A.D. In this Jewish usage it meant the distress of the time preceding the coming of the Messiah; here, the labor pains precede the coming of the Son of Man in glory.
24:9–12 Matthew has used Mk 13:9–12 in his missionary discourse (Mt 10:17–21) and omits it here. Besides the sufferings, including death, and the hatred of all nations that the disciples will have to endure, there will be worse affliction within the church itself. This is described in Mt 24:10–12, which are peculiar to Matthew. Will be led into sin: literally, “will be scandalized,” probably meaning that they will become apostates; see Mt 13:21 where “fall away” translates the same Greek word as here. Betray: in the Greek this is the same word as the hand over of Mt 24:9. The handing over to persecution and hatred from outside will have their counterpart within the church. False prophets: these are Christians; see note on Mt 7:15–20. Evildoing: see Mt 7:23. Because of the apocalyptic nature of much of this discourse, the literal meaning of this description of the church should not be pressed too hard. However, there is reason to think that Matthew’s addition of these verses reflects in some measure the condition of his community.
24:14 Except for the last part (and then the end will come), this verse substantially repeats Mk 13:10. The Matthean addition raises a problem since what follows in Mt 24:15–23 refers to the horrors of the First Jewish Revolt including the destruction of the temple, and Matthew, writing after that time, knew that the parousia of Jesus was still in the future. A solution may be that the evangelist saw the events of those verses as foreshadowing the cosmic disturbances that he associates with the parousia (Mt 24:29) so that the period in which the former took place could be understood as belonging to the end.
24:15–28 Cf. Mk 13:14–23; Lk 17:23–24, 37. A further stage in the tribulations that will precede the coming of the Son of Man, and an answer to the question of Mt 24:3a, “when will this (the destruction of the temple) happen?”
24:15 The desolating abomination: in 167 B.C. the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the temple by setting up in it a statue of Zeus Olympios (see 1 Mc 1:54). That event is referred to in Dn 12:11 LXX as the “desolating abomination” (NAB “horrible abomination”) and the same Greek term is used here; cf. also Dn 9:27; 11:31. Although the desecration had taken place before Daniel was written, it is presented there as a future event, and Matthew sees that “prophecy” fulfilled in the desecration of the temple by the Romans. In the holy place: the temple; more precise than Mark’s where he should not (Mk 13:14). Let the reader understand: this parenthetical remark, taken from Mk 13:14 invites the reader to realize the meaning of Daniel’s “prophecy.”
24:16 The tradition that the Christians of Jerusalem fled from that city to Pella, a city of Transjordan, at the time of the First Jewish Revolt is found in Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History, 3:5:3), who attributes the flight to “a certain oracle given by revelation before the war.” The tradition is not improbable but the Matthean command, derived from its Marcan source, is vague in respect to the place of flight (to the mountains), although some scholars see it as applicable to the flight to Pella.
24:17–19 Haste is essential, and the journey will be particularly difficult for women who are burdened with unborn or infant children.
24:20 On the sabbath: this addition to in winter (cf. Mk 13:18) has been understood as an indication that Matthew was addressed to a church still observing the Mosaic law of sabbath rest and the scribal limitations upon the length of journeys that might lawfully be made on that day. That interpretation conflicts with Matthew’s view on sabbath observance (cf. Mt 12:1–14). The meaning of the addition may be that those undertaking on the sabbath a journey such as the one here ordered would be offending the sensibilities of law-observant Jews and would incur their hostility.
24:21 For the unparalleled distress of that time, see Dn 12:1.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 122^[a]

A Pilgrim’s Prayer for Jerusalem

I

II

Footnotes

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Footnotes

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Chapter 24

Footnotes

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 122[a]

A Pilgrim’s Prayer for Jerusalem

I

II

Footnotes

Cross references

Footnotes

Cross references

Chapter 24

Footnotes

Cross references

Psalm 122^[a]