The Daily Audio Bible

² “Today also my complaint is bitter;
    my hand is heavy because of my groaning.
³ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
    that I might come even to His seat!
⁴ I would present my case before Him
    and fill my mouth with arguments.
⁵ I would know the words that He would answer me
    and understand what He would say to me.
⁶ Will He plead against me with His great power?
    No! But He would take note of me.
⁷ There the righteous might dispute with Him;
    so would I be delivered forever from my Judge.

⁸ “Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
    and backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
⁹ when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
    He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
¹⁰ But He knows the way that I take;
    when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
¹¹ My foot has held fast to His steps;
    I have kept His way and have not turned aside.
¹² I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
    I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³ “But He is resolute, and who can turn Him?
    And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
¹⁴ For He performs what is appointed for me,
    and many such things are with Him.
¹⁵ Therefore I am troubled at His presence;
    when I consider, I am afraid of Him.
¹⁶ For God makes my heart soft,
    and the Almighty troubles me;
¹⁷ because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness,
    nor has He covered the darkness from my face.

24 “Since times of judgment are not kept by the Almighty,
    why do they who know Him not see His days?
² Some remove the landmarks;
    they violently take away flocks and feed on them.
³ They drive away the donkey of the orphan;
    they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
⁴ They turn away the needy;
    the poor of the earth are forced to hide.
⁵ Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,
    they go out to their work, rising early for a prey.
    The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
⁶ They gather their fodder in the field,
    and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
⁷ They cause the naked to lodge without clothing,
    and they have no covering in the cold.
⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains
    and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
⁹ They snatch the fatherless from the breast
    and take a pledge from the poor.
¹⁰ They cause him to go naked without clothing,
    and they take away the sheaf from the hungry.
¹¹ They press out oil within their walls
    and tread their winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
¹² Men groan from outside the city,
    and the soul of the wounded cries out;
    yet God does not charge them with wrong.

¹³ “They are those who rebel against the light;
    they do not know its ways
    nor abide in its paths.
¹⁴ The murderer, rising with the light, kills the poor and needy,
    and in the night he is like a thief.
¹⁵ Also the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
    saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
    and he disguises his face.
¹⁶ In the dark they break into houses,
    which they had marked for themselves in the daytime;
    they do not know the light.
¹⁷ For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;
    if someone recognizes them,
    they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

¹⁸ “He is swift as the waters.
    Their portion is cursed in the earth.
    They do not turn toward the way of the vineyards.
¹⁹ Drought and heat consume the snow waters;
    so the grave consumes those who have sinned.
²⁰ The womb will forget him;
    the worm will feed sweetly on him;
he will be remembered no more,
    and wickedness will be broken like a tree.
²¹ He preys on the barren who do not bear,
    and does no good for the widow.
²² But God draws the mighty away with His power;
    He rises up, and no man is sure of life.
²³ He gives them security, and they rely on it;
    yet His eyes are on their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted for a little while but are gone and brought low;
    they are taken out of the way like all others
    and cut off as the tops of the grain.

²⁵ “If it is not so, who will prove me a liar
    and make my speech worth nothing?”

² “Dominion and fear are with Him;
    He makes peace in His high places.
³ Is there any number to His armies?
    And upon whom does His light not rise?
⁴ How then can man be righteous with God?
    Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
⁵ Behold, even the moon does not shine,
    and the stars are not pure in His sight;
⁶ how much less man, who is a maggot?
    And the son of man, who is a worm?”

² “How have you helped him who is without power?
    How have you saved the arm that has no strength?
³ How have you counseled him who has no wisdom?
    And how have you plentifully declared sound knowledge?
⁴ To whom have you uttered words?
    And whose breath came from you?

⁵ “The departed spirits tremble under the waters,
    and their inhabitants.
⁶ The underworld is naked before Him,
    and destruction has no covering.
⁷ He stretches out the north over empty space,
    He hangs the earth upon nothing.
⁸ He binds up the waters in His thick clouds,
    and the cloud is not broken under them.
⁹ He covers the face of the full moon
    and spreads His cloud over it.
¹⁰ He has circled the waters with boundaries,
    until the day and night come to an end.
¹¹ The pillars of heaven tremble
    and are astonished at His reproof.
¹² He divides the sea with His power,
    and by His understanding He strikes through the proud.
¹³ By His breath He has made fair the heavens;
    His hand has formed the fleeing serpent.
¹⁴ Indeed, these are but a part of His ways,
    and how small a whisper we hear of Him!
    But the thunder of His power who can understand?”

² “As God lives, who has taken away my judgment,
    and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
³ all the while my spirit is in me,
    and the breath of God is in my nostrils,
⁴ my lips will not speak wickedness,
    nor my tongue utter deceit.
⁵ God forbid that I should justify you.
    Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
⁶ My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go;
    my heart will not reproach me as long as I live.

⁷ “Let my enemy be like the wicked,
    and he who rises up against me like the unrighteous.
⁸ For what is the hope of the hypocrite,
    though he may gain much, when God takes away his soul?
⁹ Will God hear his cry
    when trouble comes upon him?
¹⁰ Will he delight himself in the Almighty?
    Will he always call upon God?

¹¹ “I will teach you about the hand of God;
    what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
¹² Look, all of you have seen it;
    why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³ “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
    and the inheritance that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
¹⁴ If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,
    and his offspring will not be satisfied with bread.
¹⁵ Those who survive him will be buried in death,
    and their widows will not weep.
¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like the dust
    and piles up clothing like the clay—
¹⁷ he may pile it up, but the just will wear it,
    and the innocent will divide the silver.
¹⁸ He builds his house like a moth,
    and like a booth that the watchman makes.
¹⁹ The rich man will lie down, but he will not be gathered;
    he opens his eyes, and he is not.
²⁰ Terrors overtake him like floodwaters;
    a tempest steals him away in the night.
²¹ The east wind carries him away, and he departs;
    it sweeps him out of his place.
²² For God will cast it upon him and not spare;
    he would flee from its power.
²³ Men will clap their hands at him
    and will hiss him out of his place.

⁴ I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
    heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
⁵ My enemies speak evil of me:
    “When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶ And if people come to see me, they speak insincerely;
    their heart gathers iniquity to itself,
    when they go outside, they tell it.

⁷ All who hate me whisper together against me;
    they devise harm against me.
⁸ “An evil disease clings to him.
    And now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
⁹ Yes, my own close friend,
    in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread,
    has lifted up the heel against me.

¹⁰ But You, O Lord, be gracious to me,
    and raise me up, that I may repay them.
¹¹ By this I know that You favor me,
    because my enemy does not triumph over me.
¹² As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
    and set me before You forever.

¹³ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
    from everlasting and to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.

⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
    he who guards his soul will be far from them.

⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go,
    and when he is old he will not depart from it.