The Daily Audio Bible
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The Lord Is Judge and Savior
1 A threatening oracle against Nineveh.
The book of the vision of Nahum from Elkosh.
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.
The Lord takes vengeance and displays his anger.
The Lord takes vengeance against his adversaries.
He will maintain his rage against his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger, yet great in power.
The Lord will certainly not let the guilty go unpunished.
He marches out in the whirlwind and in the storm.
Storm clouds are like dust stirred up by his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry up.
He makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel are completely withered.
The buds of Lebanon are completely withered.
5 The mountains quake in front of him.
The hills melt away.
The earth in front of him rises up,
the whole world and all who live in it.
6 Who can withstand his anger?
Who can resist his fury?
His rage is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are torn down by him.
7 The Lord is good.
He is a place of safety in the day of distress.
He knows those who seek safety in him,
8 but he will bring this place to a complete end by an overwhelming flood.
He will drive his enemies into darkness.
9 No matter what you plot against the Lord, he will destroy your plot completely. Disaster will not need to strike them twice, 10 because like tangled thorns, like the liquor of drunkards, like fully dried stubble, they will be consumed.
Judgment on the Enemy
11 Someone who plots evil against the Lord has gone out from you, but his wicked plans are worthless. 12 This is what the Lord says. Even though they are at full strength and are numerous, nevertheless they are sure to be cut off, and they will disappear. Even though I have humbled you, I will not humble you any longer. 13 Now I will break their yoke from your neck. I will tear apart the shackles that are on you.
14 The Lord has issued a decree against you: There will be no descendants to carry on your name. I will put an end to the carved idols and molten images in the temple of your gods. I will dig your grave because you are cursed.[a]
Peace for God’s People
15 Look! A herald is coming over the mountain to proclaim this good news:
Peace! Celebrate your sacred festivals, Judah!
Fulfill your sacred vows to praise God!
For never again will wickedness overwhelm you.
It has been completely destroyed.[b]
The Attack of the Enemy
2 The enemy who will scatter you is advancing against you! Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare for battle! Muster all your great strength! 2 For the Lord is about to restore the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, even though their enemies have plundered them completely and have destroyed their vines.
3 The shields of the mighty warriors are dyed red.
The soldiers are dressed in scarlet garments.
The steel fittings[c] of the chariots shine like fire on the day of battle.
The soldiers shake their spears.[d]
4 The chariots race wildly through the streets.
They rush back and forth in the city squares.
They look like lightning.
They dart about like flashes of lightning.
5 The commander[e] gives orders to his elite troops.
They fall over each other as they advance.
They rush to the city wall.
They set up the protective canopy over the battering ram.
6 The gates that hold back the river are opened,
and the palace is washed away.
7 She is stripped and is led away.
Her slave girls moan like doves
while they beat their breasts.[f]
8 Nineveh[g] was like a pool of water from her beginning,[h]
but now her people are running away.
She cries out, “Stop! Stop!” but no one turns back.
9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!
There is no end to the treasure.
There are riches of every kind of precious thing.
10 Destruction, devastation, and desolation!
Their hearts faint, their knees tremble,
every stomach churns, and each face turns pale!
11 What has become of the lions’ lair and the feeding place for young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion’s cub prowled with nothing to fear? 12 The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses. He filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
13 Beware! I am against you, declares the Lord of Armies. I will burn up your chariots in smoke. The sword will devour your young lions. You will no longer ravage the land. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.
Woe to Nineveh
3 Woe to the city of bloodshed! She is full of lies. She is filled with plunder. She is never without victims.
2 The crack of a whip! The clatter of wheels! Galloping horses and bouncing chariots! 3 Horsemen charging! Glittering swords! Flashing spears! Many wounded! Piles of carcasses! There is no end to the corpses—so many that people stumble over them.
4 All this is because of the many promiscuous deeds of the prostitute, a beautiful and pleasing mistress of all kinds of sorcery,[i] who sells nations into slavery with her promiscuity and clans of people with her sorcery.
5 Beware! I am against you, declares the Lord of Armies. I will strip off your clothes! I will expose your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms. 6 I will pelt you with filth.[j] I will treat you with contempt. I will make you a public spectacle. 7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust and say, “Nineveh has been devastated! Who will express grief for her? Where can I find someone to comfort you?”
