The Daily Audio Bible
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31 Evil generation,
pay attention to the word of the Lord!
Have I been a wilderness to Israel
or a land of dense darkness?(A)
Why do My people claim,
“We will go where we want;[a]
we will no longer come to You”?
32 Can a young woman forget her jewelry(B)
or a bride her wedding sash?
Yet My people have forgotten Me(C)
for countless days.
33 How skillfully you pursue love;
you also teach evil women your ways.
34 Moreover, your skirts are stained
with the blood of the innocent poor.(D)
You did not catch them breaking and entering.(E)
But in spite of all these things
35 you claim, “I am innocent.(F)
His anger is sure to turn away from me.”
But I will certainly judge you
because you have said, “I have not sinned.”(G)
36 How unstable you are,(H)
constantly changing your ways!
You will be put to shame by Egypt(I)
just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
37 Moreover, you will be led out from here
with your hands on your head(J)
since the Lord has rejected those you trust;(K)
you will not succeed even with their help.[b]
Wages of Apostasy
3 If[c] a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him to marry another,
can he ever return to her?(L)
Wouldn’t such a land[d] become totally defiled?
But you!
You have played the prostitute with many partners(M)—
can you return to Me?(N)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
2 Look to the barren heights(O) and see.
Where have you not been immoral?
You sat waiting for them beside the highways(P)
like a nomad in the desert.
You have defiled the land
with your prostitution and wickedness.(Q)
3 This is why the showers haven’t come(R)—
why there has been no spring rain.
You have the brazen look(S) of a prostitute[e]
and refuse to be ashamed.(T)
4 Have you not lately called to Me, “My Father.(U)
You were my friend in my youth.(V)
5 Will He bear a grudge forever?(W)
Will He be endlessly infuriated?”
This is what you have said,
but you have done the evil things
you are capable of.
Unfaithful Israel, Treacherous Judah
6 In the days of King Josiah the Lord asked me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there.(X) 7 I thought: After she has done all these things, she will return to Me.(Y) But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah(Z) saw it. 8 I[f] observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce.(AA) Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.(AB) 9 Indifferent to[g] her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones(AC) and trees.(AD) 10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to Me with all her heart(AE)—only in pretense.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11 The Lord announced to me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.(AF) 12 Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say:
Return, unfaithful Israel.(AG)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will not look on you with anger,[h]
for I am unfailing in My love.(AH)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will not be angry forever.(AI)
13 Only acknowledge your guilt(AJ)—
you have rebelled against the Lord your God.(AK)
You have scattered your favors to strangers
under every green tree(AL)
and have not obeyed My voice.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
14 “Return, you faithless children”(AM)—this is the Lord’s declaration—“for I am your master,(AN) and I will take you,(AO) one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 I will give you shepherds who are loyal to Me,[i](AP) and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill. 16 When you multiply and increase in the land,(AQ) in those days”—the Lord’s declaration—“no one will say any longer, ‘The ark of the Lord’s covenant.’(AR) It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. It will never again be made. 17 At that time Jerusalem will be called, Yahweh’s Throne,(AS) and all the nations will be gathered to it,(AT) to the name of Yahweh in Jerusalem.(AU) They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18 In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel,(AV) and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I have given your ancestors to inherit.”(AW)
True Repentance
19 I thought: How I long to make you My sons
and give you a desirable land,
the most beautiful inheritance(AX) of all the nations.
I thought: You will call Me, my Father,
and never turn away from Me.
20 However, as a woman may betray her lover,[j]
so you have betrayed(AY) Me, house of Israel.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
21 A sound is heard on the barren heights,
the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,
for they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the Lord their God.(AZ)
22 Return, you faithless children.
I will heal your unfaithfulness.(BA)
“Here we are, coming to You,
for You are the Lord our God.
23 Surely, falsehood comes from the hills,
commotion from the mountains,(BB)
but the salvation of Israel
is only in the Lord our God.(BC)
24 From the time of our youth
the shameful one[k] has consumed
what our fathers have worked for—
their flocks and their herds,
their sons and their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame;
let our disgrace cover us.(BD)
We have sinned against the Lord our God,(BE)
both we and our fathers,
from the time of our youth even to this day.(BF)
We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
Blessing or Curse
4 If you return,[l] Israel—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you will return to Me,(BG)
if you remove your detestable idols(BH)
from My presence
and do not waver,
2 then you can swear, “As the Lord lives,”(BI)
in truth,(BJ) in justice, and in righteousness,(BK)
then the nations will be blessed[m] by Him(BL)
and will pride themselves in Him.(BM)
3 For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
Break up the unplowed ground;(BN)
do not sow among the thorns.(BO)
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,(BP)
men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.
Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire
and burn with no one to extinguish it(BQ)
because of your evil deeds.
Judgment from the North
5 Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land.(BR)
Cry out loudly and say:
Assemble yourselves,
and let’s flee to the fortified cities.
6 Lift up a signal flag toward Zion.(BS)
Run for cover! Don’t stand still!
For I am bringing disaster from the north—
a great destruction.(BT)
7 A lion has gone up from his thicket;(BU)
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his lair
to make your land a waste.
Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.(BV)
8 Because of this, put on sackcloth;
mourn and wail,(BW)
for the Lord’s burning anger(BX)
has not turned away from us.
9 “On that day”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the king and the officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be scared speechless.”
10 I said, “Oh no, Lord God, You have certainly deceived(BY) this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace,’(BZ) while a sword is at[n] our throats.”
11 “At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind(CA) blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to My dear[o] people. It comes not to winnow or to sift; 12 a wind too strong for this comes at My call.[p] Now I will also pronounce judgments against them.’”(CB)
13 Look, he advances like clouds;(CC)
his chariots are like a storm.(CD)
His horses are swifter than eagles.(CE)
Woe to us, for we are ruined!(CF)
14 Wash the evil from your heart,(CG) Jerusalem,
so that you will be delivered.
How long will you harbor
malicious thoughts within you?(CH)
15 For a voice announces from Dan,
proclaiming malice from Mount Ephraim.
16 Warn the nations: Look!
Proclaim to Jerusalem:
Those who besiege are coming
from a distant land;(CI)
they raise their voices
against the cities of Judah.
17 They have her surrounded(CJ)
like those who guard a field,
because she has rebelled against Me.(CK)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
18 Your way of life and your actions
have brought this on you.(CL)
This is your punishment. It is very bitter,
because it has reached your heart!
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will,(A) and Timothy(B) our[a] brother:
2 To the saints in Christ at Colossae, who are faithful brothers.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.[b]
Thanksgiving
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth,(C) the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit(D) and growing all over the world,(E) just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace(F) in the truth.[c](G) 7 You learned this from Epaphras,(H) our dearly loved fellow slave. He is a faithful servant of the Messiah(I) on your[d] behalf, 8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.(J)
Prayer for Spiritual Growth
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking(K) that you may be filled with the knowledge(L) of His will(M) in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,[e] 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work(N) and growing in the knowledge of God.(O) 11 May you be strengthened(P) with all power,(Q) according to His glorious(R) might, for all endurance and patience, with joy 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you[f] to share in the saints’[g] inheritance in the light.(S) 13 He has rescued(T) us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom(U) of the Son(V) He loves.(W) 14 We have redemption,[h] the forgiveness of sins, in Him.
The Centrality of Christ
15 He is the image of the invisible God,(X)
the firstborn over all creation.[i](Y)
16 For everything was created by Him,(Z)
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through Him and for Him.(AA)
17 He is before all things,(AB)
and by Him all things(AC) hold together.
Psalm 76
God, the Powerful Judge
For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph.(A) A song.
1 God is known in Judah;
His name is great in Israel.(B)
2 His tent is in Salem,[a]
His dwelling place in Zion.(C)
3 There He shatters the bow’s flaming arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.(D)
4 You are resplendent and majestic
coming down from the mountains of prey.(E)
5 The brave-hearted have been plundered;
they have slipped into their final sleep.
None of the warriors was able to lift a hand.(F)
6 At Your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both chariot and horse lay still.(G)
7 And You—You are to be feared.[b]
When You are angry,
who can stand before You?(H)
8 From heaven You pronounced judgment.
The earth feared and grew quiet(I)
9 when God rose up to judge
and to save all the lowly of the earth.(J)
10 Even human wrath will praise You;
You will clothe Yourself
with their remaining wrath.[c](K)
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