The Daily Audio Bible
Chapter 15
Moab[a]
1 Oracle on Moab:
Laid waste in a night,
Ar of Moab is destroyed;
Laid waste in a night,
Kir of Moab is destroyed.
2 Daughter Dibon has gone up
to the high places to weep;
Over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab is wailing.
Every head is shaved,
every beard sheared off.[b](A)
3 In the streets they wear sackcloth,
and on the rooftops;
In the squares
everyone wails, streaming with tears.(B)
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
they are heard as far as Jahaz.
At this the loins of Moab tremble,
his soul quivers within him;(C)
5 My heart cries out for Moab,
his fugitives reach Zoar,
Eglath-shelishiyah:
The ascent of Luhith
they ascend weeping;
On the way to Horonaim
they utter rending cries;(D)
6 The waters of Nimrim
have become a waste,
The grass is withered,
new growth is gone,
nothing is green.
7 So now whatever they have acquired or stored away
they carry across the Wadi of the Poplars.
8 The cry has gone round
the territory of Moab;
As far as Eglaim his wailing,
even at Beer-elim his wailing.
9 [c]The waters of Dimon are filled with blood,
but I will bring still more upon Dimon:
Lions for those who are fleeing from Moab
and for those who remain in the land!
Chapter 16
1 Send them forth,[d] hugging the earth like reptiles,
from Sela across the desert,
to the mount of daughter Zion.
2 Like flushed birds,
like scattered nestlings,
Are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.[e](E)
3 [f]Offer counsel, take their part;
at high noon make your shade like the night;
Hide the outcasts,
do not betray the fugitives.
4 Let the outcasts of Moab live with you,
be their shelter from the destroyer.
When there is an end to the oppressor,
when destruction has ceased,
and the marauders have vanished from the land,
5 A throne shall be set up in mercy,
and on it shall sit in fidelity,
in David’s tent,
A judge upholding right,
prompt to do justice.(F)
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab,
how very proud he is,
Of his haughtiness, pride, and arrogance
that his empty words do not match.(G)
7 [g]Therefore let Moab wail,
let everyone wail for Moab;
For the raisin cakes[h] of Kir-hareseth
let them sigh, stricken with grief.
8 The terraced slopes of Heshbon languish,
the vines of Sibmah,
Whose clusters once overpowered
the lords of nations,
Reaching as far as Jazer
winding through the wilderness,[i]
Whose branches spread forth,
crossing over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with Jazer
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
Heshbon and Elealeh;
For on your summer fruits and harvests
the battle cry[j] has fallen.(H)
10 From the orchards are taken away
joy and gladness,
In the vineyards there is no singing,
no shout of joy;
In the wine presses no one treads grapes,
the vintage shout is stilled.(I)
11 Therefore for Moab
my heart moans like a lyre,
my inmost being for Kir-hareseth.(J)
12 [k]When Moab wears himself out on the high places,
and enters his sanctuary to pray,
it shall avail him nothing.(K)
13 [l]That is the word the Lord spoke against Moab in times past. 14 But now the Lord speaks: In three years, like the years of a hired laborer, the glory of Moab shall be empty despite all its great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and weak.(L)
Chapter 17
Damascus
1 Oracle on Damascus:[m]
See, Damascus shall cease to be a city
and become a pile of ruins;(M)
2 Her cities shall be forever abandoned,
for flocks to lie in undisturbed.
3 The fortress shall vanish from Ephraim[n]
and dominion from Damascus;
The remnant of Aram shall become like the glory
of the Israelites—
oracle of the Lord of hosts.
4 On that day
The glory of Jacob shall fade,
and his full body shall grow thin.(N)
5 Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks,
when he gathers the standing grain;
Or as when one gleans the ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.[o]
6 [p]Only gleanings shall be left in it,
as when an olive tree has been beaten—
Two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on its most fruitful branches—
oracle of the Lord, the God of Israel.(O)
7 On that day people shall turn to their maker,
their eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.(P)
8 They shall not turn to the altars, the work of their hands,
nor shall they look to what their fingers have made:
the asherahs[q] or the incense stands.
