The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NET. Switch to the NET to read along with the audio.
1 This is a prophecy about Ninveh, the book of the vision of Nachum the Elkoshi:
2 Adonai is a jealous and vengeful God.
Adonai avenges; he knows how to be angry.
Adonai takes vengeance on his foes
and stores up wrath for his enemies.
3 Adonai is slow to anger, but great in power;
and he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Adonai’s path is in the whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and leaves it dry,
he dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and the Karmel languish;
the flower of the L’vanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him,
and the hills dissolve;
the earth collapses in his presence,
the world and everyone living in it.
6 Who can withstand his fury?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
the rocks broken to pieces before him.
7 Adonai is good,
a stronghold in time of trouble;
he takes care of those
who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of [Ninveh’s] place,
and darkness will pursue his enemies.
9 What are you planning against Adonai?
He is making an end [of it];
trouble will not arise a second time.
10 For like men drunk with liquor,
they will be burned up like tangled thorns,
like straw completely dry.
11 Out of you, [Ninveh,] he came,
one who plots evil against Adonai,
who counsels wickedness.
12 Here is what Adonai says:
“Though they be many and strong,
they will be cut down, they will pass;
and though I have made you suffer,
I will make you suffer no more.
13 Now I will break his yoke from your necks
and snap the chains that bind you.
14 Adonai gave this order concerning you:
you will have no descendants to bear your name;
from the house of your god I will cut off
carved image and cast metal image;
I will prepare your grave,
because you are worthless.”
2 (1:15) Look! On the mountains are the feet
of him who brings good news, proclaiming shalom.
Keep your festivals, Y’hudah, fulfill your vows;
for B’liya‘al will never pass through you again;
he has been completely destroyed.
2 (1) A destroyer has risen in front of your face;
guard the ramparts, keep watch on the road,
brace yourselves, marshall all your strength.
3 (2) For Adonai is restoring the pride of Ya‘akov,
along with the pride of Isra’el;
because plunderers have plundered them
and ravaged their vines.
4 (3) The shields of [Ninveh’s] warriors are [dyed] red;
the soldiers are wearing scarlet.
The steel of the chariots flashes like fire
as they prepare for battle.
The cypress [spears] are poisoned.
5 (4) The chariots rush madly about in the streets,
jostling each other in the open places;
their appearance is like torches,
they run here and there like lightning.
6 (5) [The king of Ninveh] assigns his officers;
they stumble as they march;
they hurry to its wall and set up shields
to protect the battering ram.
7 (6) The gates of the rivers are opened,
and the palace melts away.
8 (7) Its mistress is stripped and carried away;
her handmaids moan, they sound like doves,
as they beat their breasts.
9 (8) Ninveh is like a pool whose water ebbs away.
“Stop! Stop!” But none of it goes back.
10 (9) Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!
There is no end to the treasure,
weighed down with precious things.
11 (10) She is void, vacant; she is made bare.
Hearts are melting, knees are knocking;
every stomach is churning,
every face is drained of color.
12 (11) What has become of the lion’s den,
the cave where the young lions fed,
where lion and lioness walked with their cubs,
and no one made them afraid?
13 (12) The lion would tear up food for his cubs
and strangle prey for his lionesses;
he used to fill his caves with prey,
his lairs with torn flesh.
14 (13) “I am against you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“Her chariots I will send up in smoke,
the sword will consume your lion cubs,
I will destroy your prey from the earth,
and your envoys’ voices will be heard no more.”
3 Woe to the city of blood, steeped in lies,
full of prey, with no end to the plunder!
2 The crack of the whip! The rattle of wheels!
Galloping horses, jolting chariots,
3 cavalry charging, swords flashing,
spears glittering —
and hosts of slain, heaps of bodies;
there is no end to the corpses;
they stumble over their corpses.
4 “Because of the continual whoring of this whore,
this alluring mistress of sorcery,
who sells nations with her whoring
and families with her sorcery;
5 I am against you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“I will uncover your skirts on your face;
I will show the nations your private parts
and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will pelt you with disgusting filth,
disgrace you and make a spectacle of you.
7 Then all who see you will recoil from you;
they will say, ‘Ninveh is destroyed!’
Who will mourn for her?
Where can I find people to comfort you?”
