The Daily Audio Bible
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10 How horrible it will be for those who make unjust laws
and who make oppressive regulations.
2 They deprive the poor of justice.
They take away the rights of the needy among my people.
They prey on widows and rob orphans.
3 What will you do on the day
you are called to account ⌞for these things⌟,
when the disaster comes from far away?
Where will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing’s left but to crouch among prisoners
and to fall with those who are killed.
Even after all this, his anger will not disappear,
and he is still ready to use his power.
The Lord’s Message against Assyria
5 “How horrible it will be for Assyria!
It is the rod of my anger.
My fury is the staff in the Assyrians’ hands.
6 I send them against a godless nation.
In my fury I order them against the people
to take their belongings, loot them,
and trample on them like mud in the streets.
7 But that’s not what they intend to do.
Their minds don’t work that way.
Their purpose is to destroy and put an end to many nations.
8 They ask, ‘Aren’t all our commanders kings?
9 Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?
Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?
Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?’
10 My power has reached kingdoms which have idols.
They had more carved statues than Jerusalem or Samaria.
11 I will do to Jerusalem and its idols
what I’ve done to Samaria and its idols.”
12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the king of Assyria for all his boasting and all his arrogance. 13 The king will say,
“I did this with my own two powerful hands.
I did this with my wisdom, because I am so clever.
I’ve eliminated the boundaries of nations.
I’ve looted treasuries.
I’ve brought down people like a mighty man.
14 I’ve found the riches of nations as one finds a nest.
I’ve gathered the whole world as one gathers abandoned eggs.
Not one of them flapped a wing, opened its mouth, or peeped.”
15 Can an ax attack the person who cuts with it?
Can a saw make itself greater than the person who saws with it?
A rod cannot move the person who lifts it.
A wooden stick cannot pick up a person.
16 That is why the Almighty Lord of Armies
will send a degenerative disease against brave men.
A flame will be turned into a raging fire under his power.
17 Israel’s light will become a flame.
Its Holy One will become a fire.
He will burn up and devour the weeds and thornbushes in one day.
18 The majestic forest and the orchard
will destroy both body and soul.
They will be like a sick person wasting away.
19 The trees that remain in the forest will be so few that
a child could count them.
20 At that time the remaining few Israelites,
the survivors of Jacob’s descendants
will no longer depend on the one who struck them.
They will only depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
21 A few, the remaining few of Jacob, will return to the mighty God.
22 Although your people Israel may be
as ⌞numerous as⌟ the grains of sand on the seashore,
only a few will return.
Destruction will be complete and fair.
23 The Almighty Lord of Armies will carry out this destruction
throughout the world as he has determined.
24 The Almighty Lord of Armies says:
My people who live in Zion,
don’t be afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with a rod
or when they raise their staff against you
as the Egyptians did.
25 Very soon I will unleash my fury,
and my anger will destroy them.
26 Then the Lord of Armies will raise his whip against them.
As he struck down Midian at the Rock of Oreb
and raised his staff over the water,
so he will lift it as he did in Egypt.
27 At that time their burden will be removed from your shoulders.
Their yoke [a] will be removed from your neck.
The yoke will be torn away because you have grown fat.
28 They come to Aiath.
They pass through Migron.
They store their equipment at Michmash.
29 They go through the mountain pass and lodge at Geba for the night.
The people in Ramah tremble; the people in Saul’s Gibeah flee.
30 Cry aloud, you people in Gallim!
Pay attention, you people in Laishah and miserable Anathoth!
31 The people in Madmenah flee; those who live in Gebim take shelter.
32 This day they stopped at Nob.
They shake their fist at the mountain of my people Zion,
at the mountain of Jerusalem.
33 Now look! The Almighty Lord of Armies
will trim the branches with terrifying power.
The highest trees will be cut down.
The tallest ones will be brought down.
34 He will cut down the underbrush of the forest with an ax.
Lebanon will fall in front of the Mighty One.
The Lord’s Kingdom Will Be Ruled by a Shoot from Jesse’s Stump
11 Then a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of advice and power,
the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 He will gladly bear the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what his eyes see
or decide by what his ears hear.
4 He will judge the poor justly.
He will make fair decisions for the humble people on earth.
He will strike the earth with a rod from his mouth.
He will kill the wicked with the breath from his lips.
5 Justice will be the belt around his waist.
Faithfulness will be the belt around his hips.