9 On that day his strong cities shall be
like those abandoned by the Hivites and Amorites
When faced with the Israelites;
and there shall be desolation.(Q)
10 Truly, you have forgotten the God who saves you,
the Rock, your refuge, you have not remembered.(R)
Therefore, though you plant plants for the Pleasant One,[r]
and set out cuttings for a foreign one,(S)
11 Though you make them grow the day you plant them
and make them blossom the morning you set them out,
The harvest shall disappear on a day of sickness
and incurable pain.
12 Ah! the roaring of many peoples—[s]
a roar like the roar of the seas!
The thundering of nations—
thunder like the thundering of mighty waters!(T)
13 [t]But God shall rebuke them,
and they shall flee far away,
Driven like chaff on the mountains before a wind,
like tumbleweed before a storm.(U)
14 At evening, there is terror,
but before morning, they are gone!
Such is the portion of those who despoil us,
the lot of those who plunder us.(V)
Chapter 18
Ethiopia
1 Ah! Land of buzzing insects,[u]
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,(W)
2 Sending ambassadors by sea,
in papyrus boats on the waters!
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and bronzed,
To a people dreaded near and far,
a nation strong and conquering,
whose land is washed by rivers.(X)
3 [v]All you who inhabit the world,
who dwell on earth,
When the signal is raised on the mountain, look!
When the trumpet blows, listen!
4 For thus says the Lord to me:
I will be quiet, looking on from where I dwell,(Y)
Like the shimmering heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew at harvest time.
5 Before the vintage, when the flowering has ended,
and the blooms are succeeded by ripening grapes,
Then comes the cutting of branches with pruning hooks,
and the discarding of the lopped-off shoots.
6 They shall all be left to the mountain vultures
and to the beasts of the earth;
The vultures shall summer on them,
all the beasts of the earth shall winter on them.
7 Then will gifts be brought to the Lord of hosts—to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion—from a people tall and bronzed, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers.(Z)
I. Address
Chapter 1
Greeting.[a] 1 (A)Paul, an apostle[b] not from human beings nor through a human being but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead,(B) 2 [c]and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: 3 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 [d]who gave himself for our sins that he might rescue us from the present evil age in accord with the will of our God and Father,(C) 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.(D)
II. Loyalty to the Gospel[e]
6 (E)I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you[f] by [the] grace [of Christ] for a different gospel 7 (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 (F)But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach [to you] a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed![g] 9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed!
10 (G)Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.[h]
III. Paul’s Defense of His Gospel and His Authority[i]
His Call by Christ. 11 (H)Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.[j]
13 [k]For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it,(I) 14 and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.(J) 15 But when [God], who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased(K) 16 to reveal his Son to me,(L) so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood,[l] 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia[m] and then returned to Damascus.
18 [n]Then after three years[o] I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days.(M) 19 But I did not see any other of the apostles,(N) only James the brother of the Lord.[p] 20 (As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.)(O) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.(P) 22 And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; 23 they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”(Q) 24 So they glorified God because of me.
Psalm 58[a]
The Dethroning of Unjust Rulers
1 For the leader. Do not destroy.[b] A miktam of David.
I
2 Do you indeed pronounce justice, O gods;[c]
do you judge fairly you children of Adam?(A)
3 No, you freely engage in crime;
your hands dispense violence to the earth.
II
4 The wicked have been corrupt since birth;
liars from the womb, they have gone astray.
5 [d]Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a serpent stopping its ears,(B)
6 So as not to hear the voice of the charmer
or the enchanter with cunning spells.
III
7 O God, smash the teeth in their mouths;
break the fangs of these lions, Lord!(C)
8 Make them vanish like water flowing away;(D)
trodden down, let them wither like grass.(E)
9 Let them dissolve like a snail that oozes away,[e]
like an untimely birth that never sees the sun.(F)
10 Suddenly, like brambles or thistles,
have the whirlwind snatch them away.(G)
11 Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance
and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.(H)
12 Then people will say:
“Truly there is a reward for the just;
there is a God who is judge on earth!”
12 Apply your heart to instruction,
and your ear to words of knowledge.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.