The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NIV. Switch to the NIV to read along with the audio.
3 For now the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
support and staff—
all support of bread
and all support of water—(A)
2 warrior and soldier,
judge and prophet,
diviner and elder,(B)
3 captain of fifty
and dignitary,
counselor and skillful magician
and expert enchanter.
4 And I will make youths their princes,
and children shall rule over them.(C)
5 The people will be oppressed,
everyone by another
and everyone by a neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder
and the base to the honorable.(D)
6 Someone will seize a relative,
a member of the clan, saying,
“You have a cloak;
you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
shall be under your rule.”(E)
7 But the other will cry out on that day, saying,
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
leader of the people.”(F)
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
defying his glorious presence.(G)
9 The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them,
for they have brought evil on themselves.(H)
10 Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,
for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.(I)
11 Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
for what their hands have done shall be done to them.(J)
12 My people—their oppressors extort them,
and creditors[a] rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you
and confuse the course of your paths.(K)
13 The Lord rises to argue his case;
he stands to judge the peoples.(L)
14 The Lord enters into judgment
with the elders and princes of his people:
It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.(M)
15 What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.(N)
16 The Lord said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
and walk with outstretched necks,
glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
tinkling with their feet;(O)
17 the Lord will afflict with scabs
the heads of the daughters of Zion,
and the Lord will lay bare their scalps and heads.
18 On that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;(P) 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; 20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;(Q) 21 the signet rings and nose rings;(R) 22 the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.
24 Instead of perfume there will be a stench;
and instead of a sash, a rope;
and instead of well-styled hair, baldness;
and instead of a rich robe, a binding of sackcloth;
instead of beauty, shame.[b](S)
25 Your men shall fall by the sword
and your warriors in battle.(T)
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn;
desolate, she shall sit upon the ground.(U)
4 Seven women shall take hold of one man on that day, saying,
“We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes;
just let us be called by your name;
take away our disgrace.”(V)
The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion
2 On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.(W) 3 Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,(X) 4 once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.(Y) 5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy.(Z) 6 It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.(AA)
The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
5 I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.(AB)
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.(AC)
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.(AD)
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?(AE)
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.(AF)
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.(AG)
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!(AH)
Social Injustice Denounced
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!(AI)
9 The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.(AJ)
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.[c](AK)
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,(AL)
12 whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
or see the work of his hands!(AM)
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.(AN)
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem[d] and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.(AO)
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.(AP)
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.(AQ)
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
fatted calves and kids[e] shall feed among the ruins.
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
who drag sin along as with cart ropes,(AR)
19 who say, “Let him make haste;
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
that we may know it!”(AS)
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!(AT)
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and shrewd in their own sight!(AU)
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
and valiant at mixing drink,(AV)
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deprive the innocent of their rights!(AW)
Foreign Invasion Predicted
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
and their blossom go up like dust,
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.(AX)
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.(AY)
26 He will raise a signal for a nation far away
and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth.
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!(AZ)
27 None of them is weary; none stumbles;
none slumbers or sleeps;
not a loincloth is loose;
not a sandal strap broken;(BA)
28 their arrows are sharp;
all their bows strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.(BB)
29 Their roaring is like a lion;
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and no one can rescue.(BC)
30 They will roar over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with its clouds.(BD)
Paul and the False Apostles
11 I wish you would put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, do put up[a] with me!(A) 2 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.(B) 3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure[b] devotion to Christ.(C) 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.(D) 5 I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.(E) 6 Even if I am untrained in speech, I certainly am not with respect to knowledge; certainly in every way and in all things we have made this evident to you.(F)
7 Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s good news[c] to you free of charge?(G) 8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for my needs were supplied by the brothers who came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will continue to refrain from burdening you in any way.(H) 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.(I) 11 And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!(J)
12 And what I do I will also continue to do, in order to deny an opportunity to those who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in what they boast about. 13 For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.(K) 14 And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.(L)
Psalm 53
Denunciation of Godlessness
To the leader: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
1 Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt; they commit abominable acts;
there is no one who does good.(A)
2 God looks down from heaven on humankind
to see if there are any who are wise,
who seek after God.(B)
3 They have all fallen away; they are all alike perverse;
there is no one who does good,
no, not one.(C)
4 Have they no knowledge, those evildoers,
who eat up my people as they eat bread
and do not call upon God?(D)
5 There they shall be in great terror,
in terror such as has not been.
For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly;[a]
they will be put to shame,[b] for God has rejected them.(E)
6 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.(F)
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.