Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 For I suffer[a] humiliation for your sake[b]
and am thoroughly disgraced.[c]
8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger;
they act as if I were a foreigner.[d]
9 Certainly[e] zeal for[f] your house[g] consumes me;
I endure the insults of those who insult you.[h]
10 I weep and refrain from eating food,[i]
which causes others to insult me.[j]
Footnotes
- Psalm 69:7 tn Heb “carry, bear.”
- Psalm 69:7 tn Heb “on account of you.”
- Psalm 69:7 tn Heb “and shame covers my face.”
- Psalm 69:8 tn Heb “and I am estranged to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.”
- Psalm 69:9 tn Or “for.” This verse explains that the psalmist’s suffering is due to his allegiance to God.
- Psalm 69:9 tn Or “devotion to.”
- Psalm 69:9 sn God’s house, the temple, here represents by metonymy God himself.
- Psalm 69:9 tn Heb “the insults of those who insult you fall upon me.”sn Jn 2:17 applies the first half of this verse to Jesus’ ministry in the context of John’s account of Jesus cleansing the temple.
- Psalm 69:10 sn Fasting was a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.
- Psalm 69:10 tn Heb “and it becomes insults to me.”
11 I wear sackcloth
and they ridicule me.[a]
12 Those who sit at the city gate gossip about me;
drunkards mock me in their songs.[b]
13 O Lord, may you hear my prayer and be favorably disposed to me.[c]
O God, because of your great loyal love,
answer me with your faithful deliverance.[d]
14 Rescue me from the mud. Don’t let me sink.
Deliver me[e] from those who hate me,
from the deep water.
15 Don’t let the current overpower me.
Don’t let the deep swallow me up.
Don’t let the Pit[f] devour me.[g]
Footnotes
- Psalm 69:11 tn Heb “and I am an object of ridicule to them.”
- Psalm 69:12 tn Heb “the mocking songs of the drinkers of beer.”
- Psalm 69:13 tn Heb “as for me, [may] my prayer be to you, O Lord, [in] a time of favor.”
- Psalm 69:13 tn Heb “O God, in the abundance of your loyal love, answer me in the faithfulness of your deliverance.”
- Psalm 69:14 tn Heb “let me be delivered.”
- Psalm 69:15 tn Heb “well,” which here symbolizes the place of the dead (cf. Ps 55:23).
- Psalm 69:15 tn Heb “do not let the well close its mouth upon me.”
16 Answer me, O Lord, for your loyal love is good.[a]
Because of your great compassion, turn toward me.
17 Do not ignore[b] your servant,
for I am in trouble. Answer me right away.[c]
18 Come near me and redeem me.[d]
Because of my enemies, rescue me.
Footnotes
- Psalm 69:16 tn Or “pleasant”; or “desirable.”
- Psalm 69:17 tn Heb “do not hide your face from.” The Hebrew idiom “hide the face” can (1) mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or (2) carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
- Psalm 69:17 tn Or “quickly.”
- Psalm 69:18 tn Heb “come near my life and redeem it.” The verb “redeem” casts the Lord in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).
Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him
18 Then some people[a] said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah![b] There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word.[c] Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him![d] Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”
19 Then I said,[e]
“Lord, pay attention to me.
Listen to what my enemies are saying.[f]
20 Should good be paid back with evil?
Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me.[g]
Just remember how I stood before you
pleading on their behalf[h]
to keep you from venting your anger on them.[i]
21 So let their children die of starvation.
Let them be cut down by the sword.[j]
Let their wives lose their husbands and children.
Let the older men die of disease[k]
and the younger men die by the sword in battle.
22 Let cries of terror be heard in their houses
when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them.[l]
For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden traps for me to step into.
23 But you, Lord, know
all their plots to kill me.
Do not pardon their crimes!
Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them.[m]
Let them be brought down in defeat before you.
Deal with them while you are still angry![n]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
- Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18, where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
- Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “For instruction will not perish from priest, nor counsel from wise man, nor word from prophet.”sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.
- Jeremiah 18:18 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
- Jeremiah 18:19 tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that Jeremiah turns from describing the peoples’ plots to imploring God to deal with the plotters.
- Jeremiah 18:19 tn Heb “the voice of my adversaries.”sn Jeremiah’s prayers against the unjust treatment of his enemies here and elsewhere (see 11:18-20; 12:1-4; 15:15-18; 17:14-18) have many elements of prayers by the innocent in the book of Psalms: an invocation of the Lord as just judge, a lament about unjust attacks, an appeal to innocence, and a cry for vindication that often calls for the Lord to pay back in kind those who unjustly attack the petitioner. See for examples Pss 5, 7, 17, and 54, among many others.
- Jeremiah 18:20 tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.
- Jeremiah 18:20 tn Heb “to speak good concerning them,” which goes back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.
- Jeremiah 18:20 tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”sn See Jer 14:7-9, 19-21 and 15:1-4 for the idea.
- Jeremiah 18:21 tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5 and Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages shows that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.
- Jeremiah 18:21 tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease, which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.
- Jeremiah 18:22 tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them,” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.
- Jeremiah 18:23 sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure that looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished and a book of life for those who are to live, see, e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Pss 51:1 (51:3 HT); and 69:28 (69:29 HT).