8 Are you better[k] than Thebes?[l] She was located on the banks of the Nile. The waters surrounded her. Her strength was the sea, and her walls were the water. 9 Cush and Egypt had limitless strength. Put and the Libyans were among her allies. 10 Yet even she went into exile. Even her infants were smashed to pieces on every street corner. They cast lots to win her dignitaries. All her great men were bound with chains.
11 You too will be drunk and will hide yourself. You too will seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees with ripe fruit. If they are shaken, their figs will fall right into the mouth of the one who eats them. 13 Look! The troops among you are women in the face of your enemies.[m] The gates of your land will be wide open. Fire will consume the bars of your gates.
14 Draw water to prepare yourselves for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!
15 There the fire will consume you. There the sword will cut you down. It will devour you as a swarm of grasshoppers would, even if you heap up your numbers like swarms of grasshoppers and locusts. 16 You have increased your merchants so that they are more than the stars of heaven! But they are like grasshoppers, which spread out and fly away. 17 Your courtiers are like locusts. Your field marshals are like swarming locusts! They camp in the walls on a cold day. Yet when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.
18 King of Assyria, your shepherds are drowsy! Your powerful men slumber! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there are none left to gather together.[n]
19 There is no healing for your wound. Your injury is fatal! All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy, for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!
The Seventh Seal: Seven Angels With Seven Trumpets
8 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3 Another angel, holding a gold censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given a large amount of incense to offer together with the prayers of all the saints on the gold altar that was in front of the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense went up from the hand of the angel before God, together with the prayers of the saints.
5 The angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. Then there came crashes of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
The First Four Trumpets
6 The seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared to sound them. 7 The first sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, and[a] a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
8 Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea became blood, 9 a third of the creatures that live in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a huge star, blazing like a lamp, fell from the sky. It fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star was Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood.[b] Many of the people died from these waters because they had been made bitter.
12 Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, as well as a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them became dark. And there was no light for a third of the day and likewise for the night.
13 Then I looked and I heard a single eagle[c] flying in the middle of the sky, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those whose home is on the earth because of the remaining trumpet blasts of the three angels who are about to sound their trumpets.”
Psalm 136
His Mercy Endures Forever
Introduction
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
For his mercy endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of Gods.
For his mercy endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of Lords.
For his mercy endures forever.
His Creating Love
4 To him who alone does great wonders—[a]
For his mercy endures forever.
5 To him who by his understanding made the heavens—
For his mercy endures forever.
6 To him who spread out the earth on the waters—
For his mercy endures forever.
7 To him who made the great lights,
For his mercy endures forever.
8 the sun to rule by day,
For his mercy endures forever.
9 the moon and stars to rule by night—
For his mercy endures forever.
His Redeeming Love
10 To him who struck Egypt by killing their firstborn,
For his mercy endures forever.
11 and brought Israel out from their midst,
For his mercy endures forever.
12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm—
For his mercy endures forever.
13 To him who cut the Red Sea in two,
For his mercy endures forever.
14 and brought Israel through the middle of it,
For his mercy endures forever.
15 but brushed off Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea—
For his mercy endures forever.
16 To him who made his people travel through the wilderness—
For his mercy endures forever.
17 To him who struck down great kings,
For his mercy endures forever.
18 and killed mighty kings,
For his mercy endures forever.
19 Sihon king of the Amorites,
For his mercy endures forever.
20 and Og king of Bashan,
For his mercy endures forever.
21 and gave their land as a possession,
For his mercy endures forever.
22 a possession to his servant Israel.
For his mercy endures forever.
His Continuing Love
23 Who remembered us in our low condition,
For his mercy endures forever.
24 and tore us out of the hands of our oppressors.
For his mercy endures forever.
25 He gives food to all living creatures.[b]
For his mercy endures forever.
26 Give thanks to the God of the heavens.
For his mercy endures forever.
7 Two things I have asked from you.
Do not keep them from me before I die:
8 Keep worthless speech and lies far from me.
Do not give me poverty or riches.
Give me food in the amount that is right for me.
9 Too much, and I may feel satisfied and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
Too little, and I may become poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.