The Daily Audio Bible

Comfort for Zion

51 “Listen to me, you who are following what is right and good, and who are looking for the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were cut out, and to the hole from which you were dug. ² Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain. When he was but one, I called him. Then I brought good to him and made him many.” ³ For the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her desert like Eden, like the garden of the Lord. Joy and happiness will be found in her. There will be much giving of thanks and much singing.

⁴ “Listen to Me, O My people. Hear Me, O My nation. The Law will go out from Me and My Law will be a light to the people. ⁵ My being right and good is near. My saving power has gone out, and My arms will judge the people. The islands will wait for Me. They will trust with hope for My arm. ⁶ Lift up your eyes to the sky, and look to the earth below. For the sky will go away like smoke. And the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing and those who live in it will die like flies. But My saving power will be forever. My being right and good will not come to an end. ⁷ Listen to Me, you who know what is right and good, you people who have My Law in your hearts. Do not fear the shame of strong words from man. Do not be troubled when they speak against you. ⁸ For the moth will eat them like a piece of clothing. And the worm will eat them like wool. But My being right and good will be forever. My saving power will be to all children’s children to come.”

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake as in the days of old, as You did with the people who lived long ago. Was it not You Who cut Rahab in pieces, and Who cut through the big dragon? ¹⁰ Was it not You Who dried up the sea, the deep waters, and Who made a path through the deep sea for Your saved people to cross over? ¹¹ So the people, for whom the Lord paid the price to be saved, will return. They will come with songs of joy to Zion. Joy that lasts forever will be on their heads. They will receive joy and happiness, and sorrow and sad voices will hurry away.

¹² “I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of a man who dies? Why are you afraid of the sons of men who are made like grass, ¹³ that you have forgotten the Lord Who made you? He spread out the heavens and put the earth in its place. Why do you live in fear all day long because of the anger of the one who makes it hard for you as he makes ready to destroy? But where is his anger? ¹⁴ The one in chains will soon be set free, and will not die in prison. And he will always have enough bread. ¹⁵ For I am the Lord your God, Who fills the sea with action so that its waves sound: The Lord of All is His name. ¹⁶ I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand. I spread out the heavens and put the earth in its place, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

No More Suffering for Jerusalem

¹⁷ Awake! awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger. You drank it down, and you had trouble walking. ¹⁸ There is no one to lead her among all the sons born of her. There is no one to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. ¹⁹ These two things have come upon you: Being laid waste and destroyed, hunger and the sword. Who will have sorrow for you? How can I comfort you? ²⁰ Your sons have become weak and have fallen down. They cannot help themselves and they lie at the top of every street, like a deer in a net. The Lord has poured out His anger and sharp words upon them.

²¹ So hear this, you who are suffering, who are drunk, but not with wine. ²² Your Lord, the Lord your God Who fights for His people, says, “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes you have trouble walking. You will never drink from the cup of My anger again. ²³ I will put it into the hand of those who make it hard for you, who have said to you, ‘Lie down that we may walk over you.’ You have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to walk over.”

God Saves Israel

52 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion. Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For those who have not gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew and those who are unclean will not come into you any more. ² Shake off the dust. Rise up, O Jerusalem, who has been taken into prison. Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O chained people of Zion who are in prison. ³ For the Lord says, “You were sold for nothing, and you will be bought without money and made free.” ⁴ For the Lord God says, “My people went down at first to Egypt to live there. Then the Assyrian made it hard for them without a reason. ⁵ So now what do I have here,” says the Lord, “Seeing that My people have been taken away for no reason?” The Lord says, “Those who rule over them call out in a loud voice and My name is spoken against all day long. ⁶ So My people will know My name. In that day they will know that it is I Who says, ‘Here I am.’”

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who tells of peace and brings good news of happiness, who tells of saving power, and says to Zion, “Your God rules!” ⁸ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices. They call out together for joy, for they will see with their own eyes the return of the Lord to Zion. ⁹ Break out together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted His people. He has saved Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The Lord has shown His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see that our God saves.

¹¹ Leave, leave, go from them. Touch nothing that is unclean. Leave and make yourselves pure, you who carry the holy objects of the Lord. ¹² But you will not go out in a hurry. You will not leave as if you were running for your lives. For the Lord will go before you. And the God of Israel will keep watch behind you.

The Suffering Servant

¹³ See, My Servant will do well. He will be high and lifted up and honored very much. ¹⁴ Just as many looked in wonder at you, My people, so His face was marked worse than any man, and His body more than the sons of men. ¹⁵ He will surprise many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him. What they had never been told about Him, they will see. And what they had never heard about Him, they will understand.

53 Who has believed what we told them? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been shown? ² He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He has no beautiful body and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. ³ He was hated and men would have nothing to do with Him, a man of sorrows and suffering, knowing sadness well. We hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was hated, and we did not think well of Him.

⁴ For sure He took on Himself our troubles and carried our sorrows. Yet we thought of Him as being punished and hurt by God, and made to suffer. ⁵ But He was hurt for our wrong-doing. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so we would have peace. He was beaten so we would be healed. ⁶ All of us like sheep have gone the wrong way. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has put on Him the sin of us all.

