The Daily Audio Bible
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1 This is the word of Adonai that came to Mikhah the Morashti during the days of Yotam, Achaz and Y’chizkiyah, kings of Y’hudah, which he saw concerning Shomron and Yerushalayim:
2 Listen, peoples, all of you!
Pay attention, earth, and everything in it!
Adonai Elohim will witness against you,
Adonai, from his holy temple.
3 For — look! — Adonai is coming out of his place,
coming down to tread on the high places of the land.
4 Beneath him the mountains will melt,
the valleys split open like wax before fire,
like water poured down a steep slope.
5 All this is because of the crime of Ya‘akov
and the sins of the house of Isra’el.
What is the crime of Ya‘akov?
Isn’t it Shomron?
And what are the high places of Y’hudah?
Aren’t they Yerushalayim?
6 “So I will make Shomron a heap in the countryside,
a place for planting vineyards;
I will pour her stones down into the valley,
laying bare her foundations.
7 All her carved images will be smashed to pieces,
all she earned consumed by fire;
and I will reduce her idols to rubble.
She amassed them from a whore’s wages,
and as a whore’s wages they will be spent again.”
8 This is why I howl and wail,
why I go barefoot and stripped,
why I howl like the jackals
and mourn like the ostriches.
9 For her wound cannot be healed,
and now it is coming to Y’hudah as well;
it reaches even to the gate of my people,
to Yerushalayim itself.
10 Don’t tell about it in Gat,
don’t shed any tears.
At Beit-L‘afrah [house of dust]
roll yourself in the dust.
11 Inhabitants of Shafir, pass on your way
in nakedness and shame.
The inhabitants of Tza’anan
have not left yet.
The wailing of Beit-Ha’etzel
will remove from you their support.
12 The inhabitants of Marot
have no hope of anything good;
for Adonai has sent down disaster
to the very gate of Yerushalayim.
13 Harness the chariots to the fastest horses,
inhabitants of Lakhish;
she was the beginning of sin
for the daughter of Tziyon;
for the crimes of Isra’el
are traceable to you.
14 Therefore you must bestow parting gifts
upon Moreshet-Gat.
The houses of Akhziv will disappoint
the kings of Isra’el.
15 Inhabitants of Mareshah,
I have yet to bring you
the one who will [invade and] possess you.
The glory of Isra’el will come to ‘Adulam.
16 Shave the hair from your head as you mourn
for the children who were your delight;
make yourselves as bald as vultures,
for they have gone from you into exile.
2 Woe to those who think up evil
and plan wickedness as they lie in bed.
When morning comes, they do it,
since they have it in their power.
2 They covet fields and seize them;
they take over houses as well,
doing violence to both owner and house,
to people and their inherited land.
3 Therefore this is what Adonai says:
“Against this family I am planning an evil
from which you will not withdraw your necks;
nor will you walk with your heads held high,
for it will be an evil time.”
4 On that day they will take up a dirge for you;
sadly lamenting, they will wail,
“We are completely ruined!
Our people’s land has changed hands.
Our fields are taken away from us;
instead of restoring them, he parcels them out.”
5 Therefore, you will have no one
in the assembly of Adonai
to stretch out a measuring line and restore
the land assigned by lot.
6 “Don’t preach!” — thus they preach!
“They shouldn’t preach about these things.
Shame will not overtake us” —
7 is this what the house of Ya‘akov says?
Adonai has not grown impatient,
and these things are not his doings.
“Rather, my words do only good
to anyone living uprightly.
8 But lately my people behave like an enemy,
stripping both cloaks and tunics
from travelers who thought they were secure,
so that they become like war refugees.
9 You throw my people’s women
out of the homes they love.
You deprive their children
of my glory forever.
10 Get up and go! You can’t stay here!
Because [the land] is now unclean,
it will destroy you
with a grievous destruction.”
11 If a man who walks in wind and falsehood
tells this lie: “I will preach to you
of [how good it is to drink] wine and strong liquor” —
this people will accept him as their preacher!
12 “I will assemble all of you, Ya‘akov;
I will gather the remnant of Isra’el,
I will put them together like sheep in a pen,
like a herd in its pasture —
it will hum with the sounds of people.”
13 The one breaking through went up before them;
they broke through, passed the gate and went out.
Their king passed on before them;
Adonai was leading them.
3 “I said, ‘Please listen, leaders of Ya‘akov,
rulers of the house of Isra’el:
Shouldn’t you know what justice is?
2 Yet you hate what is good and love what is bad.
You strip off their skin from them
and their flesh from their bones,
3 you eat the flesh of my people,
skin them alive, break their bones;
yes, they chop them in pieces,
like flesh in a caldron, like meat in a pot.’”
4 Then they will call to Adonai,
but he will not answer them;
when that time comes, he will hide his face from them,
because their deeds were so wicked.
