The Daily Audio Bible
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Judgment on Damascus
23 Concerning Damascus.
Hamath and Arpad are confounded,
for they have heard bad news;
they melt in fear; they are troubled like the sea[a]
that cannot be quiet.(A)
24 Damascus has become feeble; she turned to flee,
and panic seized her;
anguish and pangs seize her,
as of a woman in labor.
25 How is the famous city not forsaken,[b]
the town of my joy?[c](B)
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares,
and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day,
says the Lord of hosts.(C)
27 And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.(D)
Judgment on Kedar and Hazor
28 Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon defeated.
Thus says the Lord:
Rise up; advance against Kedar!
Destroy the people of the east!(E)
29 They take their tents and their flocks,
their curtains and all their goods;
they carry off their camels for themselves,
and a cry shall go up: “Terror is all around!”(F)
30 Flee; wander far away; hide in deep places,
O inhabitants of Hazor!
says the Lord.
For King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon
has made a plan against you
and formed a purpose against you.(G)
31 Rise up; advance against a nation at ease,
that lives secure,
says the Lord,
that has no gates or bars,
that lives alone.(H)
32 Their camels shall become plunder;
their herds of cattle a spoil.
I will scatter to every wind
those who have shaved temples,
and I will bring calamity
against them from every side,
says the Lord.(I)
33 Hazor shall become a lair of jackals,
an everlasting waste;
no one shall live there,
nor shall anyone settle in it.(J)
Judgment on Elam
34 The word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah.(K)
35 Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might,(L) 36 and I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and I will scatter them to all these winds, and there shall be no nation to which the exiles from Elam shall not come.(M) 37 I will terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their life; I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, says the Lord. I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them,(N) 38 and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, says the Lord.
39 But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, says the Lord.
Judgment on Babylon
50 The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the prophet Jeremiah:(O)
2 Declare among the nations and proclaim;
set up a banner and proclaim;
do not conceal it, say:
“Babylon is taken;
Bel is put to shame;
Merodach is dismayed.
Her images are put to shame;
her idols are dismayed.”(P)
3 For out of the north a nation has come up against her; it shall make her land a desolation, and no one shall live in it; both humans and animals shall flee away.(Q)
4 In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the people of Israel shall come, they and the people of Judah together; they shall come weeping as they seek the Lord their God.(R) 5 They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, and they shall come and join themselves to the Lord by an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
6 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains; from mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their fold.(S) 7 All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, “We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord, the true pasture, the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.”(T)
8 Flee from Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be like male goats leading the flock.(U) 9 For I am going to stir up and bring against Babylon a company of great nations from the land of the north, and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like the arrows of a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.(V) 10 Chaldea shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be sated, says the Lord.
11 Though you rejoice, though you exult,
O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass
and neigh like stallions,(W)
12 your mother shall be utterly shamed,
and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
She shall be the last of the nations,
a wilderness, dry land, and a desert.(X)
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord, she shall not be inhabited
but shall be an utter desolation;
everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled
and hiss because of all her wounds.(Y)
14 Take up your positions around Babylon,
all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her; spare no arrows,
for she has sinned against the Lord.(Z)
15 Raise a shout against her from all sides,
“She has surrendered;
her bulwarks have fallen;
her walls are thrown down.”
