The Daily Audio Bible
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Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath
1 When God began to create[a] the heavens and the earth,(A) 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God[b] swept over the face of the waters.(B) 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.(C) 4 And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.(D) 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.(E)
6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”(F) 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.(G) 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.(H) 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.(I) 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so.(J) 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,(K) 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.(L) 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.(M) 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.(N) 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”(O) 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.(P)
26 Then God said, “Let us make humans[c] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth[d] and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”(Q)
27 So God created humans[e] in his image,
in the image of God he created them;[f]
male and female he created them.(R)
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”(S) 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.(T) 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.(U) 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.(V)
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude.(W) 2 On the sixth[g] day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.(X) 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.(Y)
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
Another Account of the Creation
In the day that the Lord[h] God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no vegetation of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground,(Z) 6 but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground[i] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.(AA) 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.(AB) 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.(AC)
10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, 12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.(AD) 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.(AE)
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”(AF)
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”(AG) 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.(AH) 20 The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every animal of the field, but for the man[j] there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.(AI) 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.”(AJ)
24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.(AK) 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.(AL)
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
1 An account[a] of the genealogy[b] of Jesus the Messiah,[c] the son of David, the son of Abraham.(A)
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,(B) 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram,(C) 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,(D) 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,[d](E) 8 and Asaph[e] the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,[f] and Amos[g] the father of Josiah,(F) 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.(G)
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel,(H) 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, who is called the Messiah.[h](I)
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,[i] fourteen generations.
The Birth of Jesus the Messiah
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[j] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit.(J) 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly.(K) 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”(L) 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.”(M) 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son,[k] and he named him Jesus.(N)
The Visit of the Magi
2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi[l] from the east came to Jerusalem,(O) 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east[m] and have come to pay him homage.”(P) 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah[n] was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:(Q)
6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd[o] my people Israel.’ ”(R)
7 Then Herod secretly called for the magi[p] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east,[q] until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped,[r] they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.(S) 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.(T)
Book I
(Psalms 1–41)
Psalm 1
The Two Ways
1 Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path that sinners tread
or sit in the seat of scoffers,(A)
2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.(B)
3 They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.(C)
1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:(A)
Prologue
2 For learning about wisdom and instruction,
for understanding words of insight,
3 for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
righteousness, justice, and equity;(B)
4 to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young—(C)
5 let the wise, too, hear and gain in learning
and the discerning acquire skill,(D)
6 to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.