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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 100

Psalm 100^[a]

A thanksgiving psalm.

100 Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
²Worship^[b] the Lord with joy.
Enter his presence with joyful singing.
³Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us and we belong to him,^[c]
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give him thanks.
Praise his name.
⁵For the Lord is good.
His loyal love endures,^[d]
and he is faithful through all generations.^[e]

Jeremiah 50:17-20

¹⁷“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep

that lions have chased away.
First the king of Assyria devoured them.^[a]
Now, last of all, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones.^[b]
¹⁸So I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, say:^[c]
‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land
just as I punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹But I will restore the flock of Israel to their own pasture.
They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan.
They will eat until they are full^[d]
on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead.^[e]
²⁰When that time comes,
no guilt will be found in Israel.
No sin will be found in Judah.^[f]
For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive.^[g]
I, the Lord, affirm it!’”^[h]

Footnotes

Jeremiah 50:17 sn The king of Assyria devoured them. This refers to the devastation wrought on northern Israel by the kings of Assyria, beginning in 738 b.c. when Tiglath Pileser took Galilee and the Transjordanian territories and ending with the destruction and exile of the people of Samaria by Sargon in 722 b.c.
Jeremiah 50:17 tn The verb used here only occurs this one time in the Hebrew Bible. It is a denominative from the Hebrew word for “bones” (עֶצֶם, ʿetsem). BDB 1126 s.v. עֶָצַם, denom Pi defines it as “break his bones.” HALOT 822 s.v. II עָצַם Pi defines it as “gnaw on his bones.”sn If the prophecies mentioned in Jer 51:59-64 refer to all that is contained in Jer 50-51 (as some believe), this would have referred to the disasters of 605 b.c. and 598 b.c., as well as all the harassment that Israel experienced from Babylon up until the fourth year of Zedekiah (594 b.c.). If, on the other hand, the prophecy related in 51:59-64 refers to something less than this final form, the destruction of 587/6 b.c. could be included in 50:17 as well.
Jeremiah 50:18 tn Heb “Therefore, thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” The first person is again adopted because the Lord is speaking. For this title, “Yahweh of Armies,” compare 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.
Jeremiah 50:19 tn Heb “their soul [or hunger/appetite] will be satisfied.”
Jeremiah 50:19 sn The metaphor of Israel as a flock of sheep (v. 17) is continued here. The places named were all in Northern Israel and in the Transjordan, lands that were lost to the Assyrians in the period 738-722 b.c. All of these places were known for their fertility, for their woods and pastures. The hills (hill country) of Ephraim formed the center of Northern Israel. Mount Carmel lies on the seacoast of the Mediterranean, north and west of the hill country of Ephraim. Gilead formed the central part of Transjordan. Its name was used at times to refer to the territory between the Yarmuk and Jabbok Rivers, at times to the territory between the Yarmuk and the Arnon Rivers, and at times to all of Israel in the Transjordan. Bashan refers to the territory north of Gilead.
Jeremiah 50:20 tn Heb “In those days and at that time, oracle of the Lord, the iniquity [or guilt] of Israel will be sought, but there will be none, and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found.” The passive construction “will be sought” raises the question of who is doing the seeking, which is not really the main point. The translation has avoided this question by simply referring to the result, which is the main point.
Jeremiah 50:20 sn Cf. Jer 31:34; 33:8.
Jeremiah 50:20 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” In this case it is necessary to place this in the first person because this is already in a quote whose speaker is identified as the Lord (v. 18).

John 10:31-42

³¹The Jewish leaders^[a] picked up rocks again to stone him to death. ³²Jesus said to them,^[b] “I have shown you many good deeds^[c] from the Father. For which one of them are you going to stone me?” ³³The Jewish leaders^[d] replied,^[e] “We are not going to stone you for a good deed^[f] but for blasphemy,^[g] because^[h] you, a man, are claiming to be God.”^[i]

³⁴Jesus answered,^[j] “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?^[k] ³⁵If those people to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ (and the scripture cannot be broken),^[l] ³⁶do you say about the one whom the Father set apart^[m] and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? ³⁷If I do not perform^[n] the deeds^[o] of my Father, do not believe me. ³⁸But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds,^[p] so that you may come to know^[q] and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” ³⁹Then^[r] they attempted^[s] again to seize him, but he escaped their clutches.^[t]

⁴⁰Jesus^[u] went back across the Jordan River^[v] again to the place where John^[w] had been baptizing at an earlier time,^[x] and he stayed there. ⁴¹Many^[y] came to him and began to say, “John^[z] performed^[aa] no miraculous sign, but everything John said about this man^[ab] was true!” ⁴²And many believed in Jesus^[ac] there.