8 Are you any better than No-Amon,
located among the streams of the Nile,
with water all around her,
the flood her wall of defense?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt gave her boundless strength,
Put and Luvim were there to help you.
10 Still she went captive into exile,
her infants torn to pieces at every streetcorner.
Lots were drawn for her nobles,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You too, [Ninveh,] will be drunk;
your senses completely overcome.
You too will seek a refuge
from the enemy.
12 All your fortifications will be
like fig trees with early ripening figs;
the moment they are shaken, they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look at your troops! They behave like women!
Your country’s gates are wide open to your foes;
fire has consumed their bars.
14 Draw water for the siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Go down in the clay, tread the mortar,
Take hold of the mold for bricks!
15 There the fire will burn you up;
and the sword will cut you down;
it will devour you like grasshoppers.
Make yourselves as many as grasshoppers,
Make yourselves as many as locusts!
16 You had more merchants than stars in the sky.
The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your marshals like swarms of locusts,
which settle on the walls on a cold day,
but when the sun rises they fly away;
they vanish to no one knows where.
18 Your shepherds are slumbering, king of Ashur.
Your leaders are asleep.
Your people are scattered all over the mountains,
with no one to round them up.
19 Your wound cannot be healed.
Your injury is fatal.
Everyone hearing the news about you
claps his hands in joy over you.
For who has not been overwhelmed
by your relentless cruelty?
8 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for what seemed like half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven shofars. 3 Another angel came and stood at the altar with a gold incense-bowl, and he was given a large quantity of incense to add to the prayers of all God’s people 4 on the gold altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of God’s people from the hand of the angel before God. 5 Then the angel took the incense-bowl, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it down onto the earth; and there followed peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
6 Now the seven angels with the seven shofars prepared to sound them.
7 The first one sounded his shofar; and there came hail and fire mingled with blood, and it was thrown down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
8 The second angel sounded his shofar, and what looked like an enormous blazing mountain was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 The third angel sounded his shofar; and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky onto a third of the rivers and onto the springs of water. 11 The name of the star was “Bitterness,” and a third of the water became bitter, and many people died from the water that had been turned bitter.
12 The fourth angel sounded his shofar; and a third of the sun was struck, also a third of the moon and a third of the stars; so that a third of them were darkened, the day had a third less light, and the night likewise.
13 Then I looked, and I heard a lone eagle give a loud cry, as it flew in mid-heaven, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the people living on earth, because of the remaining blasts from the three angels who have yet to sound their shofars!”
136 Give thanks to Adonai, for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his grace continues forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his grace continues forever;
4 to him who alone has done great wonders,
for his grace continues forever;
5 to him who skillfully made the heavens,
for his grace continues forever;
6 to him who spread out the earth on the water,
for his grace continues forever;
7 to him who made the great lights,
for his grace continues forever;
8 the sun to rule the day,
for his grace continues forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule the night,
for his grace continues forever;
10 to him who struck down Egypt’s firstborn,
for his grace continues forever;
11 and brought Isra’el out from among them,
for his grace continues forever;
12 with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,
for his grace continues forever;
13 to him who split apart the Sea of Suf,
for his grace continues forever;
14 and made Isra’el cross right through it,
for his grace continues forever;
15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Sea of Suf,
for his grace continues forever;
16 to him who led his people through the desert,
for his grace continues forever;
17 to him who struck down great kings,
for his grace continues forever;
18 yes, he slaughtered powerful kings,
for his grace continues forever;
19 Sichon king of the Emori,
for his grace continues forever;
20 and ‘Og king of Bashan,
for his grace continues forever;
21 then he gave their land as a heritage,
for his grace continues forever;
22 to be possessed by Isra’el his servant,
for his grace continues forever;
23 who remembers us whenever we are brought low,
for his grace continues forever;
24 and rescues us from our enemies,
for his grace continues forever;
25 who provides food for every living creature,
for his grace continues forever.
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his grace continues forever.
7 [God,] I have asked two things of you;
don’t deny them to me as long as I live —
8 keep falsehood and futility far from me,
and give me neither poverty nor wealth.
Yes, provide just the food I need today;
9 for if I have too much, I might deny you
and say, “Who is Adonai?”
And if I am poor, I might steal
and thus profane the name of my God.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.