The Daily Audio Bible
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A Hymn of Praise from the Lord’s People in His Kingdom
12 At that time you will say,
“I will praise you, O Lord.
Although you had been angry with me,
you turned your anger away from me, and you comforted me.
2 Look! God is my Savior.
I am confident and unafraid,
because the Lord is my strength and my song.
He is my Savior.”
3 With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation.
4 At that time you will say,
“Praise the Lord.
Call on his name.
Make his deeds known among the nations.
Make them remember that his name is highly honored.
5 Make music to praise the Lord.
He has done wonderful things.
Let this be known throughout the earth.
6 Shout loudly, and sing with joy, people of Zion!
The Holy One of Israel is great. He is among you.”
Babylon Will Be Punished
13 This is the divine revelation which Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw about Babylon.
2 Raise a banner on the bare mountaintop.
Call loudly to them.
Signal them with your hand to enter the nobles’ gates.
3 I’ve commanded my holy ones.
I’ve called my mighty men to carry out my anger.
They find joy in my triumphs.
4 Listen to the noise on the mountains.
It is like the sound of a large army.
It is the sound of kingdoms and nations gathering together.
The Lord of Armies is assembling his army for battle.
5 His army is coming from a distant land,
from the ends of heaven.
The Lord is coming with the weapons of his fury
to destroy the whole world.
6 Cry loudly, for the day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.
7 That is why every hand will hang limp,
and everyone’s courage will fail.
8 They’ll be terrified.
Pain and anguish will seize them.
They’ll writhe like a woman giving birth to a child.
They’ll look at one another in astonishment.
Their faces will be burning red.
9 The day of the Lord is going to come.
It will be a cruel day with fury and fierce anger.
He will make the earth desolate.
He will destroy its sinners.
10 The stars in the sky and their constellations
won’t show their light anymore.
The sun will be dark when it rises.
The moon won’t shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their wrongdoing.
I will put an end to arrogant people
and humble the pride of tyrants.
12 I will make people harder to find than pure gold
and human beings more rare than gold from Ophir.
13 I will make heaven tremble,
and the earth will be shaken from its place
when the Lord of Armies is angry.
At that time he will be very angry.
14 They’ll be like hunted gazelle
and like sheep with no one to gather them.
Everyone will return to his own people
and flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be stabbed to death.
Whoever is captured will be executed.
16 Their little children will be smashed to death right before their eyes.
Their houses will be looted and their wives raped.
17 I’m going to stir up the Medes against them.
They don’t care for silver and aren’t happy with gold.
18 But their bows will smash the youth.
They’ll have no compassion for babies,
nor will they look with pity on children.
19 Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the proud beauty of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.
20 It will never be inhabited again,
and no one will live in it for generations.
Arabs won’t pitch their tents there.
Shepherds won’t let their flocks rest there.
21 Desert animals will lie down there.
Their homes will be full of owls.
Ostriches will live there,
and wild goats will skip about.
22 Hyenas will howl in Babylon’s strongholds,
and jackals will howl in its luxurious palaces.
Its time has almost come.
Its days will not be extended.
Israel Will Be Rescued from Babylon
14 The Lord will have compassion for Jacob and again choose Israel.
He will resettle them in their own country.
Foreigners will join them
and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
2 People will take them
and bring them to their own place.
The nation of Israel will possess nations
as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land.
They will take their captors captive
and rule their oppressors.
3 When that day comes, the Lord will give you relief
from your pain and suffering,
from the hard slavery you were forced to do.
4 Then you will mock the king of Babylon with this saying,
“How the tyrant has come to an end!
How his attacks have come to an end!”
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers.
6 They struck the people with fury,
with blows that didn’t stop.
They ruled nations in anger,
persecuting them without restraint.
7 The whole earth rests and is peaceful.
It breaks out into shouts of joy.
8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you.
The cedars of Lebanon say,
“Since you have fallen,
no lumberjack has come to attack us.”
9 Sheol below wakes up to meet you when you come.
It wakes up the ghosts of the dead,
all who were leaders on earth.
It raises all who were kings of the nations from their thrones.
10 All of them will greet you,
“You also have become weak like us!
You have become like one of us!”
11 Your pride has been brought down to Sheol
along with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out ⌞like a bed⌟ under you,
and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven, you morning star, son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the ground, you conqueror of nations!
13 You thought,
“I’ll go up to heaven and set up my throne above God’s stars.
I’ll sit on the mountain far away in the north
where the gods assemble.
14 I’ll go above the top of the clouds.
I’ll be like the Most High.”
15 But you’ve been brought down to Sheol,
to the deepest part of the pit.
16 Those who see you stare at you; they look at you closely and say,
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert and tore down its cities,
who didn’t let his prisoners go home?”
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them,
have been buried with honor, each in his own tomb.
