◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 28 (Shepherd your people forever); Numbers 27:15-23 (Joshua to shepherd Israel); 2 Timothy 2:8-13 (Those who endure with Christ reign with him) (New English Translation)

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November 27, 2023

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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 28

Psalm 28^[a]

By David.

28 To you, O Lord, I cry out!
My Protector,^[b] do not ignore me.^[c]
If you do not respond to me,^[d]
I will join^[e] those who are descending into the grave.^[f]
²Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,
when I lift my hands^[g] toward your holy temple.^[h]
³Do not drag me away with evil men,
with those who behave wickedly,^[i]
who talk so friendly to their neighbors,^[j]
while they plan to harm them.^[k]
⁴Pay them back for their evil deeds.
Pay them back for what they do.
Punish them.^[l]
⁵For they do not understand the Lord’s actions,
or the way he carries out justice.^[m]
The Lord^[n] will permanently demolish them.^[o]
⁶The Lord deserves praise,^[p]
for he has heard my plea for mercy.^[q]
⁷The Lord strengthens and protects me;^[r]
I trust in him with all my heart.^[s]
I am rescued^[t] and my heart is full of joy;^[u]
I will sing to him in gratitude.^[v]
⁸The Lord strengthens his people;^[w]
he protects and delivers his chosen king.^[x]
⁹Deliver your people.
Empower^[y] the nation that belongs to you.^[z]
Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms^[aa] at all times!^[ab]

Footnotes

Psalm 28:1 sn Psalm 28. The author looks to the Lord for vindication, asks that the wicked be repaid in full for their evil deeds, and affirms his confidence that the Lord will protect his own.
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “I will be equal with.”
Psalm 28:1 tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.
Psalm 28:2 sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.
Psalm 28:2 tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (d^evir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.
Psalm 28:3 tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”
Psalm 28:3 tn Heb “speakers of peace with their neighbors.”
Psalm 28:3 tn Heb “and evil [is] in their heart[s].”
Psalm 28:4 tn Heb “Give to them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds. According to the work of their hands give to them. Return their due to them.” The highly repetitive style reflects the psalmist’s agitated emotional state and draws attention to his yearning for justice.
Psalm 28:5 tn Heb “or the work of his hands.” In this context “the Lord’s actions” and “the work of his hands” probably refer to the way he carries out justice by vindicating the godly and punishing the wicked. (Note the final line of the verse, which refers to divine judgment. See also Ps 92:4-7.) Evil men do not “understand” God’s just ways; they fail to realize he will protect the innocent. Consequently they seek to harm the godly, as if they believe they will never be held accountable for their actions.
Psalm 28:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord, who is referred to in the two immediately preceding lines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Psalm 28:5 tn Heb “will tear them down and not rebuild them.” The ungodly are compared to a structure that is permanently demolished.
Psalm 28:6 tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord.”
Psalm 28:6 sn He has heard my plea for mercy. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes at this point, because the Lord responded positively to his petition and assured him that he would deliver him.
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “The Lord [is] my strength and my shield.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Or “I am helped.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “and my heart exults.”
Psalm 28:7 tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.
Psalm 28:8 tn Heb “the Lord [is] strength to them” (or perhaps, “to him”). The form לָמוֹ (lamo, “to them/him”) probably needs to be emended to לְעַמּוֹ (l^eʿammo, “to his people”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 236), perhaps due to quiescence of the letter ʿayin (ע; see P. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 55). Note the reference to the Lord’s “people” in the next verse. Also, a few Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Syriac support לְעַמּוֹ (l^eʿammo, “to his people”).
Psalm 28:8 tn Heb “he [is] a refuge of help for his anointed one.” The noun מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh, “anointed one”) refers to the Davidic king, who perhaps speaks as representative of the nation in this psalm. See Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 84:9; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17.
Psalm 28:9 tn Or “bless.”
Psalm 28:9 tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.
Psalm 28:9 tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”sn The shepherd metaphor is sometimes associated with royal responsibility. See 2 Sam 5:2; 7:7; Mic 5:2-4).
Psalm 28:9 tn Or “forever.”

Numbers 27:15-23

¹⁵Then Moses spoke to the Lord: ¹⁶“Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all humankind,^[a] appoint^[b] a man over the community, ¹⁷who will go out before them, and who will come in before them,^[c] and who will lead them out, and who will bring them in, so that^[d] the community of the Lord may not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”

¹⁸The Lord replied^[e] to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit,^[f] and lay your hand on him;^[g] ¹⁹set him^[h] before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission^[i] him publicly.^[j] ²⁰Then you must delegate^[k] some of your authority^[l] to him, so that the whole community of the Israelites will be obedient.^[m] ²¹And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who^[n] will seek counsel^[o] for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim.^[p] At his command^[q] they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

²²So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set^[r] him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community. ²³He laid his hands on him and commissioned him, just as the Lord commanded,^[s] by the authority^[t] of Moses.

