The Daily Audio Bible
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4 “Listen, you [lovely] cows of Bashan,
who live on Mount Shomron,
who oppress the poor and grind down the needy,
who say to their husbands, ‘Bring something to drink’:
2 Adonai Elohim has sworn by his holiness
that your time is surely coming.
“You will be dragged away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.
3 You will leave through breaks in the wall,
each woman right behind the next,
and be sent off to Harmonah,” says Adonai.
4 “Come to Beit-El, and commit crimes;
to Gilgal, and commit more crimes!
Bring your sacrifices in the morning
and your tithes after three days;
5 burn leavened bread as a thank offering;
brag in public about your voluntary offerings;
because that’s what you love to do, Isra’el!”
says Adonai Elohim.
6 “I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities,
left you nothing to eat in all your villages;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
7 “I withheld the rain from you
three months before the harvest.
I made it rain on one city
and not on another —
one field had rain,
while another with no rain dried up;
8 from two or three cities they would stagger to one city
for water to drink, but there wasn’t enough;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
9 “I struck your crops with hot winds and blight,
your many gardens and vineyards;
the cutter-worms devoured
your fig and olive trees;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
10 “I sent a plague on you like that of Egypt,
put your young men to death with the sword;
let your horses be captured;
and filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew S’dom and ‘Amora;
you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
12 “This is why I will deal with you in this way, Isra’el;
and because I will deal with you in this way,
prepare to meet your God, Isra’el —
13 him who forms mountains and creates wind,
who declares to humankind his thoughts,
who turns the morning to darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth —
Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot is his name.”
5 Hear this word that I take up against you
in lament, house of Isra’el:
2 The virgin of Isra’el has fallen;
she will not rise again.
She lies abandoned on her own soil
with no one to lift her up.
3 For thus says Adonai Elohim:
“The city from which a thousand marched
will be left with a hundred,
and the one from which a hundred marched
will be left with ten
from the house of Isra’el.”
4 For here is what Adonai says
to the house of Isra’el:
“If you seek me, you will survive;
5 but don’t seek Beit-El, or enter Gilgal
or pass on into Be’er-Sheva;
for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,
and Beit-El will come to nothing.”
6 If you seek Adonai, you will survive.
Otherwise, he will break out against
the house of Yosef like fire,
devouring Beit-El,
with no one to quench the flames.
7 You who turn justice to bitter wormwood
and throw righteousness to the ground!
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who brings deathlike shadows over the morning,
who darkens the day into night,
who calls for the water in the sea
and with it floods the earth —
Adonai is his name —
9 he flashes destruction on the strong,
so that destruction overcomes the fortress.
10 They hate anyone promoting justice
at the city gate,
they detest anyone who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and extort from them levies of grain;
although you have built houses of cut stone,
you will not live in them;
and though you have planted pleasant vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know how numerous are your crimes
and how outrageous your sins —
bullying the innocent, extorting ransoms
pushing the poor aside at the gate.
13 At times like these a prudent person stays silent,
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you will survive.
Then Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot will be with you,
as you say he is.
15 Hate evil, love good, and uphold justice at the gate.
Maybe Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
will take pity on the survivors of Yosef.
16 Therefore thus says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, Adonai:
“In all public squares there will be lamentation,
in all the streets they will cry, ‘Oh, no!’
They will summon farmers to mourn
and professional mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in every vineyard,
for I will pass through among you,” says Adonai.
18 Woe to you who want the Day of Adonai!
Why do you want it, this Day of Adonai?
It is darkness, not light;
19 as if someone were to run from a lion,
just to be met by a bear;
as if he entered a house, put his hand on the wall,
just to be bitten by a snake.
20 Won’t the Day of Adonai be darkness, not light,
completely dark, with no brightness at all?
21 “I hate, I utterly loathe your festivals;
I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.
22 If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
nor will I consider the peace offerings
of your stall-fed cattle.
23 Spare me the noise of your songs!
I don’t want to hear the strumming of your lutes!