- Jeremiah 18:23 tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”
Further Trouble for the Apostles
17 Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees[a]),[b] and they were filled with jealousy.[c] 18 They[d] laid hands on[e] the apostles and put them in a public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord[f] opened[g] the doors of the prison,[h] led them out,[i] and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple courts[j] and proclaim[k] to the people all the words of this life.” 21 When they heard this, they entered the temple courts[l] at daybreak and began teaching.[m]
Now when the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they summoned the Sanhedrin[n]—that is, the whole high council[o] of the Israelites[p]—and sent to the jail to have the apostles[q] brought before them.[r] 22 But the officers[s] who came for them[t] did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported,[u] 23 “We found the jail locked securely and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them,[v] we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the commander[w] of the temple guard[x] and the chief priests heard this report,[y] they were greatly puzzled concerning it,[z] wondering what this could[aa] be. 25 But someone came and reported to them, “Look! The men you put in prison are standing in the temple courts[ab] and teaching[ac] the people!” 26 Then the commander[ad] of the temple guard[ae] went with the officers[af] and brought the apostles[ag] without the use of force[ah] (for they were afraid of being stoned by the people).[ai]
Footnotes
- Acts 5:17 sn See the note on Sadducees in 4:1.
- Acts 5:17 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
- Acts 5:17 sn Filled with jealousy. In Acts, the term “jealousy” (ζήλος, zēlos) occurs only here and in Acts 13:45. It is a key term in Judaism for religiously motivated rage (1 Macc 2:24; 1QH 14:13-15; m. Sanhedrin 9:5). It was a zeal motivated by a desire to maintain the purity of the faith.
- Acts 5:18 tn Grk “jealousy, and they.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but a new sentence has been started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Acts 5:18 tn Or “they arrested.”
- Acts 5:19 tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” Linguistically, “angel of the Lord” is the same in both testaments (and thus, he is either “an angel of the Lord” or “the angel of the Lord” in both testaments). For arguments and implications, see ExSyn 252; M. J. Davidson, “Angels,” DJG, 9; W. G. MacDonald argues for “an angel” in both testaments: “Christology and ‘The Angel of the Lord’,” Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, 324-35.
- Acts 5:19 tn Grk “opening the doors of the prison.” The participle ἀνοίξας (anoixas) has been translated as a finite verb due to the requirements of contemporary English style.
- Acts 5:19 tn Greek φυλακῆς (phulakēs), a different word from the one in v. 18 (τήρησις, tērēsis, “jail”).
- Acts 5:19 tn Or “brought them out.” Grk “and leading them out, said.” The participle ἐξαγαγών (exagagōn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.sn Led them out. The action by God served to vindicate the apostles. It showed that whatever court the Jewish leaders represented, they did not represent God.
- Acts 5:20 tn Grk “the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.
- Acts 5:20 tn Or “speak.”
- Acts 5:21 tn Grk “the temple.” See the note on the same phrase in the preceding verse.
- Acts 5:21 tn The imperfect verb ἐδίδασκον (edidaskon) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.
- Acts 5:21 tn Or “the council” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).
- Acts 5:21 tn A hendiadys (two different terms referring to a single thing) is likely here (a reference to a single legislative body rather than two separate ones) because the term γερουσίαν (gerousian) is used in both 1 Macc 12:6 and Josephus, Ant. 13.5.8 (13.166) to refer to the Sanhedrin.
- Acts 5:21 tn Grk “sons of Israel.”
- Acts 5:21 tn Grk “have them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Acts 5:21 tn The words “before them” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
- Acts 5:22 tn The Greek term ὑπηρέτης (hupēretēs) generally means “servant,” but in the NT is used for many different types of servants, like attendants to a king, the officers of the Sanhedrin (as here), assistants to magistrates, and (especially in the Gospel of John) Jewish guards in the Jerusalem temple (see L&N 35.20).
- Acts 5:22 tn The words “for them” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
- Acts 5:22 tn Grk “reported, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in English and has not been translated.
- Acts 5:23 tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.
- Acts 5:24 tn Or “captain.”
- Acts 5:24 tn Grk “the official of the temple,” a title for the commander of the Jewish soldiers guarding the temple (thus the translation, “the commander of the temple guard”). See L&N 37.91.
- Acts 5:24 tn Grk “heard these words.”
- Acts 5:24 tn Grk “concerning them,” agreeing with the plural antecedent “these words.” Since the phrase “these words” was translated as the singular “this report,” the singular “concerning it” is used here.
- Acts 5:24 tn The optative verb here expresses confused uncertainty.
- Acts 5:25 tn Grk “the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.
- Acts 5:25 sn Obeying God (see v. 29), the apostles were teaching again (4:18-20; 5:20). They did so despite the risk.
- Acts 5:26 tn Or “captain.”
- Acts 5:26 tn Grk “the official [of the temple],” a title for the commander of the Jewish soldiers guarding the temple (thus the translation, “the commander of the temple guard”). See L&N 37.91.
- Acts 5:26 tn The Greek term ὑπηρέτης (hupēretēs) generally means “servant,” but in the NT is used for many different types of servants. See the note on the word “officers” in v. 22.
- Acts 5:26 tn Grk “brought them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Acts 5:26 tn Or “without violence.” It is clear, as well, that the apostles did not resist arrest.
- Acts 5:26 tn Grk “for they feared lest they be stoned by the people.” The translation uses a less awkward English equivalent. This is an explanatory note by the author.
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