Footnotes

Numbers 27:16 tn Heb “flesh”; cf. NAB, NIV “all mankind”; NCV “all people”; NLT “all living things.”
Numbers 27:16 tn This is the same verb פָּקַד (paqad) that is used throughout the book for the aspect of “numbering” the people.
Numbers 27:17 sn This is probably technical terminology for a military leader (Josh 14:11; 1 Sam 18:13-16; 1 Kgs 3:7; 2 Kgs 11:9). The image of a shepherd can also be military in nature (1 Kgs 22:17).
Numbers 27:17 tn The Hebrew text has the conjunction with the negated imperfect tense, “and it will not be.” This clause should be subordinated to the preceding to form a result clause, and the imperfect then function as a final imperfect.
Numbers 27:18 tn Or “said.”
Numbers 27:18 sn The word “spirit” probably refers to the Holy Spirit. This would likely be a permanent endowment for Joshua. But it is also possible to take it to refer to a proper spirit to do all the things required of such a leader (which ultimately is a gift from the Spirit of God). The Hebrew text simply says “in whom is a spirit.”
Numbers 27:18 sn This symbolic act would indicate the transfer of leadership to Joshua.
Numbers 27:19 tn This could be translated “position him,” or “have him stand,” since it is the causative stem of the verb “to stand.”
Numbers 27:19 tn The verb is the Piel perfect of צִוָּה (tsivvah, literally “to command”). The verb has a wide range of meanings, and so here in this context the idea of instructing gives way to a more general sense of commissioning for duty. The verb in sequence is equal to the imperfect of instruction.
Numbers 27:19 tn Heb “in their eyes.”
Numbers 27:20 tn The verb is simply “give,” but in this context giving some of Moses’ honor to Joshua in the presence of the people is essentially passing the leadership to him, or delegating the authority to him with the result that people would follow him.
Numbers 27:20 tc The Greek, Syriac, and Vulgate read “glory” for this form that occurs only here in the Pentateuch. Elsewhere it is rendered “majesty, splendor” (see Ps 96:6). It could even be “vitality” here. The authority being transferred here is both spiritual and civil.
Numbers 27:20 tn Heb “hear.”
Numbers 27:21 tn The passage simply has “and he will ask,” but Eleazar is clearly the subject now.
Numbers 27:21 tn Heb “ask.”
Numbers 27:21 sn The new leader would not have the privilege that Moses had in speaking to God face-to-face. Rather, he would have to inquire of the Lord through the priest, and the priest would seek a decision by means of the Urim. The Urim and the Thummim were the sacred lots that the priest had in his pouch, the “breastplate” as it has traditionally been called. Since the Law had now been fully established, there would be fewer cases that the leader would need further rulings. Now it would simply be seeking the Lord’s word for matters such as whether to advance or not. The size, shape or substance of these objects is uncertain. See further C. Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim.
Numbers 27:21 tn Heb “mouth,” meaning what he will say.
Numbers 27:22 tn Heb “stood.”
Numbers 27:23 tn Heb “spoke.”
Numbers 27:23 tn Heb “hand.”

2 Timothy 2:8-13

⁸Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David;^[a] such is my gospel,^[b] ⁹for which I suffer hardship to the point of imprisonment^[c] as a criminal, but God’s message^[d] is not imprisoned!^[e] ¹⁰So I endure all things for the sake of those chosen by God,^[f] that they too may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus and its eternal glory.^[g] ¹¹This saying^[h] is trustworthy:^[i]

If we died with him, we will also live with him.
¹²If we endure, we will also reign with him.^[j]
If we deny^[k] him,^[l] he will also deny us.
¹³If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself.^[m]

Footnotes

2 Timothy 2:8 tn Grk “of David’s seed” (an idiom for physical descent).
2 Timothy 2:8 tn Grk “according to my gospel.”
2 Timothy 2:9 tn Or “chains,” “bonds.”
2 Timothy 2:9 tn Or “word.”
2 Timothy 2:9 tn Or “chained,” “bound.”
2 Timothy 2:10 tn Grk “the elect.”
2 Timothy 2:10 tn Grk “with eternal glory.”
2 Timothy 2:11 sn This saying (Grk “the saying”) refers to the following citation. See 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Titus 3:8 for other occurrences of this phrase.
2 Timothy 2:11 sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.
2 Timothy 2:12 tn Grk “died together…will live together…will reign together,” without “him” stated explicitly. But “him” is implied by the parallel ideas in Rom 6:8; 8:17 and by the reference to Christ in vv. 12b-13.
2 Timothy 2:12 tn Or “renounce,” “disown,” “repudiate.” It is important to note that the object of Christ’s denial is “us.” The text does not contain an implied object complement (“he will deny us [x]”), which would mean that Christ was withholding something from us (for example, “The owner denied his pets water”), since the verb ἀρνέομαι (arneomai) is not one of the category of verbs that normally occurs in these constructions (see ExSyn 182-89).
2 Timothy 2:12 tn Grk “if we renounce,” but the “him” is implied by the parallel clauses.
2 Timothy 2:13 sn If we are unfaithful…he cannot deny himself. This could be (1) a word of warning (The Lord will exact punishment; he cannot deny his holiness) or (2) a word of hope (Because of who he is, he remains faithful to us despite our lapses). The latter is more likely, since Paul consistently cites God’s faithfulness as a reassurance, not as a warning (cf. especially Rom 3:3; also 1 Cor 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor 1:18; 1 Thess 5:24; 2 Thess 3:3).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 28[a]

By David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 28^[a]