The Daily Audio Bible
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1 This is the vision of Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim during the days of ‘Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Y’chizkiyahu, kings of Y’hudah:
2 “Hear, heaven! Listen, earth!
For Adonai is speaking.
“I raised and brought up children,
but they rebelled against me.
3 An ox knows its owner
and a donkey its master’s stall,
but Isra’el does not know,
my people do not reflect.
4 “Oh, sinful nation,
a people weighed down by iniquity,
descendants of evildoers,
immoral children!
They have abandoned Adonai,
spurned the Holy One of Isra’el,
turned their backs on him!
5 “Where should I strike you next,
as you persist in rebelling?
The whole head is sick,
the whole heart diseased.
6 From the sole of the foot to the head
there is nothing healthy,
only wounds, bruises and festering sores
that haven’t been dressed or bandaged
or softened up with oil.
7 “Your land is desolate,
your cities are burned to the ground;
foreigners devour your land in your presence;
it’s as desolate as if overwhelmed by floods.
8 The daughter of Tziyon is left
like a shack in a vineyard,
like a shed in a cucumber field,
like a city under siege.”
9 If Adonai-Tzva’ot had not left us
a tiny, tiny remnant,
we would have become like S’dom,
we would have resembled ‘Amora.
10 Hear what Adonai says,
you rulers of S’dom!
Listen to God’s Torah,
you people of ‘Amora!
11 “Why are all those sacrifices
offered to me?” asks Adonai.
“I’m fed up with burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fattened animals!
I get no pleasure from the blood
of bulls, lambs and goats!
12 Yes, you come to appear in my presence;
but who asked you to do this,
to trample through my courtyards?
13 Stop bringing worthless grain offerings!
They are like disgusting incense to me!
Rosh-Hodesh, Shabbat, calling convocations —
I can’t stand evil together with your assemblies!
14 Everything in me hates your Rosh-Hodesh
and your festivals;
they are a burden to me —
I’m tired of putting up with them!
15 “When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
no matter how much you pray,
I won’t be listening;
because your hands are covered with blood.
16 “Wash yourselves clean!
Get your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing evil, 17 learn to do good!
Seek justice, relieve the oppressed,
defend orphans, plead for the widow.
18 “Come now,” says Adonai,
“let’s talk this over together.
Even if your sins are like scarlet,
they will be white as snow;
even if they are red as crimson,
they will be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you will be eaten by the sword”;
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.
21 How the faithful city has become a whore!
Once she was filled with justice,
righteousness lodged in her;
but now murderers!
22 Your silver is no longer pure,
your wine is watered down.
23 Your leaders are rebels, friends of thieves.
They all love bribes and run after gifts.
They give no justice to orphans,
the widow’s complaint doesn’t catch their attention.
24 “Therefore,” says the Lord, Adonai-Tzva’ot,
the Mighty One of Isra’el,
“I will free myself of my adversaries,
I will take vengeance on my enemies.
25 But I will also turn my hand against you!
I will cleanse your impurities as with lye
and remove all your alloyed base metal.
26 I will restore your judges as at first
and your advisers as at the beginning.
After that, you will be called
the City of Righteousness, Faithful City.
27 Tziyon will be redeemed by justice;
and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
28 “Rebels and sinners together will be broken
and those who abandon Adonai be consumed.
29 You will be ashamed of the sacred oaks you desired,
you will blush at the gardens you chose;
30 for you will be like an oak whose leaf fades,
like a garden without any water.
31 The strong will be like tinder
and [the idol’s] maker like a spark;
both will burn together,
and no one will put them out.”
2 This is the word that Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz saw concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim:
2 In the acharit-hayamim
the mountain of Adonai’s house
will be established as the most important mountain.
It will be regarded more highly than the other hills,
and all the Goyim will stream there.
3 Many peoples will go and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Adonai,
to the house of the God of Ya‘akov!
He will teach us about his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah,
the word of Adonai from Yerushalayim.
4 He will judge between the nations
and arbitrate for many peoples.
Then they will hammer their swords into plow-blades
and their spears into pruning-knives;
nations will not raise swords at each other,
and they will no longer learn war.
5 Descendants of Ya‘akov, come!
Let’s live in the light of Adonai!
6 For you have abandoned your people
the house of Ya‘akov.
Now they are filled from the east,
full of sorcerers, like the P’lishtim;
even the children of foreigners
are enough for them!
