The Daily Audio Bible
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10 It will be very bad for people who make cruel laws that are not fair.
2 They stop poor people from receiving what they should have.
They do not let helpless people receive justice.
They rob widows of all their things.
They take things that belong to children who have no family.
3 It will be bad for you on the day when God comes to judge people. You will not escape the punishment that he will bring from far away. There will be nobody to help you. There will be no safe place to hide your valuable things. 4 You will have to join the people who are in prison. Or you will die with those that the enemy kills in war.
But the Lord is still angry. His hand is ready to hit his people again.
Then God will punish Assyria
5 It will be very bad for Assyria! I will use its army to punish my people, because I am angry with them. Assyria will be like a stick that I use to beat my people. That is how I will show them my anger.
6 I send Assyria's army against a nation that does not serve God. I command them to attack the people with whom I am angry. I tell them to take that nation's valuable things for themselves. I tell them to walk all over them, as if they were walking on dirt in the streets.
7 But Assyria's ruler has other ideas. He does not understand that he is my weapon. He wants his army to destroy many nations, so that they have no power. 8 He boasts, ‘All my army's officers are like kings! 9 We destroyed Calno as we destroyed Carchemish. We destroyed Hamath as well as Arpad. We destroyed Samaria as well as Damascus.
10 The idols of those cities were greater than those in Jerusalem or Samaria. But we won against them all! 11 So I will destroy Jerusalem and its idols, in the same way that I did to Samaria and its idols.’
12 The Lord God will come to punish Mount Zion and Jerusalem. But when he has done that, he says, ‘Now I will punish the king of Assyria. He boasts in his mind and his eyes show how proud he is.’
13 The king of Assyria says this:
‘I have won these battles because of my own strength.
I have been very wise and clever.
I have marched into nations as if they had no borders.
I have taken their valuable things for myself.
Like a wild bull, I have removed kings from their thrones.
14 I robbed them of their riches,
like a person who takes eggs from a bird's nest.
I was able to bring all the nations under my power.
None of them could stop me.
No bird could shake its wing at me,
or open its mouth to cry at me!’
15 The Lord says this:
‘The axe has no more power than the person who uses it.
A saw is not more important than the person who cuts with it.
A stick cannot lift up the man who holds it.
No, it is the man that lifts up the stick!’
16 So the Lord, the Almighty Lord, will punish Assyria's soldiers. They are now fat and healthy, but they will become thin! It will be like a fire that burns them, with all their proud strength. 17 The holy God, who is the Light of Israel, will become like a fire. Assyria's soldiers will be like weeds and thorn bushes and the fire will destroy them in one day.
18 The Lord will completely destroy Assyria's great forests and its good fields. It will seem like a bad disease is taking away their life. 19 Only a few trees will remain in the forests. Even a child will be able to count them!
Some people will return
20 At that time, only a few people will remain in Israel. Only a few descendants of Jacob will still be alive. They will no longer expect to receive help from a foreign ruler who is cruel to them. Instead, they will trust the Lord, the Holy God of Israel, to help them.
21 A few of Jacob's descendants will remain, and they will return to serve the mighty God. 22 Israel's people are now very many, as many as the sand on the shore of the sea. But only a few will remain to return. The Lord has decided to destroy you, people of Israel. His punishment is fair and right. 23 The Lord Almighty will destroy the whole land. He is ready to do that, as he has promised.
24 So this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian army. They will hurt you, like someone who hits you with a heavy stick. They will be cruel to you like the people in Egypt were long ago. 25 But soon I will be angry with you no longer. Instead, I will be angry with the Assyrians, and I will be ready to destroy them.’
26 Yes, the Lord Almighty will punish the Assyrians, like someone who uses a whip to beat them. That is how he destroyed the Midianites at the Rock of Oreb.[a] He will hold his stick over the sea. He will lift it up as he did in Egypt.
27 At that time, the Lord will remove the heavy load that is on your shoulders. He will destroy the yoke that is on your neck. You will no longer be their slaves. The Lord will bless you and make you fat.
28 Assyria's army attacks Aiath! It marches through Migron. They store their things at Michmash. 29 They go across the hills. They stay at Geba for a night. The people in Ramah are afraid! The people in Gibeah of Saul run away.
30 People in Gallim, shout for help! Listen carefully, people in Laishah. Answer them, people in Anathoth. 31 The people in Madmenah run away. Those who live in Gebim run to a safe place.
32 Today, the enemy has reached Nob and it stops there. He shakes his fist angrily at the people who live on Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem.
33 But look! The Lord Almighty is ready to use his great power to destroy Assyria's strong army. He will cut it down, like a tall tree. He will cut off all the branches and knock all the trees down to the ground. 34 The Lord will take his axe and he will cut down the trees of that great forest. Even the best trees of Lebanon must fall down![b]
The King who brings peace
11 A descendant of Jesse will appear, like a new branch that grows from a tree stump. The roots of the tree will give new fruit![c]
2 The Spirit of the Lord will be with him.
The Spirit will make him wise,
so that he understands things.
The Spirit will show him what is right,
and he will have the power to do it.
The Spirit will cause him to know the Lord
and to serve him truly.
3 To obey the Lord will make him very happy. He will not judge people because of what he sees with his eyes. He will not judge them because of what he hears about them with his ears.
