The Daily Audio Bible
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6 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have posted sentinels;
all day and all night
they shall never be silent.
You who remind the Lord,
take no rest,(A)
7 and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it renowned throughout the earth.(B)
8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand
and by his mighty arm:
I will not again give your grain
to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners shall not drink the wine
for which you have labored,(C)
9 but those who harvest it shall eat it
and praise the Lord,
and those who gather it shall drink it
in my holy courts.(D)
10 Go through, go through the gates;
prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway;
clear it of stones;
lift up an ensign over the peoples.(E)
11 The Lord has proclaimed
to the end of the earth:
Say to daughter Zion,
“Look, your savior comes;
his reward is with him
and his recompense before him.”(F)
12 They shall be called, “The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord,”
and you shall be called, “Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.”(G)
Vengeance on Edom
63 “Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?
Who is this so splendidly robed,
marching in his great might?”
“It is I, announcing vindication,
mighty to save.”(H)
2 “Why are your robes red
and your garments like theirs who tread the winepress?”(I)
3 “I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their juice spattered on my garments,
and I stained all my robes.(J)
4 For the day of vengeance was in my mind,
and the year for my redeeming work had come.(K)
5 I looked, but there was no helper;
I was abandoned, and there was no one to sustain me,
so my own arm brought me victory,
and my wrath sustained me.(L)
6 I trampled down peoples in my anger;
I crushed them[a] in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”(M)
God’s Mercy Remembered
7 I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has done for us
and the great favor to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.(N)
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not act deceitfully,”
and he became their savior
9 in all their distress.
It was no messenger or angel
but his presence that saved them;
in his love and pity it was he who redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.(O)
10 But they rebelled
and grieved his holy spirit;
therefore he became their enemy;
he himself fought against them.(P)
11 Then they[b] remembered the days of old,
of Moses his servant.[c]
Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea
with the shepherds of his flock?
Where is the one who put within them
his holy spirit,(Q)
12 who caused his glorious arm
to march at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
to make for himself an everlasting name,(R)
13 who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
they did not stumble.(S)
14 Like cattle that go down into the valley,
the spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
Thus you led your people,
to make for yourself a glorious name.(T)
A Prayer of Penitence
15 Look down from heaven and see,
from your holy and glorious habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
Your great pity and your compassion are withheld from me.(U)
16 For you are our father,
though Abraham does not know us
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our father;
our Redeemer from of old is your name.(V)
17 Why, O Lord, do you let us stray from your ways
and let our heart harden, so that we do not fear you?
Turn back for the sake of your servants,
the tribes that are your heritage.(W)
18 Your holy people took possession for a little while,
but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.(X)
19 We have long been like those whom you do not rule,
like those not called by your name.(Y)
64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—(Z)
2 [d]as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!(AA)
3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.(AB)
4 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.(AC)
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.[e](AD)
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.(AE)
7 There is no one who calls on your name
or attempts to take hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered[f] us into the hand of our iniquity.(AF)
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.(AG)
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.(AH)
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.(AI)
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins.(AJ)
12 After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
Will you keep silent and punish us so severely?(AK)
The Righteousness of God’s Judgment
65 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.(AL)
2 I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;(AM)
3 a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and offering incense on bricks;(AN)
4 who sit inside tombs
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
with broth of abominable things in their vessels;(AO)
5 who say, “Keep to yourself;
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all day long.(AP)
6 See, it is written before me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their laps(AQ)
7 their[g] iniquities and their[h] ancestors’ iniquities together,
says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains
and reviled me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
full payment for their actions.(AR)
8 Thus says the Lord:
As the wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, “Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,”
so I will do for my servants’ sake
and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob
and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
and my servants shall settle there.(AS)
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks
and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
for my people who have sought me.(AT)
11 But you who forsake the Lord,
who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,(AU)
12 I will destine you to the sword,
and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter;
because, when I called, you did not answer,
when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my sight
and chose what I did not delight in.(AV)
13 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
My servants shall eat,
but you shall be hungry;
my servants shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;
my servants shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;(AW)
14 my servants shall sing with gladness of heart,
but you shall cry out in pain of heart
and shall wail in anguish of spirit.(AX)
15 You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse,
and the Lord God will put you to death,
but to his servants he will give a different name.(AY)
16 Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land
shall bless by the God of faithfulness,
and whoever takes an oath in the land
shall swear by the God of faithfulness,
because the former troubles are forgotten
and are hidden from my sight.(AZ)
The Glorious New Creation
17 For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.(BA)
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating,
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy
and its people as a delight.(BB)
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it
or the cry of distress.(BC)
20 No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime,
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.(BD)
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.(BE)
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat,
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.(BF)
23 They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,[i]
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
and their descendants as well.(BG)
24 Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.(BH)
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord.(BI)
Timothy and Epaphroditus
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be consoled by news of you. 20 I have no one so like myself who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.(A) 22 But Timothy’s[a] worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.(B) 23 I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.
25 Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, your messenger[b] and minister to my need,(C) 26 for he has been longing for[c] all of you and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. 29 Welcome him, then, in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people,(D) 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ,[d] risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.
3 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.
Breaking with the Past
To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a source of steadfastness.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God[f] and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh(F)—
Book III
(Psalms 73–89)
Psalm 73
Plea for Relief from Oppressors
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.(A)
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
my steps had nearly slipped.(B)
3 For I was envious of the arrogant;
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.(C)
4 For they have no pain;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not plagued like other people.(D)
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them like a garment.(E)
7 Their eyes swell out with fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.(F)
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.(G)
9 They set their mouths against heaven,
and their tongues range over the earth.
10 Therefore the people turn and praise them[a]
and find no fault in them.[b]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”(H)
12 Such are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.(I)
13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.(J)
14 For all day long I have been plagued
and am punished every morning.(K)
15 If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”
I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,(L)
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I perceived their end.(M)
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.(N)
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!(O)
20 They are[c] like a dream when one awakes;
on awaking you despise their phantoms.(P)
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was stupid and ignorant;
I was like a brute beast toward you.(Q)
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me with honor.[d](R)
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.(S)
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength[e] of my heart and my portion forever.(T)
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.