5 Here is what Adonai says in regard to the prophets who cause my people to go astray, who cry, “Peace” as soon as they are given food to eat but prepare war against anyone who fails to put something in their mouths:
6 “Therefore you will have night, not vision,
darkness and not divination;
the sun will go down on the prophets,
over them the day will be black.”
7 The seers will be put to shame,
the diviners will be disgraced.
They will have to cover their mouths,
because there will be no answer from God.
8 On the other hand, I am full of power
by the Spirit of Adonai,
full of justice and full of might,
to declare to Ya‘akov his crime,
to Isra’el his sin.
9 Hear this, please, leaders of the house of Ya‘akov,
rulers of the house of Isra’el,
you who abhor what is just
and pervert anything that is right,
10 who build up Tziyon with blood
and Yerushalayim with wickedness.
11 Her leaders sell verdicts for bribes,
her cohanim teach for a price,
her prophets divine for money —
yet they claim to rely on Adonai!
“Isn’t Adonai here with us?” they say.
“No evil can come upon us.”
12 Therefore, because of you,
Tziyon will be plowed under like a field,
Yerushalayim will become heaps of ruins,
and the mountain of the house like a forested height.
4 But in the acharit-hayamim it will come about
that 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 peoples will stream there.
2 Many Gentiles 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.
3 He will judge between many peoples
and arbitrate for many nations far away.
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.
4 Instead, each person will sit under his vine
and fig tree, with no one to upset him,
for the mouth of Adonai-Tzva’ot
has spoken.
5 For all the peoples will walk,
each in the name of its god;
but we will walk in the name of Adonai
our God forever and ever.
6 “When that day comes,” says Adonai,
“I will assemble the lame
and gather those who were dispersed,
along with those I afflicted.
7 I will make the lame a remnant
and those who were driven off a strong nation.”
Adonai will rule them on Mount Tziyon
from that time forth and forever.
8 You, tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Tziyon,
to you your former sovereignty will return,
the royal power of the daughter of Yerushalayim.
9 Why are you now crying out?
Don’t you have a king?
Has your counselor been destroyed,
that you are seized with pain like a woman in labor?
10 Be in pain! Work to give birth
like a woman in labor, daughter of Tziyon!
For now you will go out of the city
and live in the wilds till you reach Bavel.
There you will be rescued;
there Adonai will redeem you
from the power of your enemies.
11 Now many nations have gathered against you;
they say, “Let her be defiled,
let’s gloat over Tziyon.”
12 But they don’t know the thoughts of Adonai,
they don’t understand his plan;
for he has gathered them like sheaves
on the threshing-floor.
13 Get up! Start threshing, daughter of Tziyon!
“For I will make your horns like iron
and your hoofs like bronze.”
You will crush many peoples
and devote their plunder to Adonai,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
14 (5:1) Now gather yourself in troops,
you who are accustomed to being in troops;
they have laid siege to us.
They are striking the judge of Isra’el
on the cheek with a stick.
6 Next I watched as the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living beings say in a thundering voice, “Go!” 2 I looked, and there in front of me was a white horse; its rider had a bow and was given a crown; and he rode off as a conqueror to conquer.
3 When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living being say, “Go!” 4 Another horse went out, a red one; and its rider was given the power to take peace away from the earth and make people slaughter each other. He was given a great sword.
5 When he broke the third seal, I heard the third living being say, “Go!” I looked, and there in front of me was a black horse, and its rider held in his hand a pair of scales. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living beings say, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages! Six pounds of barley for the same price! But don’t damage the oil or the wine!”
7 When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living being say, “Go!” 8 I looked, and there in front of me was a pallid, sickly-looking horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Sh’ol followed behind him. They were given authority to kill one-quarter of the world by war, by famine, by plagues and with the wild animals of the earth.
9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been put to death for proclaiming the Word of God, that is, for bearing witness. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, “Sovereign Ruler, HaKadosh, the True One, how long will it be before you judge the people living on earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Each of them was given a white robe; and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow-servants should be reached, of their brothers who would be killed, just as they had been.
12 Then I watched as he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, the sun turned black as sackcloth worn in mourning, and the full moon became blood-red. 13 The stars fell from heaven to earth just as a fig tree drops its figs when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. 15 Then the earth’s kings, the rulers, the generals, the rich and the mighty — indeed, everyone, slave and free — hid himself in caves and among the rocks in the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us[a] from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the fury of the Lamb! 17 For the Great Day of their fury has come, and who can stand?”
134 (0) A song of ascents:
(1) Come, bless Adonai, all you servants of Adonai,
who serve each night in the house of Adonai.
2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary,
and bless Adonai.
3 May Adonai, the maker of heaven and earth,
bless you from Tziyon.
30 The words of Agur the son of Yakeh, the prophecy. The man says to Iti’el, to Iti’el and Ukhal:
2 I am more boorish than anyone,
I lack human discernment;
3 I have not learned enough wisdom
to know the Holy One.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?
Who established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.