19 But you are thrown out of your tomb like a rejected branch.
You are covered with those who were killed in battle.
You go down to the stones of the pit like a trampled corpse.
20 You won’t be joined by the kings in the tomb,
because you have destroyed your land and killed your people.
The descendants of the wicked will never be mentioned again.
21 Prepare a place to slaughter their sons
because of their ancestors’ guilt.
They won’t be able to rise, possess the earth,
and rebuild cities all over it.
22 “I’ll rise up against them,” declares the Lord of Armies.
“I’ll cut off the name of the survivors from Babylon,
its offspring and descendants,” declares the Lord.
23 “It will become the possession of herons.
It will become pools of water.
I’ll sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of Armies.
Assyria Will Be Punished
24 The Lord of Armies has taken an oath:
“It will happen exactly as I’ve intended.
It will turn out exactly as I’ve planned.
25 I’ll crush Assyria on my land.
I’ll trample it underfoot on my mountains.
Then its yoke [a] will be removed from my people,
and its burden will be removed from their shoulders.”
26 This is the plan determined for the whole earth.
This is how he will use his power against all the nations.
27 The Lord of Armies has planned it. Who can stop it?
He is ready to use his power. Who can turn it back?
The Philistines Will Be Punished
28 This was the divine revelation in the year King Ahaz died.
29 All you Philistines, don’t rejoice
that the rod of the one who struck you is broken,
because a viper will come from that snake’s root,
and his descendant will be a flying, fiery serpent.
30 The poorest of the poor will eat,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
But I will put your root to death with famine
and kill off your survivors.
31 Cry loudly in the gate!
Cry out in the city!
Be frightened, all you Philistines!
Smoke comes from the north,
and there are no stragglers in its ranks.
32 How should we answer the messengers from the nations?
⌞Tell them that⌟ the Lord has laid Zion’s foundation,
and his humble people will find refuge in it.
Paul Tells the Corinthians to Prepare for His Visit
13 This is the third time that I’ll be visiting you. Every accusation must be verified by two or three witnesses. 2 I already warned you when I was with you the second time, and even though I’m not there now, I’m warning you again. When I visit you again, I won’t spare you. That goes for all those who formerly led sinful lives as well as for all the others. 3 Since you want proof that Christ is speaking through me, that’s what you’ll get. Christ isn’t weak in dealing with you. Instead, he makes his power felt among you. 4 He was weak when he was crucified, but by God’s power he lives. We are weak with him, but by God’s power we will live for you with his help.
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are still in the Christian faith. Test yourselves! Don’t you recognize that you are people in whom Jesus Christ lives? Could it be that you’re failing the test? 6 I hope that you will realize that we haven’t failed the test. 7 We pray to God that you won’t do anything wrong. It’s not that we want to prove that we’ve passed the test. Rather, we want you to do whatever is right, even if we seem to have failed. 8 We can’t do anything against the truth but only to help the truth. 9 We’re glad when we are weak and you are strong. We are also praying for your improvement.
10 That’s why I’m writing this letter while I’m not with you. When I am with you I don’t want to be harsh by using the authority that the Lord gave me. The Lord gave us this authority to help you, not to hurt you.
Farewell
11 With that, brothers and sisters, I must say goodbye. Make sure that you improve. Accept my encouragement. Share the same attitude and live in peace. The God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All of God’s holy people greet you.[a]
13 May the Lord Jesus Christ’s good will,[b] God’s love, and the Holy Spirit’s presence be with all of you!
For the choir director; al tashcheth; [a] a miktam by David when he fled from Saul into the cave.
57 Have pity on me, O God. Have pity on me,
because my soul takes refuge in you.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until destructive storms pass by.
2 I call to God Most High,
to the God who does everything for me.
3 He sends his help from heaven and saves me.
He disgraces the one who is harassing me. Selah
God sends his mercy and his truth!
4 My soul is surrounded by lions.
I must lie down with man-eating lions.
Their teeth are spears and arrows.
Their tongues are sharp swords.
5 May you be honored above the heavens, O God.
Let your glory extend over the whole earth.
6 ⌞My enemies⌟ spread out a net to catch me.
(My soul is bowed down.)
They dug a pit to trap me,
but then they fell into it. Selah
7 My heart is confident, O God.
My heart is confident.
I want to sing and make music.[b]
8 Wake up, my soul! [c]
Wake up, harp and lyre!
I want to wake up at dawn.
9 I want to give thanks to you among the people, O Lord.
I want to make music to praise you among the nations
10 because your mercy is as high as the heavens.
Your truth reaches the skies.
11 May you be honored above the heavens, O God.
Let your glory extend over the whole earth.
9 Do not talk directly to a fool,
because he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not move an ancient boundary marker
or enter fields that belong to orphans,
11 because the one who is responsible for them is strong.
He will plead their case against you.
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