6 Wolves will live with lambs.
Leopards will lie down with goats.
Calves, young lions, and year-old lambs will be together,
and little children will lead them.
7 Cows and bears will eat together.
Their young will lie down together.
Lions will eat straw like oxen.
8 Infants will play near cobras’ holes.
Toddlers will put their hands into vipers’ nests.
9 They will not hurt or destroy anyone anywhere on my holy mountain.
The world will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
like water covering the sea.
10 At that time the root of Jesse will stand as a banner
for the people ⌞to gather around⌟.
The nations will come to him.
His resting place will be glorious.
11 At that time the Lord will use his power again
to recover what remains of his people
in Assyria, Upper and Lower Egypt,
Sudan, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath,
and the islands of the sea.
12 He will raise a banner for the nations ⌞to gather around⌟.
He will gather the outcasts of Israel
and bring together the scattered people of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,
and Judah’s opponents will come to an end.
Ephraim won’t be jealous of Judah,
and Judah won’t oppose Ephraim.
14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia in the west.
Together they will loot the people of the east.
They will conquer Edom and Moab.
The people of Ammon will be subject to them.
15 The Lord will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea.
He will wave his hand over the Euphrates River with his scorching wind
and divide it into seven streams
so that people can walk over it in their sandals.
16 There will be a highway
for the remaining few of his people left in Assyria
like there was for Israel when it came out of Egypt.
Paul Was Not a Burden to the Corinthians
11 I have become a fool. You forced me to be one. You should have recommended me to others. Even if I’m nothing, I wasn’t inferior in any way to your super-apostles. 12 While I was among you I patiently did the signs, wonders, and miracles which prove that I’m an apostle. 13 How were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I didn’t bother you for help? Forgive me for this wrong!
14 I’m ready to visit you for a third time, and I won’t bother you for help. I don’t want your possessions. Instead, I want you. Children shouldn’t have to provide for their parents, but parents should provide for their children. 15 I will be very glad to spend whatever I have. I’ll even give myself for you. Do you love me less because I love you so much?
16 You agree, then, that I haven’t been a burden to you. Was I a clever person who trapped you by some trick? 17 Did I take advantage of you through any of the men I sent you? 18 I encouraged Titus to visit you, and I sent my friend with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Didn’t we have the same motives and do things the same way?
19 Have you been thinking all along that we’re trying to defend ourselves to you? We speak as Christ’s people in God’s sight. Everything we do, dear friends, is for your benefit.
Paul’s Concern about the Corinthians’ Way of Life
20 I’m afraid that I may come and find you different from what I want you to be, and that you may find me different from what you want me to be. I’m afraid that there may be rivalry, jealousy, hot tempers, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly conduct. 21 I’m afraid that when I come to you again, my God may humble me. I may have to grieve over many who formerly led sinful lives and have not changed the way they think and act about the perversion, sexual sins, and promiscuity in which they have been involved.
For the choir director; according to yonath elem rechokim; [a] a miktam by David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.
56 Have pity on me, O God, because people are harassing me.
All day long warriors oppress me.
2 All day long my enemies spy on me.
They harass me.
There are so many fighting against me.
3 Even when I am afraid, I still trust you.
4 I praise God’s word.
I trust God.
I am not afraid.
What can mere flesh ⌞and blood⌟ do to me?
5 All day long my enemies twist my words.
Their every thought is an evil plan against me.
6 They attack, and then they hide.
They watch my every step as they wait to take my life.
7 With the wrong they do, can they escape?
O God, angrily make the nations fall.
8 (You have kept a record of my wanderings.
Put my tears in your bottle.
They are already in your book.)
9 Then my enemies will retreat when I call ⌞to you⌟.
This I know: God is on my side.
10 I praise God’s word.
I praise the Lord’s word.
11 I trust God.
I am not afraid.
What can mortals do to me?
12 I am bound by my vows to you, O God.
I will keep my vows by offering songs of thanksgiving to you.
13 You have rescued me from death.
You have kept my feet from stumbling
so that I could walk in your presence, in the light of life.
6 Do not eat the food of one who is stingy,
and do not crave his delicacies.
7 As he calculates the cost to himself, this is what he does:
He tells you, “Eat and drink,”
but he doesn’t really mean it.
8 You will vomit the little bit you have eaten
and spoil your pleasant conversation.
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