The Daily Audio Bible
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Judgment Pronounced on Sodom
16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?[a](A) 19 No, for I have chosen[b] him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”(B) 20 Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!(C) 21 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”(D)
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[c](E) 23 Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?(F) 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?(G) 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”(H) 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes.(I) 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”(J) 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
The Depravity of Sodom
19 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.(K) 2 He said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the square.”(L) 3 But he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house, and he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.(M) 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house, 5 and they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.”(N) 6 Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him,(O) 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”(P) 9 But they replied, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot and came near the door to break it down.(Q) 10 But the men inside reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they were unable to find the door.(R)
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city—bring them out of the place.(S) 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”(T) 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.(U)
15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.”(V) 16 But he lingered, so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city.(W) 17 When they had brought them outside, they[d] said, “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.”(X) 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords; 19 your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life, but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. 20 Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Very well, I grant you this favor too and will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.(Y) 22 Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” Therefore the city was called Zoar.[e] 23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven,(Z) 25 and he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.(AA) 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.(AB)
27 Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord,(AC) 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.(AD)
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.(AE)
The Shameful Origin of Moab and Ammon
30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar, so he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world.(AF) 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.”(AG) 33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. 34 On the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger rose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and named him Moab;[f] he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and named him Ben-ammi;[g] he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.(AH)
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[a] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?(A) 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?(B) 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?[b] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God[c] and his[d] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.(C)
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Judging Others
7 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.(D) 2 For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
Profaning the Holy
6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.(E)
Ask, Search, Knock
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.(F) 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.(G) 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? 10 Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? 11 If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
The Golden Rule
12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.(H)
The Narrow Gate
13 “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy[e] that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.(I) 14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Psalm 8
Divine Majesty and Human Dignity
To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.(A)
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.(B)
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;(C)
4 what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals[a] that you care for them?(D)
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God[b]
and crowned them with glory and honor.(E)
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,(F)
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!(G)
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;(A)
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,(B)
8 guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.(C)
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path,(D)
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 prudence will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you.
12 It will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,(E)
14 who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,(F)
15 those whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.(G)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.