The Daily Audio Bible
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Praise to the Lord
25 O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You, I will praise Your name,
for You have done wonderful things;
Your plans formed of old
are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made a city into a heap,
a fortified city into a ruin;
a palace of strangers is a city no longer;
it shall never be built.
3 Therefore a strong people shall glorify You;
cities of ruthless nations shall fear You.
4 For You have been a defense to the poor,
a defense to the needy in his distress,
a refuge from the storm,
a shadow from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless ones
is as a storm against the wall.
5 You bring down the noise of strangers,
as heat in drought;
as the heat by the shadow of a cloud,
the song of the ruthless ones shall be brought low.
6 In this mountain the Lord of Hosts shall prepare
for all people a lavish feast,
a feast of aged wines,
choice pieces full of marrow, and refined, aged wines.
7 He will destroy in this mountain
the covering which is over all peoples,
even the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time,
and the Lord God will wipe away tears
from all faces;
and the reproach of His people He shall take away
from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken it.
9 It shall be said in that day:
Look, this is our God
for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
10 For in this mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest,
and Moab shall be trodden down in his place
as straw is trodden down in the water for the manure pile.
11 He shall spread out his hands in the midst of it,
as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
yet the Lord shall bring down his pride
together with the trickery of his hands.
12 The unassailable fortresses of your walls
He shall bring down, lay low,
and bring to the ground,
even to the dust.
A Song of Victory
26 In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
He appoints walls
and bulwarks for security.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation may enter,
the one who remains faithful.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock.
5 For He brings down those who dwell on high,
the lofty city; He lays it low; He lays it low,
even to the ground;
He brings it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down,
even the feet of the poor
and the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
8 In the way of Your judgments, O Lord,
we have waited for You eagerly;
the desire of our souls is Your name,
even Your memory.
9 With my soul I have desired You in the night;
my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
for when Your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though favor is shown to the wicked,
yet he will not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals unjustly
and does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, Your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, You will ordain peace for us,
for You also have done all our works for us.
13 O Lord our God, other lords besides You have had dominion over us,
but through You alone we confess Your name.
14 The dead shall not live;
the departed spirits shall not rise.
Therefore, You have punished and destroyed them
and made all remembrance of them to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
16 Lord, in trouble they have sought You;
they poured out a prayer
when Your chastening was on them.
17 Like a woman with child, who is in pain and cries out in her pangs
when she draws near the time of her delivery,
so have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain,
we have, as it were, brought forth wind;
we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
nor were the inhabitants of the world born.
19 Your dead shall live,
their corpses shall arise.
Awake and sing,
you who dwell in dust,
for your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
and the earth shall give birth to the departed spirits.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide for a little while
until the indignation is over.
21 For the Lord comes out of His place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth also shall disclose her bloodshed
and shall cover her slain no more.
The Deliverance of Israel
27 In that day
the Lord with His fierce and great
and strong sword shall punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day:
Sing of it! A vineyard of red wine.
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
I water it every moment;
lest anyone damage it,
I protect it night and day.
4 I have no fury.
Should someone give Me briers and thorns in battle,
then I would step on them,
I would burn them fully.
5 Or let him rely on My strength;
let him make peace with Me;
let him make peace with Me.
6 In the days to come Jacob shall take root;
Israel shall blossom and bud
and shall fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has He struck them,
as He struck those who struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain,
have they been slain?
8 You fought with them by banishing them, by driving them away.
He has expelled them
on the day of the east wind with His fierce wind.
9 Through this, therefore, the iniquity of Jacob shall be forgiven,
and this will be the full price of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altar
as chalkstones that are pulverized,
when the groves and incense altars
shall not stand.
10 For the fortified city shall be desolate,
a homestead forlorn and forsaken like a wilderness;
there the calf shall graze,
and there it shall lie down
and eat its branches.
11 When its boughs are withered, they are broken off;
the women come and make a fire with them,
for they are not a people of understanding;
therefore, their Maker will not have mercy on them,
and their Creator will show them no grace.
12 In that day the Lord shall thresh from the channel of the River[a] to the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O sons of Israel. 13 And in that day the great trumpet shall be blown, and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah
28 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
which is at the head of the fertile valley
of those who are overcome with wine!
2 See, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,
as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
as a flood of mighty overflowing waters,
He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.
3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
is trodden under foot;
4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is at the head of the fertile valley,
shall be like a first-ripe fig before the summer,
which when one sees, while it is yet in his hand,
he eats it up.
5 In that day the Lord of Hosts
shall become a crown of glory
and a diadem of beauty
to the remnant of His people,
6 a spirit of justice
for him who sits in judgment,
and strength
to those who turn away the battle at the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine
and stagger from strong drink;
the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
they are confused by wine,
they stagger from strong drink;
they err while having visions,
they stumble when rendering judgment.
8 For all the tables are full of vomit
and filthiness so that there is no clean place.
9 “To whom shall He teach knowledge,
and to whom shall He interpret the message?
Those just weaned from the milk
and drawn from the breasts?
10 For He says,
‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.’ ”
11 For with stammering lips and foreign tongue
He will speak to this people,
12 He who said to them,
“This is the rest. Give rest to the weary,”
and, “This is repose,”
yet they would not listen.
13 So the word of the Lord will be to them,
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,”
that they might go and fall backward,
be broken, snared, and taken captive.
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them.”[a] 11 Now it is evident that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, for “The just shall live by faith.”[b] 12 But the law is not of faith, for “The man who does them shall live by them.”[c] 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us—as it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”[d]— 14 so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The Law and the Promise
15 Brothers, I am speaking in human terms: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is ratified, no one annuls or adds to it. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and his Seed. He does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your Seed,”[e] meaning one, who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul the covenant that was ratified by God in Christ, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise. But God gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not a mediator for only one party, but God is one.
Slaves and Sons
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? God forbid! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, righteousness would indeed come through the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all things under sin, that the promise through faith in Jesus Christ[f] might be given to those who believe.
Psalm 61
For the Music Director. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear my cry, O God,
attend to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You;
when my heart faints,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For You have been a refuge for me,
and a strong tower from the enemy.
4 I will abide in Your tent forever;
I will seek refuge in the covering of Your wings. Selah
5 For You, O God, have heard my vows;
You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.
6 May You prolong the king’s life,
and may his years be as many generations.
7 May he sit enthroned before God forever;
oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
8 Thus will I sing praise to Your name forever,
that I may fulfill my vows day by day.
Saying Fifteen
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but continue in the fear of the Lord all day long;
18 for surely there is an end,
and your expectation will not be cut off.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.