For this is the vengeance of the Lord:
take vengeance on her;
do to her as she has done.(AA)
16 Cut off from Babylon the sower
and the wielder of the sickle in time of harvest;
because of the destroying sword,
all of them shall return to their own people,
and all of them shall flee to their own land.(AB)
17 Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured it, and now at the end King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has gnawed its bones.(AC) 18 Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. 19 I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead its hunger shall be satisfied.(AD) 20 In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared.(AE)
21 Go up to the land of Merathaim;[d]
go up against her,
and attack the inhabitants of Pekod[e]
and utterly destroy the last of them,[f]
says the Lord;
do all that I have commanded you.(AF)
22 The noise of battle is in the land
and great destruction!(AG)
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations!(AH)
24 I set a snare for you, and you were caught, O Babylon,
but you did not know it;
you were discovered and seized
because you challenged the Lord.(AI)
25 The Lord has opened his armory
and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a task
in the land of the Chaldeans.(AJ)
26 Come against her from every quarter;
open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly;
let nothing be left of her.(AK)
27 Kill all her bulls;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Alas for them, their day has come,
the time of their punishment!(AL)
28 Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon are coming to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, vengeance for his temple.(AM)
29 Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her—for she has arrogantly defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.(AN) 30 Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord.(AO)
31 I am against you, O arrogant one,
says the Lord God of hosts,
for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.(AP)
32 The arrogant one shall stumble and fall,
with no one to raise him up,
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour everything around him.(AQ)
33 Thus says the Lord of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and so also are the people of Judah; all their captors have held them fast and refuse to let them go.(AR) 34 Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.(AS)
35 A sword against the Chaldeans, says the Lord,
and against the inhabitants of Babylon
and against her officials and her sages!(AT)
36 A sword against the diviners,
so that they may become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
so that they may be dismayed!(AU)
37 A sword against her[g] horses and against her[h] chariots
and against all the foreign troops in her midst,
so that they may become women!
A sword against her treasures,
that they may be plundered!(AV)
38 A drought against her waters,
that they may be dried up!
For it is a land of images,
and they go mad over idols.(AW)
39 Therefore wild animals shall live with hyenas in Babylon,[i] and ostriches shall inhabit her; she shall never again be peopled or inhabited for all generations.(AX) 40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord, so no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in her.(AY)
41 Look, a people is coming from the north;
a mighty nation and many kings
are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.(AZ)
42 They wield bow and spear;
they are cruel and have no mercy.
The sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride upon horses,
set in array as a warrior for battle,
against you, O daughter Babylon!(BA)
43 The king of Babylon heard news of them,
and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
pain like that of a woman in labor.(BB)
44 Like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan to a perennial pasture, I will suddenly chase them away from her, and I will appoint over her whomever I choose.[j] For who is like me? Who can summon me? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?(BC) 45 Therefore hear the plan that the Lord has made against Babylon and the purposes that he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away; surely the fold shall be appalled at their fate. 46 At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and a cry shall be heard among the nations.(BD)
Salutation
1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that is in accordance with godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began(A)— 3 in due time he revealed his word through the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior,(B)
4 To Titus, my true child[a] in the faith we share:
Grace[b] and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.(C)
Titus in Crete
5 I left you behind in Crete for this reason, so that you should put in order what remained to be done and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you:(D) 6 someone who is blameless, married only once,[c] whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious.(E) 7 For a bishop,[d] as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain,(F) 8 but he must be hospitable,[e] a lover of goodness, self-controlled, upright, devout, and restrained, 9 holding tightly to the trustworthy word of the teaching, so that he may be able both to exhort with sound instruction and to refute those who contradict it.
10 There are also many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision;(G) 11 they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for sordid gain what it is not right to teach.(H) 12 It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said,
“Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.”
13 That testimony is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply, so that they may become sound in the faith,(I) 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths or to commandments of those who reject the truth.(J) 15 To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted.(K) 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.(L)
Psalm 97
The Glory of God’s Reign
1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!(A)
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.(B)
3 Fire goes before him
and consumes his adversaries on every side.(C)
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.(D)
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All servants of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.(E)
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns[a] of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments, O God.(F)
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.(G)
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.(H)
11 Light dawns[b] for the righteous
and joy for the upright in heart.(I)
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!
Psalm 98
Praise the Judge of the World
A Psalm.
1 O sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him victory.(J)
2 The Lord has made known his victory;
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.(K)
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.(L)
13 The lazy person says, “There is a lion in the road!
There is a lion in the streets!”(A)
14 As a door turns on its hinges,
so does a lazy person in bed.
15 The lazy person buries a hand in the dish
and is too tired to bring it back to the mouth.(B)
16 The lazy person is wiser in self-esteem
than seven who can answer discreetly.
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.