Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 93[a]
93 The Lord reigns.
He is robed in majesty.
The Lord is robed;
he wears strength around his waist.[b]
Indeed, the world is established; it cannot be moved.
2 Your throne has been secure from ancient times;
you have always been king.[c]
3 The waves[d] roar, O Lord,
the waves roar,
the waves roar and crash.[e]
4 Above the sound of the surging water,[f]
and the mighty waves of the sea,
the Lord sits enthroned in majesty.[g]
5 The rules you set down[h] are completely reliable.[i]
Holiness[j] aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever.[k]
Footnotes
- Psalm 93:1 sn Psalm 93. The psalmist affirms that the Lord is the king of the universe who preserves order and suppresses the destructive forces in the world.
- Psalm 93:1 sn Strength is compared here to a belt that one wears for support. The Lord’s power undergirds his rule.
- Psalm 93:2 tn Heb “from antiquity [are] you.” As the context suggests, this refers specifically to God’s royal position, not his personal existence.
- Psalm 93:3 tn The Hebrew noun translated “waves” often refers to rivers or streams, but here it appears to refer to the surging waves of the sea (see v. 4, Ps 24:2).
- Psalm 93:3 tn Heb “the waves lift up, O Lord, the waves lift up their voice, the waves lift up their crashing.”
- Psalm 93:4 tn Heb “mighty waters.”sn The surging waters here symbolizes the hostile enemies of God who seek to destroy the order he has established in the world (see Pss 18:17; 29:3; 32:6; 77:20; 144:7; Isa 17:13; Jer 51:55; Ezek 26:19; Hab 3:15). But the Lord is depicted as elevated above and sovereign over these raging waters.
- Psalm 93:4 tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the Lord.”
- Psalm 93:5 tn Traditionally “your testimonies.” The Hebrew noun עֵדוּת (ʿedut) refers here to the demands of God’s covenant law. See Ps 19:7.
- Psalm 93:5 sn The rules you set down. God’s covenant contains a clear, reliable witness to his moral character and demands.
- Psalm 93:5 sn Holiness refers here to God’s royal transcendence (see vv. 1-4), as well as his moral authority and perfection (see v. 5a).
- Psalm 93:5 tn Heb “for your house holiness is fitting, O Lord, for length of days.”
Elijah Makes a Swift Departure
2 Just before[a] the Lord took Elijah up to heaven in a windstorm, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal. 2 Elijah told Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 Some members of the prophetic guild[b] in Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?”[c] He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”
4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. 5 Some members of the prophetic guild in Jericho approached Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”
6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they traveled on together. 7 The fifty members of the prophetic guild went and stood opposite them at a distance, while Elijah and Elisha[d] stood by the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, folded it up, and hit the water with it. The water divided, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you,[e] before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you?”[f] 10 Elijah[g] replied, “That’s a difficult request![h] If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.”
11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot[i] pulled by fiery horses appeared.[j] They went between Elijah and Elisha,[k] and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm. 12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!”[l] Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 2:1 tn Or “when.”
- 2 Kings 2:3 tn Heb “the sons of the prophets.”
- 2 Kings 2:3 tn Heb “from your head.” The same expression occurs in v. 5.
- 2 Kings 2:7 tn Heb “the two of them.” The referents (Elijah and Elisha) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
- 2 Kings 2:9 tn Heb “Ask! What can I do for you….?”
- 2 Kings 2:9 tn Heb “May a double portion of your spirit come to me.”
- 2 Kings 2:10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- 2 Kings 2:10 tn Heb “You have made difficult [your] request.”
- 2 Kings 2:11 tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”
- 2 Kings 2:11 tn Heb “look, a chariot of fire and horses of fire.”
- 2 Kings 2:11 tn Heb “and they made a division between the two of them.”
- 2 Kings 2:12 sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.
New Life Individually
2 And although you were[a] dead[b] in your offenses and sins, 2 in which[c] you formerly lived[d] according to this world’s present path,[e] according to the ruler of the domain[f] of the air, the ruler of[g] the spirit[h] that is now energizing[i] the sons of disobedience,[j] 3 among whom[k] all of us[l] also[m] formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath[n] even as the rest…[o]
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved![p]— 6 and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 to demonstrate in the coming ages[q] the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward[r] us in Christ Jesus.
Footnotes
- Ephesians 2:1 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
- Ephesians 2:1 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.
- Ephesians 2:2 sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.
- Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “walked.” sn The Greek verb translated lived (περιπατέω, peripateō) in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
- Ephesians 2:2 tn Or possibly “Aeon.”sn The word translated present path is the same as that which has been translated [this] age in 1:21 (αἰών, aiōn).
- Ephesians 2:2 tn That is, “[place of] authority”; see BDAG 353 s.v. ἐξουσία 6.
- Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).
- Ephesians 2:2 sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).
- Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “working in.”
- Ephesians 2:2 sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.
- Ephesians 2:3 sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en hais], ἐν οἵς [en hois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).
- Ephesians 2:3 tn Grk “we all.”
- Ephesians 2:3 tn Or “even.”
- Ephesians 2:3 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
- Ephesians 2:3 sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.
- Ephesians 2:5 tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).
- Ephesians 2:7 tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”
- Ephesians 2:7 tn Or “upon.”
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