The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the CSB. Switch to the CSB to read along with the audio.
17 Then Jacob got ready to go. He placed his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He took with him all his livestock and all his possessions that he had accumulated, including the livestock that he had acquired in Paddan Aram. He set out to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19 Now when Laban had gone off to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.[a]
20 Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away. 21 So he fled with all that he had. He set out, crossed over the Euphrates River, and headed toward the hill country[b] of Gilead.
22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 He took his relatives with him and pursued him for seven days. He overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream during the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not say anything to Jacob either good or bad.”
25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban along with his relatives also set up camp in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? Why have you deceived me and carried away my daughters like prisoners of war? 27 Why did you flee secretly and steal from me? Why didn’t you tell me, so that I could have sent you away with a celebration and with songs, with drums and with lyres? 28 Why didn’t you allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters?[c] By doing this you have acted foolishly. 29 I have it in my power to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night and said, ‘Be careful that you do not say anything to Jacob either good or bad.’ 30 But even if you were so eager to leave because of your strong desire to return to your father’s house, why have you stolen my gods?”
31 Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force. 32 But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, identify anything I have that belongs to you, and take it.” (Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household gods.)
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the gods. After he had left Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Rachel had taken the household gods and put them into her camel’s saddle, and she was sitting on them. Laban felt all around the tent, but he did not find them. 35 Rachel said to her father, “Do not be angry, my lord, because I cannot stand up in your presence. I’m having my period.” He searched, but he did not find the gods.
36 Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. Jacob responded to Laban, “What is my crime? What is my sin that set you off in hot pursuit after me? 37 Now that you have rummaged through all my belongings, what have you found there that came from your house? Set it out here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they can settle the case between the two of us. 38 These twenty years that I have been with you, your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring to you those that were torn up by wild animals. I bore the loss myself. You made me pay for all the losses, whether they were stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 I was the one out there, consumed by the scorching heat of the day and by the frost at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I put up with this in your house: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for a share of your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the God revered[d] by Isaac, had been with me, you certainly would have now sent me away empty-handed. But God saw the oppression I suffered and the labor of my hands, and he rebuked you last night.”
43 Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters. These children are my children. These flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine, but what can I do today about these daughters of mine or about the children to whom they have given birth? 44 Now come, let us make a covenant,[e] you and I, and let it stand as a witness between me and you.”[f]
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone. 46 Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They collected stones and piled them up. They ate there beside the pile of stones. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha,[g] but Jacob called it Galeed.[h] 48 Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness between me and you this day.” So it was named Galeed 49 and Mizpah,[i] for he also said, “May the Lord watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take any wives in addition to my daughters, even if no one else sees it, understand that God is a witness between me and you.”
51 Laban said to Jacob, “See this pile of stones and see the memorial stone that I have set between me and you. 52 May this pile be a witness, and may the memorial stone be a witness that I will not cross over beyond this pile to you, and that you will not cross over beyond this pile and this memorial stone to harm me. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”
Then Jacob swore by the God revered by his father Isaac. 54 Jacob offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to eat bread with him. They ate bread and stayed all night in the hill country. 55 Early in the morning Laban got up, kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
Jacob Meets Esau
32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.[j] 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He named that place Mahanaim.[k]
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the region of Edom. 4 He gave them a command. “Tell my lord, Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have lived as an alien with Laban until very recently. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6 The messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We came to your brother Esau. Now he is coming to meet you, and he has four hundred men with him.”
7 So Jacob was terrified and very distressed. He divided the people who were with him, as well as the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps.[l] 8 He said, “If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, then the other camp will escape.” 9 Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will do good for you,’ 10 I am not worthy of even a bit of all the mercy and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for I crossed over this Jordan with just my staff, and now I have grown into two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid that he will come and strike me and the mothers, as well as the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely do good for you and make your descendants like the grains of sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there are so many.’”
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If the master of the house was called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
26 “So do not be afraid of them, because there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?[a] Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
32 “Everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.[b]
37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink because he is my disciple—Amen I tell you—he will never lose his reward.”
11 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.
John the Baptist and Christ
2 While John was in prison, he heard about the things Christ was doing. He sent two of his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else?”
4 Jesus answered them, “Go, report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor. 6 Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.”
Psalm 13
How Long, O Lord?
Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David.
Anguished Questions
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I experience worries in my soul,
sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy tower over me?
An Urgent Prayer
3 Look at me. Answer me, O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes
so I do not sleep in death,
4 so my enemy does not say, “I have overcome him,”
so my foes do not rejoice when I fall.
A Solid Answer
5 But I trust in your mercy.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord
because he has accomplished his purpose for me.
16 In its right hand are the days of a long life.
In its left hand are riches and honor.
17 Its ways are pleasant ways,
and all its paths are peace.
18 It is a tree of life for those who hold on to it.
Those who cling to it are blessed.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.