⁷ Men made it very hard for Him and caused Him to suffer, yet He did not open His mouth. He was taken like a lamb to be put to death. A sheep does not make a sound while its wool is cut and He did not open His mouth. ⁸ He was taken away as a prisoner and then judged. Who among the people of that day cared that His life was taken away from the earth? He was hurt because of the sin of the people who should have been punished. ⁹ They gave Him a grave with the sinful, but with the rich at His death, for He had done no wrong, and there was nothing false in His mouth.

¹⁰ But it was the will of the Lord to crush Him, causing Him to suffer. Because He gives His life as a gift on the altar for sin, He will see His children. Days will be added to His life, and the will of the Lord will do well in His hand. ¹¹ He will see what the suffering of His soul brings, and will be pleased. By what He knows, the One Who is right and good, My Servant, will carry the punishment of many and He will carry their sins. ¹² So I will give Him a share among the great. He will divide the riches with the strong, because He gave up His life. They thought of Him as One Who broke the Law. Yet He Himself carried the sin of many, and prayed for the sinners.

5 Do as God would do. Much-loved children want to do as their fathers do. ² Live with love as Christ loved you. He gave Himself for us, a gift on the altar to God which was as a sweet smell to God.

³ Do not let sex sins or anything sinful be even talked about among those who belong to Christ. Do not always want everything. ⁴ Do not be guilty of telling bad stories and of foolish talk. These things are not for you to do. Instead, you are to give thanks for what God has done for you. ⁵ Be sure of this! No person who does sex sins or who is not pure will have any part in the holy nation of Christ and of God. The same is true for the person who always wants what other people have. This becomes a god to him. ⁶ Do not let anyone lead you in the wrong way with foolish talk. The anger of God comes on such people because they choose to not obey Him. ⁷ Have nothing to do with them. ⁸ At one time you lived in darkness. Now you are living in the light that comes from the Lord. Live as children who have the light of the Lord in them. ⁹ This light gives us truth. It makes us right with God and makes us good. ¹⁰ Learn how to please the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the bad things done in darkness. Instead, show that these things are wrong. ¹² It is a shame even to talk about these things done in secret. ¹³ All things can be seen when they are in the light. Everything that can be seen is in the light. ¹⁴ The Holy Writings say, “Wake up, you who are sleeping. Rise from the dead and Christ will give you light.” ^(A)

Be Filled With the Spirit of God

¹⁵ So be careful how you live. Live as men who are wise and not foolish. ¹⁶ Make the best use of your time. These are sinful days. ¹⁷ Do not be foolish. Understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk with wine. That leads to wild living. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Tell of your joy to each other by singing the Songs of David and church songs. Sing in your heart to the Lord. ²⁰ Always give thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How Wives Must Live

²¹ Be willing to help and care for each other because of Christ. By doing this, you honor Christ. ²² Wives, obey your own husbands. In doing this, you obey the Lord. ²³ For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. It is His body (the church) that He saves. ²⁴ As the church is to obey Christ, wives are to obey their own husbands in everything.

How Husbands Must Live

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives. You must love them as Christ loved the church. He gave His life for it. ²⁶ Christ did this so He could set the church apart for Himself. He made it clean by the washing of water with the Word. ²⁷ Christ did this so the church might stand before Him in shining-greatness. There is to be no sin of any kind in it. It is to be holy and without blame. ²⁸ So men should love their wives as they love their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ No man hates himself. He takes care of his own body. That is the way Christ does. He cares for His body which is the church. ³⁰ We are all a part of His body, the church. ³¹ For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother when he gets married and be joined to his wife. The two become one. ³² This is hard to understand, but it shows that the church is the body of Christ. ³³ So every man must love his wife as he loves himself. Every wife must respect her husband.

¹⁹ You know how I have been put to shame by the bad things said about me. All those who hate me are before You.

²⁰ Being put to shame has broken my heart, and I feel very sick. I looked for pity but there was none. I looked for someone to comfort me but there was no one. ²¹ They gave me bitter drink in my food. And because I was thirsty they gave me sour wine.

²² May their table in front of them become a net. May it become a trap when they are in peace. ²³ May their eyes grow dark so they cannot see. And may their backs always shake. ²⁴ Pour out Your anger on them. May Your burning anger catch up with them. ²⁵ May their place of living be empty and may no one live in their tents. ²⁶ For they have made it hard for the one You have punished. And they talk about the pain of those You have hurt. ²⁷ Let their sins add up, and may they not become right with You. ²⁸ May they be taken out of the book of life, and not be written down with those who are right with You.

²⁹ But I am suffering and in pain. O God, may You save me and set me up on high. ³⁰ I will praise the name of God with song. And I will give Him great honor with much thanks. ³¹ This will please the Lord more than any ox or young bull with horns and hoofs. ³² Those without pride will see it and be glad. You who look for God, let your heart receive new strength. ³³ For the Lord hears those who are in need, and does not hate His people in prison.

³⁴ Let heaven and earth and the seas and all the things that move in them give thanks to Him. ³⁵ For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah. Then His people may live there and have it for their own. ³⁶ And the children of those who obey Him will have it given to them. Those who love His name will live there.

⁷ Wisdom is too hard for a fool to understand. He does not open his mouth in the gate.