The Daily Audio Bible
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4 Aaghh! The gold no longer shines;
even our finest gold is changed,
And precious gems from the holy place
are scattered and spilled in the street.
2 But worse yet, the people themselves, the precious children of Zion,
are treated like clay pots formed by a potter—
Now debased and devalued,
but they were once worth their weight in gold.
3 Cruelty marks our young women.
Even jackals nourish their young,
But like the stupid ostrich in the desert,
my people don’t care a whit for their own.
4 Desperate infants thirst for milk,
their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
Hungry children beg for food,
and no one responds.
5 Even those raised with a silver spoon,
swaddled in the richest fabrics,
Are starving, perishing in the streets.
They swarm through rubbish like flies.
6 Forever, without relief, it seems my city will suffer
more for their wrongdoing than cruel Sodom did;
With their instant and violent overthrow,
no one wrung hands in despair for that city.
7 Eternal One: Glory comes in service for those consecrated to Me;
they are purer and cleaner than snow and whiter than milk
Their bodies chiseled and healthy,
as polished as sapphires and redder than coral.
8 How stark the contrast; they have suffered so.
Now they are sullied with grime,
Unrecognizable on the streets,
skeletal and frail, as dry as tender.
9 If only they could have died valiantly by the sword—
rather than doubled over by famine,
This long-drawn agony of hunger,
deprived of the yield of the field.
10 Just imagine the injustice: loving mothers
are forced to cook their babies’ flesh.
Children have become their food!
All because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Is this poetic hyperbole, or could such a horror really have happened? Even today, famine and disease cause devastation in developing nations reminiscent of what this poet describes happening in Jerusalem. Suffering will always exist because sin—rebellion against God—affects every aspect of a culture at every level of society. When Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem in the early sixth century b.c., he did not allow any food or provision to enter the city; he literally waited for God’s people in Jerusalem to starve to death. As the executioner of God’s judgment, Nebuchadnezzar punished everyone equally, regardless of the severity of his or her sins, because all sin is worthy of death. The people in Jerusalem really experienced God’s dark cloud and His frowning countenance.
11 Kindling a fire, the Eternal attacked Zion
until nothing was left—not even the foundations.
His anger was poured out
as that angry fire consuming all.
12 Little did they know, thinking Jerusalem could not be breached—
not by kings, not by ordinary people, and not by anyone on the earth—
Absolutely no one imagined
Jerusalem’s enemies would get in.
13 Many and terrible were the crimes that her leaders,
the ones who should be most righteous of all, committed.
Prophets and priests shed the blood of the upstanding
and also the just in her midst.
14 Never had leaders wandered blindly,
polluted by the blood they spilled,
Untouchable even by their garments.
15 “Out! Get away from us. We’re impure. Do not touch us!”
the priests and prophets yelled.
So they wandered like fugitives, rejected wherever they went.
Even the foreign nations wouldn’t take them.
16 Presence of the Eternal is overwhelming.
God has scattered them to the winds.
He no longer held them in esteem:
the priests received no honor, the elders no respect.
17 Quietly we waited for help until our eyes failed.
We hoped and watched for a nation to rescue us.
But we waited in vain: no rescue came.
18 Routinely our steps were tracked
so that we could not even walk our own streets.
This was it, our days at an end;
we were done for.
19 Swifter than eagles in the sky,
they pursued us through the mountains;
And in all the wild places,
they hunted us and lay in wait.
20 Trapped, our king, the Eternal’s anointed, the breath of our life,
was taken to their pits;
Of him we said, “He casts a long shadow
that will protect us from the nations.”
21 Utter your words of joy: Edom, inhabitants of the land of Uz,
go ahead—be happy.
In time the cup of suffering will be yours too,
and you’ll drink so deeply, so perilously as to be intoxicated and stripped naked.
22 Viciously, daughter Zion, your iniquity has been punished.
That is done; your exile is over.
Daughter Edom, on the other hand, is a different story:
you’ll be called to account for your sins and uncovered accordingly.
A pun encourages daughter Zion that she will no longer be exiled or “uncovered,” but the same idiom condemns daughter Edom, for she will be “uncovered.”
5 Remember, Eternal One; don’t forget what happened.
Just look at how we are demeaned, disgraced.
2 All that You gave to us has been handed over to strangers.
Even our houses foreigners have taken for their own.
3 Abandoned too early and on our own, we are like fatherless children;
and our mothers, now widows, have nothing either.
4 The most basic necessities, food and water,
shelter and warmth, we must pay dearly for.
5 Those pursuing us breathe down the backs of our heavily-yoked necks,
driving us relentlessly.
Like overworked oxen, we are exhausted and without rest.
6 So what else could we do? We succumbed to agreements with Egypt and Assyria
just so we could get enough to eat and survive.
7 Our fathers sinned and got us into this.
Now they’ve passed on, and we suffer for it and bear their deeds.
8 Those less capable and less deserving slaves rule;
they are actually in charge of us—
Your chosen ones—and nobody sets it right.
Nobody comes to rescue us from their cruel hand.
9 At risk of life and limb, we seek our daily food
despite threats of sword and danger in the wild places.
10 We are feverish with hunger.
Famine’s scorching heat burns our flesh like an oven.
11 In the place where God should be—
Zion and the surrounding towns of Judah—
Women, young and old alike,
are brutally raped and violated.
12 Our leaders are made an example, hung by their hands,
and our elders are treated with contempt.
13 Our best youths are forced to grind grain relentlessly;
and boys stagger, bent under burdens of wood too heavy.
14 Gone from the gates are debate, trade, and the wisdom of sages.
The streets, too, are silent—the young neglect their music.
15 The joy from our hearts is gone, utterly gone.
Our once-dancing feet now plod along mournfully.