Footnotes

John 10:31 tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders. See the notes on the phrases “Jewish people” in v. 19 and “Jewish leaders” in v. 24.
John 10:32 tn Grk “Jesus answered them.”
John 10:32 tn Or “good works.”
John 10:33 tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here again the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders. See the notes on the phrase “Jewish people” in v. 19 and “Jewish leaders” in vv. 24, 31.
John 10:33 tn Grk “answered him.”
John 10:33 tn Or “good work.”
John 10:33 sn This is the first time the official charge of blasphemy is voiced openly in the Fourth Gospel (although it was implicit in John 8:59). Blasphemy in the NT has a somewhat broader meaning than mere utterances. It could mean to say something that dishonored God, but it could also involve claims to divine prerogatives (in this case, Jesus’ claim to oneness with the Father, v. 30). Such claims were viewed as usurping God’s majesty or honor. The remark here raised directly the issue of the identity of Jesus himself as God’s representative.
John 10:33 tn Grk “and because.”
John 10:33 tn Grk “you, a man, make yourself to be God.”
John 10:34 tn Grk “answered them.”
John 10:34 sn A quotation from Ps 82:6. Technically the Psalms are not part of the OT “law” (which usually referred to the five books of Moses), but occasionally the term “law” was applied to the entire OT, as here. The problem in this verse concerns the meaning of Jesus’ quotation from Ps 82:6. It is important to look at the OT context: The whole line reads “I say, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.” Jesus will pick up on the term “sons of the Most High” in 10:36, where he refers to himself as the Son of God. The psalm was understood in rabbinic circles as an attack on unjust judges who, though they have been given the title “gods” because of their quasi-divine function of exercising judgment, are just as mortal as other men. What is the argument here? It is often thought to be as follows: If it was an OT practice to refer to men like the judges as gods, and not blasphemy, why did the Jewish authorities object when this term was applied to Jesus? This really doesn’t seem to fit the context, however, since if that were the case Jesus would not be making any claim for “divinity” for himself over and above any other human being—and therefore he would not be subject to the charge of blasphemy. Rather, this is evidently a case of arguing from the lesser to the greater, a common form of rabbinic argument. The reason the OT judges could be called gods is because they were vehicles of the word of God (cf. 10:35). But granting that premise, Jesus deserves much more than they to be called God. He is the Word incarnate, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world to save the world (10:36). In light of the prologue to the Gospel of John, it seems this interpretation would have been most natural for the author. If it is permissible to call men “gods” because they were the vehicles of the word of God, how much more permissible is it to use the word “God” of him who is the Word of God?
John 10:35 sn The parenthetical note And the scripture cannot be broken belongs to Jesus’ words rather than the author’s. Not only does Jesus appeal to the OT to defend himself against the charge of blasphemy, but he also adds that the scripture cannot be “broken.” In this context he does not explain precisely what is meant by “broken,” but it is not too hard to determine. Jesus’ argument depended on the exact word used in the context of Ps 82:6. If any other word for “judge” had been used in the psalm, his argument would have been meaningless. Since the scriptures do use this word in Ps 82:6, the argument is binding, because they cannot be “broken” in the sense of being shown to be in error.
John 10:36 tn Or “dedicated.”
John 10:37 tn Or “do.”
John 10:37 tn Or “works.”
John 10:38 tn Or “works.”sn Jesus says that in the final analysis, the deeds he did should indicate whether he was truly from the Father. If the authorities could not believe in him, it would be better to believe in the deeds he did than not to believe at all.
John 10:38 tn Or “so that you may learn.”
John 10:39 tc It is difficult to decide between ἐζήτουν οὖν (ezētoun oun, “then they were seeking”; P⁶⁶ א A L W Ψ ƒ^1,13 33 pm lat), ἐζήτουν δέ (ezētoun de, “now they were seeking”; P⁴⁵ and a few versional witnesses), καὶ ἐζήτουν (kai ezētoun, “and they were seeking”; D), and ἐζήτουν (P^75vid B Γ Θ 700 pm). Externally, the most viable readings are ἐζήτουν οὖν and ἐζήτουν. Transcriptionally, the οὖν could have dropped out via haplography since the verb ends in the same three letters. On the other hand, it is difficult to explain the readings with δέ or καί if ἐζήτουν οὖν is autographic; such readings would more likely have arisen from the simple ἐζήτουν. Intrinsically, John is fond of οὖν, using it some 200 times. Further, this Gospel begins relatively few sentences without some conjunction. The minimal support for the δέ and καί readings suggests that they arose either from the lone verb reading (which would thus be prior to their respective Vorlagen but not necessarily the earliest reading) or through carelessness on the part of the scribes. Indeed, the ancestors of P⁴⁵ and D may have committed haplography, leaving later scribes in the chain to guess at the conjunction needed. In sum, the best reading appears to be ἐζήτουν οὖν.
John 10:39 tn Grk “they were seeking.”
John 10:39 tn Grk “he departed out of their hand.”sn It is not clear whether the authorities simply sought to “arrest” him, or were renewing their attempt to stone him (cf. John 10:31) by seizing him and taking him out to be stoned. In either event, Jesus escaped their clutches. Nor is it clear whether Jesus’ escape is to be understood as a miracle. If so, the text gives little indication and even less description. What is clear is that until his “hour” comes, Jesus is completely safe from the hands of men: His enemies are powerless to touch him until they are permitted to do so.
John 10:40 tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
John 10:40 tn The word “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.
John 10:40 sn John refers to John the Baptist.
John 10:40 tn Grk “formerly.”sn This refers to the city of Bethany across the Jordan River (see John 1:28).
John 10:41 tn Grk “And many.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
John 10:41 sn John refers to John the Baptist.
John 10:41 tn Grk “did.”
John 10:41 tn Grk “this one.”
John 10:42 tn Grk “in him.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 100[a]

A thanksgiving psalm.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 100^[a]