The Daily Audio Bible
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1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.(A)
The Consuming Wrath of God
2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and prolongs it against his enemies.(B)
3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.(C)
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,
and he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither,
and the bloom of Lebanon fades.
5 The mountains quake before him,
and the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who live in it.(D)
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.(E)
7 The Lord is good,
a stronghold in a day of trouble;
he protects those who take refuge in him,
8 even in a rushing flood.
He will make a full end of his adversaries[a]
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.(F)
9 Why do you plot against the Lord?
He will make an end;
no adversary will rise up twice.(G)
10 Like thorns they are entangled;
like drunkards they are drunk;
they are consumed like dry straw.(H)
11 From you one has gone out
who plots evil against the Lord,
one who counsels wickedness.(I)
Good News for Judah
12 Thus says the Lord:
Though they are at full strength and many,[b]
they will be cut off and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.(J)
13 And now I will break off his yoke from you
and snap the bonds that bind you.(K)
14 The Lord has commanded concerning you:
Your name shall be perpetuated no longer;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the cast image.
I will prepare your grave, for you are worthless.(L)
15 [c]Look! On the mountains the feet of one
who brings good tidings,
who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the wicked invade you;
they are utterly cut off.(M)
The Destruction of the Wicked City
2 A scatterer has come up against you.
Guard the ramparts;
watch the road;
gird your loins;
collect all your strength.(N)
2 (For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob,
as well as the majesty of Israel,
though ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined their branches.)(O)
3 The shields of his warriors are red;
his soldiers are clothed in crimson.
The metal on the chariots flashes
on the day when he musters them;
the chargers[d] prance.(P)
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
their appearance is like torches;
they dart like lightning.(Q)
5 He calls his officers;
they stumble as they come forward;
they hasten to the wall,
and the screen[e] is set up.
6 The river gates are opened;
the palace trembles.
7 It is decreed[f] that the city[g] be exiled,
its slave women led away,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.(R)
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters[h] run away.
“Halt! Halt!”—
but no one turns back.(S)
9 “Plunder the silver;
plunder the gold!
There is no end of treasure!
An abundance of every precious thing!”
10 Devastation, desolation, and destruction!
Hearts faint and knees tremble;
all loins quake;
all faces grow pale!(T)
11 What became of the lions’ den,
the cave of the young lions,
where the lion goes,
and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them?(U)
12 The lion has torn enough for his whelps
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he has filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.(V)
13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your[i] chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.(W)
Ruin Imminent and Inevitable
3 Woe, city of bloodshed,
utterly deceitful, full of plunder—
no end to the prey!(X)
2 The crack of whip and rumble of wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!(Y)
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
piles of dead,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!(Z)
4 Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,
gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,
who enslaves[j] nations through her debaucheries
and peoples through her sorcery,(AA)
5 I am against you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face,
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.(AB)
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.(AC)
7 Then all who see you will shrink from you and say,
“Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?(AD)
8 Are you better than Thebes[k]
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
water her wall?(AE)
9 Cush was her strength,
Egypt, too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her[l] helpers.(AF)
10 Yet she became an exile;
she went into captivity;
even her infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
lots were cast for her nobles;
all her dignitaries were bound in fetters.(AG)
11 You also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;[m]
you will seek
a refuge from the enemy.(AH)
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.(AI)
13 Look at your troops:
they are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured the bars of your gates.(AJ)
14 Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
trample the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There the fire will devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!(AK)
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like swarms[n] of locusts
settling on the fences
on a cold day—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they have gone.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.(AL)
19 There is no assuaging your hurt;
your wound is mortal.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For who has ever escaped
your endless cruelty?(AM)
The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer
8 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.(A) 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.(B)
3 Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne.(C) 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.(D) 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.(E)
The Seven Trumpets
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.[a]
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were hurled to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.(F)
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea.(G) 9 A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.(H) 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water because it was made bitter.(I)
12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining and likewise the night.(J)
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in midheaven, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”(K)
Psalm 136
God’s Work in Creation and in History
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.(A)
2 O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.(B)
3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
4 who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(C)
5 who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(D)
6 who spread out the earth on the waters,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(E)
7 who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(F)
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(G)
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(H)
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(I)
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(J)
13 who divided the Red Sea[a] in two,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(K)
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(L)
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,[b]
for his steadfast love endures forever;(M)
16 who led his people through the wilderness,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(N)
who made water flow from the rock,
for his steadfast love endures forever;[c]
17 who struck down great kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(O)
18 and killed famous kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
20 and Og, king of Bashan,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
21 and gave their land as a heritage,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(P)
22 a heritage to his servant Israel,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(Q)
24 and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures forever;(R)
25 who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures forever.(S)
26 O give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.