16 The wreath that crowned our head has slipped and fallen; now it’s crushed.
O how we’ve sinned! Pity us for the punishment we brought on ourselves.
17 We’re sick at heart about it all,
blind with the sorrow and grief we caused.
18 God’s heaven on earth, our Mount Zion, is desolate
except for the jackals who haunt only ruins.
19 But You, Eternal One, despite all this,
You will abide and rule forever, from generation to generation.
20 Why, then, have You completely forgotten about us?
Why have You turned Your back on us through so many dark days?
21 We are so sorry and have suffered for it.
Eternal One, take us back again,
That we may be restored to You and You to us,
just as it used to be.
22 Or are You so very angry that You’ve rejected us,
that You’ve given up on us completely?
2 That is why we ought to pay even closer attention to the voice that has been speaking so that we will never drift away from it. 2 For if the words of instruction and inspiration brought by heaven’s messengers were valid, and if we live in a universe where sin and disobedience receive their just rewards, 3 then how will we escape destruction if we ignore this great salvation? We heard it first from our Lord Jesus, then from those who passed on His teaching. 4 God also testifies to this truth by signs and wonders and miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit lighting on those He chooses.
This letter is punctuated with passages that sound an alarm: danger, both imminent and eternal, is at hand. The real danger is the gentle erosion of rock-solid commitments.
How often it happens! A person makes a decision to follow Jesus. He practically explodes with joy. Then life happens and the invisible forces that shape culture in our world—the idols of consumerism, relativism, and materialism—begin their exacting work to shape us into an image that no longer reflects our Savior. Over and over again, the writer warns us to be careful. Don’t neglect this great salvation. Make sure the anchor holds.
5 Now clearly God didn’t set up the heavenly messengers to bring the final word or to rule over the world that is coming. 6 I have read something somewhere:
I can’t help but wonder why You care about mortals
or choose to love the son of man.
7-8 Though he was born below the heavenly messengers,
You honored the son of man like royalty,
crowning him with glory and honor,
Raising him above all earthly things,
placing everything under his feet.[a]
When God placed everything under the son of man, He didn’t leave out anything. Maybe we don’t see all that happening yet; 9 but what we do see is Jesus, born a little lower than the heavenly messengers, who is now crowned with glory and honor because He willingly suffered and died. And He did that so that through God’s grace, He might taste death on behalf of everyone.
Here is God’s Son: Creator, Sustainer, Great High Priest. Jesus has to take on our feeble flesh and suffer a violent death. He suffers for what we need.
10 It only makes sense that God, by whom and for whom everything exists, would choose to bring many of us to His side by using suffering to perfect Jesus, the founder of our faith, the pioneer of our salvation. 11 As I will show you, it’s important that the One who brings us to God and those who are brought to God become one, since we are all from one Father. This is why Jesus was not ashamed to call us His family, 12 saying, in the words of the psalmist,
I will speak Your Name to My brothers and sisters
when I praise You in the midst of the community.[b]
13 And in the words of Isaiah,
I will wait for the Eternal One.[c]
And again,
Look, here I am with the children God has given Me.[d]
14 Since we, the children, are all creatures of flesh and blood, Jesus took on flesh and blood, so that by dying He could destroy the one who held power over death—the devil— 15 and destroy the fear of death that has always held people captive.
16 So notice—His concern here is not for the welfare of the heavenly messengers, but for the children of Abraham. 17 He had to become as human as His sisters and brothers so that when the time came, He could become a merciful and faithful high priest of God, called to reconcile a sinful people. 18 Since He has also been tested by suffering, He can help us when we are tested.
Psalm 103
A song of David.
1 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal
with all that is in me—body, emotions, mind, and will—every part of who I am—
praise His holy name.
2 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal;
sing a song from a grateful heart;
sing and never forget all the good He has done.
3 Despite all your many offenses, He forgives and releases you.
More than any doctor, He heals your diseases.
4 He reaches deep into the pit to deliver you from death.
He crowns you with unfailing love and compassion like a king.
5 When your soul is famished and withering,
He fills you with good and beautiful things, satisfying you as long as you live.
He makes you strong like an eagle, restoring your youth.
6 When people are crushed, wronged, enslaved, raped, murdered,
the Eternal is just;
He makes the wrongs right.
7 He showed Moses His ways;
He allowed His people Israel to see His wonders and acts of power.
8 The Eternal is compassionate and merciful.
When we cross all the lines, He is patient with us.
When we struggle against Him, He lovingly stays with us—changing, convicting, prodding;
9 He will not constantly criticize,
nor will He hold a grudge forever.
10 Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.
In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.
11 Measure how high heaven is above the earth;
God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.
12 You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.
13 An earthly father expresses love for his children;
it is no different with our heavenly Father;
The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.
14 For He knows what we are made of;
He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.
15 The children of Adam are like grass;
their days are few;
they flourish for a time like flowers in a meadow.
16 As the wind blows over the field and the bloom is gone,
it doesn’t take much to blow us out of the memory of that place.
17 But the unfailing love of the Eternal is always and eternal
for those who reverently run after Him.
He extends His justice on and on to future generations,
18 To those who will keep His bond of love
and remember to walk in the guidance of His commands.
19 The Eternal has established His throne up in the heavens.
He rules over every seen and unseen realm and creature.
20 Adore Him! Give Him praise, you heavenly messengers,
you powerful creatures who listen to
and act on His every word.
21 Give praise to the Eternal, all armies of heaven—
you servants who stand ready to do His will.
22 Give praise to the Eternal, all that He has made
in all corners of His creation.
O my soul, come, praise the Eternal!
23 Like a shiny glaze[a] coating a rough clay pot,
so are burning lips that conceal an evil heart.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.