◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 86:11-17 (Teach me your ways); Isaiah 44:9-17 (Those who make idols are nothing); Hebrews 6:13-20 (The certainty of God’s promises) (New English Translation)
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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.
Duration: 1245 days
New English Translation (NET)
Version
Psalm 86:11-17

11 O Lord, teach me how you want me to live.[a]
Then I will obey your commands.[b]
Make me wholeheartedly committed to you.[c]
12 O Lord, my God, I will give you thanks with my whole heart.
I will honor your name continually.[d]
13 For you will extend your great loyal love to me,[e]
and will deliver my life[f] from the depths of Sheol.[g]
14 O God, arrogant men attack me;[h]
a gang[i] of ruthless men, who do not respect you, seek my life.[j]
15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.
You are patient[k] and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness.[l]
16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me.
Give your servant your strength.
Deliver this son of your female servant.[m]
17 Show me evidence of your favor.[n]
Then those who hate me will see it and be ashamed,[o]
for you, O Lord, will help me and comfort me.[p]

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “teach me your way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the moral principles he expects the psalmist to follow. See Pss 25:4; 27:11.
  2. Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “I will walk in your truth.” The Lord’s commandments are referred to as “truth” here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will. See Ps 25:5.
  3. Psalm 86:11 tn Heb “Bind my heart to the fearing of your name.” The verb translated “bind” occurs only here in the Piel stem. It appears twice in the Qal, meaning “be joined” in both cases (Gen 49:6; Isa 14:20). To “fear” God’s name means to have a healthy respect for him which in turn motivates one to obey his commands (see Pss 61:5; 102:15).
  4. Psalm 86:12 tn Or “forever.”
  5. Psalm 86:13 tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”
  6. Psalm 86:13 tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.
  7. Psalm 86:13 tn Or “lower Sheol.”
  8. Psalm 86:14 tn Heb “rise up against me.”
  9. Psalm 86:14 tn Or “assembly.”
  10. Psalm 86:14 tn Heb “seek my life and do not set you before them.” See Ps 54:3.
  11. Psalm 86:15 tn Heb “slow to anger.”
  12. Psalm 86:15 tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”sn The psalmist’s confession of faith in this verse echoes Exod 34:6.
  13. Psalm 86:16 tn Heb “the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 116:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The phrase may be used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant. Or it may be a reference to the psalmist’s own mother who also was a servant of the Lord.
  14. Psalm 86:17 tn Heb “Work with me a sign for good.” The expression “work a sign” also occurs in Judg 6:17.
  15. Psalm 86:17 tn After the imperative in the preceding line (“work”), the prefixed verb forms with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicate purpose or result.
  16. Psalm 86:17 tn The perfect verbal forms are understood here as dramatic/rhetorical, expressing the psalmist’s certitude that such a sign from the Lord will be followed by his intervention. Another option is to understand the forms as future perfects (“for you, O Lord, will have helped me and comforted me”).
Isaiah 44:9-17

9 All who form idols are nothing;
the things in which they delight are worthless.
Their witnesses cannot see;
they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.
10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless?[a]
11 Look, all his associates[b] will be put to shame;
the craftsmen are mere humans.[c]
Let them all assemble and take their stand.
They will panic and be put to shame.
12 A blacksmith works with his tool[d]
and forges metal over the coals.
He forms it[e] with hammers;
he makes it with his strong arm.
He gets hungry and loses his energy;[f]
he drinks no water and gets tired.
13 A carpenter takes measurements;[g]
he marks out an outline of its form;[h]
he scrapes[i] it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form,[j]
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine.[k]
14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress[l] or an oak.
He gets[m] trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar[n] and the rain makes it grow.
15 A man uses it to make a fire;[o]
he takes some of it and warms himself.
Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
Then he makes a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.[p]
16 Half of it he burns in the fire—
over that half he cooks[q] meat;
he roasts a meal and fills himself.
Yes, he warms himself and says,
‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’
17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships it.
He prays to it, saying,
‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 44:10 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
  2. Isaiah 44:11 tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.
  3. Isaiah 44:11 sn The point seems to be this: if the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”
  4. Isaiah 44:12 tn The noun מַעֲצָד (maʿatsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.
  5. Isaiah 44:12 tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.
  6. Isaiah 44:12 tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”
  7. Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
  8. Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”
  9. Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
  10. Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
  11. Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
  12. Isaiah 44:14 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
  13. Isaiah 44:14 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
  14. Isaiah 44:14 tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (ʾoren) to אֶרֶז (ʾerez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”
  15. Isaiah 44:15 tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”
  16. Isaiah 44:15 tn Or perhaps, “them.”
  17. Isaiah 44:16 tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”
Hebrews 6:13-20

13 Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you greatly and multiply your descendants abundantly.”[a] 15 And so by persevering, Abraham[b] inherited the promise. 16 For people[c] swear by something greater than themselves,[d] and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute.[e] 17 In the same way[f] God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable,[g] and so he intervened with an oath, 18 so that we who have found refuge in him[h] may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain,[i] 20 where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since he became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.[j]

Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 6:14 tn Grk “in blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply you,” the Greek form of a Hebrew idiom showing intensity.sn A quotation from Gen 22:17.
  2. Hebrews 6:15 tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (Abraham) has been specified for clarity.
  3. Hebrews 6:16 tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποι (anthrōpoi) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, and is thus translated “people.”
  4. Hebrews 6:16 tn Grk “by something greater”; the rest of the comparison (“than themselves”) is implied.
  5. Hebrews 6:16 tn Grk “the oath for confirmation is an end of all dispute.”
  6. Hebrews 6:17 tn Grk “in which.”
  7. Hebrews 6:17 tn Or “immutable” (here and in v. 18); Grk “the unchangeableness of his purpose.”
  8. Hebrews 6:18 tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.
  9. Hebrews 6:19 sn The curtain refers to the veil or drape in the temple that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
  10. Hebrews 6:20 sn A quotation from Ps 110:4, picked up again from Heb 5:6, 10.
New English Translation (NET)

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