7 Their land is full of silver and gold;
They have no end of treasures.
Their land is full of horses;
They have no end of chariots.
8 Their land is full of idols;
everyone worships the work of his hands,
what his own fingers have made.
9 A person bows down, a man lowers himself —
don’t forgive them!
10 Come into the rock, hide in the dust
to escape the terror of Adonai
and the glory of his majesty.
11 The proud looks of man will be humiliated;
the arrogance of men will be bowed down;
and when that day comes,
Adonai alone will be exalted.
12 Yes, Adonai-Tzva’ot has a day in store
for all who are proud and lofty,
for all who are lifted high to be humiliated;
13 for all cedars of the L’vanon that are high and lifted up,
for all the oaks of the Bashan;
14 for all the high mountains,
for all the hills that are lifted up;
15 for every high tower,
for every fortified wall;
16 for every “Tarshish” ship,
for every luxurious vessel.
17 The pride of man will be bowed down,
the arrogance of men will be humiliated,
and when that day comes,
Adonai alone will be exalted.
18 The idols will be completely abolished.
19 People will enter cracks in the rocks
and holes in the ground
to escape the terror of Adonai
and his glorious majesty,
when he sets out to convulse the earth.
20 On that day a man will take hold
of his idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
and fling them away to the moles and bats!
21 Then they will enter the cracks in the rocks
and the crevices in the cliffs
to escape the terror of Adonai
and his glorious majesty,
when he sets out to convulse the earth.
22 Stop relying on man,
in whose nostrils is a mere breath —
after all, he doesn’t count for much,
does he?
10 Now it is I myself, Sha’ul, making an appeal to you with the meekness and forbearance that come from the Messiah, I who am considered timid when face-to-face with you but intimidating from a distance. 2 But I beg you not to force me to be intimidating when I am with you, as I expect to be toward some who regard us as living in a worldly way. 3 For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; 4 because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah. 6 And when you have become completely obedient, then we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience.
7 You are looking at the surface of things. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself that we belong to the Messiah as much as he does. 8 For even if I boast a little too much about the authority the Lord has given us — authority to build you up, not tear you down — I am not ashamed. 9 My object is not to seem as if I were trying to frighten you with these letters. 10 Someone says, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but when he appears in person he is weak, and as a speaker he is nothing.” 11 Such a person should realize that what we say in our letters when absent, we will do when present.
12 We don’t dare class or compare ourselves with some of the people who advertise themselves. In measuring themselves against each other and comparing themselves with each other, they are simply stupid. 13 We will not boast about what lies outside the area of work which God has given us; rather, we will boast within our assigned area, and that area does reach as far as you. 14 We are not overextending our boasting as if we had not reached as far as you; for we did come all the way to you with the Good News of the Messiah. 15 We do not boast about the area in which others labor; but our hope is that as your trust grows, we will be magnified in your midst in relation to our own area of work, so that we can go on to do even more, 16 namely, to proclaim the Good News in regions beyond you. Our hope is not to boast about the work already done by someone else.
17 So, let anyone who wants to boast, boast about Adonai;[a] 18 because it is not the one who recommends himself who is worthy of approval, but the one whom the Lord recommends.
52 (0) For the leader. A maskil of David, 2 when Do’eg from Edom came and told Sha’ul, “David has arrived at the house of Achimelekh”:
3 (1) Why do you boast of your evil, you tyrant,
when God’s mercy is present every day?
4 (2) Your tongue, as sharp as a razor,
plots destruction and works deception.
5 (3) You love evil more than good,
lies rather than speaking uprightly. (Selah)
6 (4) You love all words that eat people up,
you deceitful tongue!
7 (5) This is why God will strike you down,
seize you, pluck you from your tent
and uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
8 (6) The righteous will see and be awestruck;
they will jeer at him, saying,
9 (7) “This fellow would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in his own great wealth,
relying on his evil plots.”
10 (8) But I am like a leafy olive tree
in the house of God;
I put my trust in the grace of God
forever and ever.
11 (9) I will praise you forever for what you have done,
and I will put my hope in your name;
for this is what is good
in the presence of your faithful.
26 Don’t be one of those who give pledges,
guaranteeing loans made to others;
27 for if you don’t have the wherewithal to pay,
they will take your bed away from underneath you.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.