24 Instead, let justice well up like water,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
in the desert forty years, house of Isra’el?
26 No, but now you will bear Sikkut as your king
and Kiyun, your images,
the star of your god, which you made for yourselves;
27 as I exile you beyond Dammesek,”
says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot —
that is his name.
6 Woe to those living at ease in Tziyon
and to those who feel complacent on the hills of Shomron,
renowned men in this foremost of nations,
to whom the rest of Isra’el come.
2 Travel to Kalneh and see;
from there go on to Hamat the great;
then go down to Gat of the P’lishtim.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?
3 You put off all thought of the evil day
but hasten the reign of violence.
4 You lie on beds of ivory
and lounge sprawled out on your couches,
dining on meat from lambs in the flock
and from calves fattened in stalls.
5 You make up wild songs at your parties,
playing the lute and inventing other instruments —
[imagining that you’re] like David!
6 You drink wine by the bowlful
and anoint yourselves with the finest oils,
but feel no grief at the ruin of Yosef.
7 Therefore now they will be the first
to go into exile with those being exiled,
and the revelry of those who lounged,
sprawling, will pass away.
8 “Adonai Elohim swears by himself,”
says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot,
“I detest that Ya‘akov is so proud,
and I hate his palaces.
I will hand over the city,
along with everything in it.”
9 When that day comes, if ten men remain in one house, they will die. 10 And if a [dead] man’s uncle, coming to bring the corpse out of the house and burn it, finds a survivor hidden in the inmost recesses of the house and asks, “Is anyone else there with you?” — then, when he receives the answer, “No,” he will say, “Don’t say any more, because we mustn’t mention the name of Adonai.”
11 For when Adonai gives the order,
great houses will be shattered
and small houses reduced to rubble.
12 Do horses run on rock?
Does one plow there with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitter wormwood.
13 You take pleasure in worthless things.
You think your power comes from your own strength.
14 “But I will raise up a nation against you, house of Isra’el,” says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, “and they will oppress you from the entrance of Hamat to the Vadi of the ‘Aravah.”
18 “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Thyatira, write: ‘Here is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like burnished brass: 19 I know what you are doing, your love, trust, service and perseverance. And I know that you are doing more now than before. 20 But I have this against you: you continue to tolerate that Izevel woman, the one who claims to be a prophet, but is teaching and deceiving my servants to commit sexual sin and eat food that has been sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to turn from her sin, but she doesn’t want to repent of her immorality. 22 So I am throwing her into a sickbed; and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great trouble, unless they turn from the sins connected with what she does; 23 and I will strike her children dead! Then all the Messianic communities will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and that I will give to each of you what your deeds deserve. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, to those who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some people call the ‘deep things’ of the Adversary, I say this: I am not loading you up with another burden; 25 only hold fast to what you have until I come. 26 To him who wins the victory and does what I want until the goal is reached,
I will give him authority over the nations;
27 he will rule them with a staff of iron
and dash them to pieces like pottery,[a]
28 just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. 29 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”’
3 “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Sardis, write: ‘Here is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know what you are doing — you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too! For I have found what you are doing incomplete in the sight of my God. 3 So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you. 4 Nevertheless, you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; and they will walk with me, clothed in white, because they are worthy. 5 He who wins the victory will, like them, be dressed in white clothing; and I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life; in fact, I will acknowledge him individually before my Father and before his angels. 6 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”’
130 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, I call to you from the depths;
2 hear my cry, Adonai!
Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.
3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins,
who, Adonai, could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.
5 I wait longingly for Adonai;
I put my hope in his word.
6 Everything in me waits for Adonai
more than guards on watch wait for morning,
more than guards on watch wait for morning.
7 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai!
For grace is found with Adonai,
and with him is unlimited redemption.
8 He will redeem Isra’el
from all their wrongdoings.
21 A slave who is pampered from youth
will in the end be ungrateful.
22 Angry people stir up strife;
hot-tempered people commit many crimes.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.