4 But he will judge poor people with true justice. He will decide to do what is right for all the helpless people. He will have authority everywhere in the land. The words that he speaks will bring death to wicked people. 5 He will wear justice like a belt round his clothes. He will always be honest and true.
6 When he is king, wolves will live beside lambs! Leopards will lie down with young goats! Young cows and lions will feed together, and a young child will take care of them!
7 Cows and bears will feed together. Even their children will lie down side by side. Lions will eat grass, as cows do.
8 If a baby plays near the hole where a snake lives, he will be safe. A young child may even put his hand into the hole of a dangerous snake.
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy anything else anywhere on my holy mountain. Instead, people will know the Lord all over the earth, as water fills the whole sea.
10 On that day, King David's descendant, the root of Jesse, will appear. He will be like a clear sign to all nations. They will come to him, so that he leads them. The place where he lives as king will be wonderful.
11 And on that day, the Lord God will bring his people back once again. He will lift up his powerful hand to rescue his people who are still alive. He will bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath and from countries near the sea.
12 The Lord will lift up a clear sign for the nations to see. He will bring together Israel's people that their enemies took away. Yes, he will bring back Judah's exiles from all over the earth. 13 Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah. Judah will no longer be Ephraim's enemy.[d] 14 But they will join together to attack the Philistines in the west. They will also attack the nations to the east of Israel. They will take their valuable things for themselves. They will win against the people of Edom and Moab. They will rule over the Ammonites.
15 The Lord will make the Sea of Egypt become dry. He will lift up his hand and he will send a strong wind to divide the Euphrates river. The river will become seven small streams. Then people can walk across it easily.
16 There will be a good road that comes from Assyria. The Lord's people who remain will travel back home on it. It will be like the road that Israel's people travelled on when they left Egypt.
Paul is a true apostle
11 I am speaking like a proud fool, but you have made me do it. You yourselves should be saying good things about me. I may not be important. But I am as good as those very special apostles.[a] 12 When I was there with you, I showed that I was a true apostle. I worked patiently among you. I did many miracles and great things that showed God's power. 13 I worked among you in the same way as I did with the other churches. You were never less important to me than they are. The only difference is that I did not ask you to help me with money. So perhaps I should ask you to forgive me for that!
14 Listen to me! This is the third time that I am ready to visit you. I will not ask you to give anything to me. I do not want any of your things. Instead, I want you yourselves. You are like my children. Children should not have to supply what their parents need. It is parents who should supply what their children need. 15 So I will be happy to give everything that I have to you. I will be happy to give myself too, because I want to help you. Perhaps I love you too much! But that should not mean that you will love me less than you should.
16 I did not give you trouble. You surely know that. But some of you say that I deceived you. You think that I was clever and I got money from you. 17 That is not true! When I sent people to you, they never cheated you on my behalf. 18 I asked Titus to come and visit you, and I sent another Christian friend with him. But Titus certainly did not deceive you to get anything from you. Both he and I have always been completely honest with you. We both think in the same way.
19 What are you thinking when you read all this? Do you think that we want to show you how good we are? No, we are speaking as people who belong to Christ. God knows us. Everything that we do is to help you. We love you and we want to make you stronger as believers.
20 When I come there to visit you, I hope you will be living in a good way. But I am afraid that I will not see what I want to see. Then you will see that I am different from what you want me to be! I am afraid that you may be quarrelling. You may be jealous of each other. You may be very angry with each other. Some of you may just want to please yourselves. You may be insulting one another, or telling lies about one another. You may be proud of how good you are. You may be causing trouble for one another. Yes, I am afraid that all those things may be happening among you.
21 I am afraid that I may be very sad when I come back to you. My God may cause me to feel ashamed about you. Some of you may still be doing bad and disgusting things. You may be having sex with people that you are not married to, or in other wrong ways. Those are the bad things that many of you did at one time. If you have not turned away from those bad things, that will make me weep.
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when the Philistines took hold of him in Gath.
Trust in God[a]
56 God, please be kind to me, and help me,
because people are fighting me.
My enemies are attacking me every day.
2 They chase me all the time!
Those proud people want to catch me,
and there are many of them!
3 But when I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 By God's help, I will praise his word.
By God's help, I will trust in him.
I will not be afraid.
People can do nothing to hurt me![b]
5 All the time, they bring trouble on me.
They are always thinking of ways to hurt me.
6 They hide and they watch me.
They watch me wherever I go,
and they hope to kill me.
7 God, they want to do wicked things,
so punish them!
Destroy these people,
because you are angry with them.
8 Every time that I am upset,
you know about it.
Put all my tears in your bottle!
Yes, write down every tear in your book.[c]
9 When I call to you for help,
my enemies will turn back.
I am sure of this: God is with me,
to fight for me.
10 By God's help, I will praise his promise.
Yes, by the Lord's help,
I will praise his word.
11 I am not afraid,
because I trust in God.
People can do nothing to hurt me.
12 I have made special promises to you, God,
and I will do what I have promised.
I will offer to you a sacrifice to say ‘thank you’.
13 You have saved my life from death.
You keep me safe so that I do not fall.
As a result, I will serve you, God,
as you give me light to live here on earth.
6 8. Do not go and eat a meal with someone who hates to spend his money. His food may be good, but do not be greedy for it.
7 He says, ‘Eat and drink as much as you want,’ but he does not really mean that. He is thinking about the cost of the food.
8 Even if you only eat a little of his food, it will make you sick. All your nice words to him will be useless.
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