The Daily Audio Bible

A Song of Thanks

12 You will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord. Even though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away and You comfort me. ² See, God saves me. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and song. And He has become the One Who saves me.” ³ As water from a well brings joy to the thirsty, so people have joy when He saves them. ⁴ In that day you will say, “Give thanks to the Lord. Call on His name. Make known His works among the people. Help them remember that His name is honored.” ⁵ Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done great things. Let this be known in all the earth. ⁶ Call out and sing for joy, O people of Zion. For the Holy One of Israel is great among you.

Babylon Will Be Punished

13 The special word about Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw: ² Lift up a flag on the hill without trees. Call out to the people. Wave the hand for them to go into the gates of the princes. ³ I have told My holy ones, and My powerful soldiers who take pride in their strength, to carry out My anger. ⁴ Listen to the noise on the mountains, like that of many people! Listen to the loud sound of the many people, of nations gathered together! The Lord of All is gathering an army for battle. ⁵ They are coming from a far country, from the end of the heavens. The Lord and all He is using to show His anger are coming to destroy the whole land. ⁶ Cry out in sorrow, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as a destroying power from the All-powerful. ⁷ So all hands will become weak, and every man’s heart will melt. ⁸ They will be filled with fear. Pain and suffering will take hold of them. They will suffer like a woman giving birth. They will look surprised at one another, their faces burning. ⁹ See, the day of the Lord is coming, without pity and with much anger. He is coming to destroy the land and its sinners from it. ¹⁰ The stars of heaven and every group of stars will not give out their light. The sun will be dark when it comes up, and the moon will not give its light. ¹¹ This is how I will punish the world for its sin, and the sinful for their wrong-doing. I will also put an end to those who are proud. And I will put to shame those who make it hard for others and show no pity. ¹² I will make men so few that they will be of more worth than pure gold, even the gold of Ophir. ¹³ I will make the heavens shake. And the earth will be shaken from its place with the anger of the Lord of All in the day of His burning anger. ¹⁴ Every man will turn to his own people and run to his own land like a hunted gazelle or like sheep with no shepherd. ¹⁵ Anyone who is found will have a spear put through him. And anyone who is caught will fall by the sword. ¹⁶ Their little ones will be broken in pieces in front of their eyes. Their things will be taken from their houses. And their wives will be carried away.

¹⁷ See, I am going to make the Medes go against them, who will not want silver or be happy with gold. ¹⁸ Their bows will cut down the young men. They will have no pity on babies. Their eyes will not pity children. ¹⁹ And Babylon, the beauty of nations, the shining-greatness and pride of the Babylonians, will be as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰ People will never live in it again, even all the people-to-come. No Arab will set up his tent there. No shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. ²¹ But wild animals of the desert will lie down there. Their houses will be full of owls. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will play there. ²² Hyenas will make noise in their strong towers, and wild dogs in their beautiful houses. The end of her time is near. Her days will be few.

Loving-Pity on Jacob

14 The Lord will have loving-pity on Jacob and will again choose Israel. He will have them return to live in their own land. Then people from other countries will come and be with them, and will join themselves to the family of Jacob. ² Nations will take them and bring them to their place. The family of Israel will own them in the Lord’s land as men and women servants. They will take those who had taken them away and they will rule over those who had made it hard for them.

Babylon’s King in the World of the Dead

³ When the Lord gives you rest from your pain and trouble and the hard work which you were made to do, ⁴ you will speak against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the one who made it hard for us has been stopped! How his anger has been stopped! ⁵ The Lord has broken the walking stick of the sinful, the power of rulers, ⁶ which used to beat the people in anger without stopping. The nations were ruled in anger. It was very hard for the people and there was no pity shown to them.

⁷ “Now the whole earth is at rest and quiet. They sing out with joy. ⁸ Even the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon are glad over you, and say, ‘Since you were cut down no one comes to cut us down.’ ⁹ The world of the dead below wants to meet you when you come. It wakes up the spirits of the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth. It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. ¹⁰ All of them will speak and say to you, ‘Even you have become as weak as we. You have become like us. ¹¹ Your honor and power along with the music of your harps have been brought down to the place of the dead. Worms are spread out as your bed under you and worms cover you.’

¹² “How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have made the nations weak! ¹³ You said in your heart, ‘I will go up to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. And I will sit on the mount of meeting in the far north. ¹⁴ I will go much higher than the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.’ ¹⁵ But you will be brought down to the place of the dead, to the bottom of the grave. ¹⁶ Those who see you will look hard at you and think about you, and say, ‘Is this the man who made the earth shake with fear, who shook nations? ¹⁷ Is this the man who made the world like a desert and destroyed its cities, who did not let those whom he had put in prison go home?’

¹⁸ “All the kings of the nations lie in greatness, each in his own grave. ¹⁹ But you have been thrown out of your grave like a hated part of the family. You are clothed with the dead who were killed with a sword, who go down to the stones of the grave, like a dead body crushed under foot. ²⁰ You will not be joined with them when you are buried, because you have destroyed your country. You have killed your people. May the children of sinners never be spoken about again! ²¹ Make a place ready for his sons to be killed because of the sin of their fathers. They must not come into power and take the earth, and fill the world with cities.”

God Will Destroy Babylon

²² “I will come against them,” says the Lord of All. “And I will cut off from Babylon its name and people, its children and their children,” says the Lord. ²³ “I will turn it into a place for hedgehogs, full of pools of water. And I will go over it and destroy it,” says the Lord of All.

God Will Destroy the Assyrians

²⁴ The Lord of All has promised, “It will happen just as I have planned it. As I have planned, so will it be. ²⁵ I will break Assyria in My land. I will crush him under foot on My mountains. Then his load will be taken from My people. His load will be taken from their shoulder.” ²⁶ This is the plan made against the whole earth and this is the hand that is put out against all the nations. ²⁷ For the Lord of All has planned, and who can keep it from happening? Who can turn His hand back?

God Will Destroy the Philistines

²⁸ In the year that King Ahaz died this special word came: ²⁹ “Do not be glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the special stick that made it hard for you is broken. One snake dies and a worse one comes, a snake that can fly. ³⁰ The poor will eat. Those in need will lie down and be safe. I will destroy all of you with hunger and it will kill those who are left. ³¹ Cry out, O gate. Cry, O city. All you Philistines are weak in heart. For smoke comes from the north, and everyone keeps his place in his army. ³² What answer will be given to the men sent by the nation? That the Lord is the builder of Zion, and it will be a safe place for His people who are poor and troubled.”

13 This is my third visit to you. The Holy Writings tell us that when people think someone has done wrong, it must be proven by two or three people who saw the wrong being done. ² During my second visit I talked to you who have been sinning and to all the others. While I am away, I tell you this again. The next time I come I will be hard on those who sin. ³ Since you want to know, I will prove to you that Christ speaks through me. Christ is not weak when He works in your hearts. He uses His power in you. ⁴ Christ’s weak human body died on a cross. It is by God’s power that Christ lives today. We are weak. We are as He was. But we will be alive with Christ through the power God has for us.

⁵ Put yourselves through a test. See if you belong to Christ. Then you will know you belong to Christ, unless you do not pass the test. ⁶ I trust you see that we belong to Him and have passed the test. ⁷ We pray to God that you do no wrong. We do not pray this to show that our teaching is so great, but that you will keep on doing what is right, even if it looks as if we have done much wrong. ⁸ We cannot work against the truth of God. We only work for it. ⁹ We are glad when we are weak and you are strong. We pray that you will become strong Christians. ¹⁰ This is why I am writing these things while I am away from you. Then when I get there, I will not have to use strong words or punish you to show you that the Lord gives me this power. This power is to be used to make you stronger Christians, not to make you weak by hurting your faith.

¹¹ Last of all, Christian brothers, good-bye. Do that which makes you complete. Be comforted. Work to get along with others. Live in peace. The God of love and peace will be with you. ¹² Greet each other with a kiss of holy love. ¹³ All those here who belong to Christ say hello. ¹⁴ May you have loving-favor from our Lord Jesus Christ. May you have the love of God. May you be joined together by the Holy Spirit.

Prayer for Help

57 Show me loving-kindness, O God, show me loving-kindness. For my soul goes to You to be safe. And I will be safe in the shadow of Your wings until the trouble has passed. ² I will cry to God Most High, to God Who finishes all things for me. ³ He will send from heaven and save me. He will put to shame him who is breaking me under his feet. God will send His loving-kindness and His truth.

⁴ My soul is among lions. I must lie among the sons of men who breathe fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and whose tongues are a sharp sword. ⁵ Be lifted up above the heavens, O God. Let Your shining-greatness be above all the earth. ⁶ They have set a net for my steps. My soul is brought down. They dug a deep hole in front of me. But they themselves have fallen into it.

⁷ My heart will not be moved, O God. My heart cannot be moved. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! ⁸ Awake, my shining-greatness. Awake, harps. I will awake early in the morning. ⁹ O Lord, I will give thanks to You among the people. I will sing praises to You among the nations. ¹⁰ For Your loving-kindness is great to the heavens, and Your truth to the clouds. ¹¹ Be lifted up above the heavens, O God. Let Your shining-greatness be above all the earth.

⁹ Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will hate the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Do not take away the old land-mark, or go into the fields of those without a father. ¹¹ For the One Who saves them is strong. He will stand by them and give them help against you.