The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday October 24, 2017 (NIV)

³ “Get your large and small shields ready; advance into battle.
⁴ Harness your horses. Mount up, you horsemen.
Take your positions, and put on your helmets.
Polish your spears.
Put on your armor.

⁵ “What do I see in them?
They are terrified.
They are retreating.
Their warriors are defeated.
They flee without looking back.
Terror is all around them,” declares Yahweh.
⁶ “The infantry can’t flee.
The warriors can’t escape.
They stumble and fall in the north by the Euphrates River.
⁷ Who is this, rising like the Nile River,
like streams that flow swiftly?
⁸ Egypt is like the rising Nile River,
like a river quickly overflowing its banks.
Egypt says, ‘I will rise; I will cover the earth.
I will destroy cities and the people in them.’
⁹ Go into battle, you horsemen.
Drive wildly, you chariot drivers.
March into battle, you warriors,
you warriors from Sudan and Put who carry shields,
you warriors from Lydia who use bows and arrows.
¹⁰ That day belongs to Adonay Yahweh Tsebaoth.
It is a day of vengeance when he will take revenge on his enemies.
His sword will devour until it has had enough,
and it will drink their blood until it’s full.
Adonay Yahweh Tsebaoth will offer them as sacrifices
in the north by the Euphrates River.
¹¹ Go to Gilead, and get medicine, dear people of Egypt.
You have used many medicines without results; you can’t be cured.
¹² The nations have heard of your shame; your cry fills the earth.
One warrior will stumble over another,
and both will fall together.”

¹⁴ “Tell this in Egypt; announce this in Migdol.
Make it known in Memphis and in Tahpanhes.
Say, ‘Take your positions, and get ready.
Swords will kill those around you.’
¹⁵ Why should your soldiers be cut down?
They can’t stand because Yahweh will push them down.
¹⁶ They have repeatedly stumbled, and now they have fallen.
They say to each other,
‘Get up! Let’s go back to our people,
to the land where we were born,
and escape our enemy’s sword.’
¹⁷ There they will cry, ‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is a big windbag.
He has missed his chance.’

¹⁸ “As I live,” declares the Melek, whose name is Yahweh Tsebaoth,
“someone who is like Mount Tabor among the mountains will come.
Someone who is like Mount Carmel by the sea will come.
¹⁹ Pack your bags, inhabitants of Egypt,
because you will be taken away as captives.
Memphis will become a dreary wasteland,
a pile of rubble where no one lives.

²⁰ “Egypt is like a beautiful cow,
but a horsefly from the north will attack it.
²¹ Egypt’s hired soldiers are like fattened calves.
They will turn and run away together.
They won’t stand their ground.
The day of destruction is coming.
At that time they will be punished.
²² Egypt will hiss like a snake as it slithers away.
Its enemies will come with full force.
They will attack it with axes like those who chop wood.
²³ They will cut down the forest,” declares Yahweh,
“since Egypt can’t be found.
They are more numerous than locusts; they can’t be counted.
²⁴ The people of Egypt will be put to shame.
They will be handed over to the people from the north.”

“I’m going to punish Amon, who is the god of Thebes.
I will also punish Pharaoh, Egypt, its gods, its kings,
and whoever trusts Pharaoh.
²⁶ I’ll hand them over to those who want to kill them,
to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his officers.
Afterward, they will live in peace as they did long ago,”
declares Yahweh.

²⁷ “Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob.
Don’t be terrified, Israel.
I’m going to rescue you and your descendants from a faraway land,
from the land where you are captives.
Then Jacob’s descendants will again have undisturbed peace,
and no one will make them afraid.
²⁸ Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob,” declares Yahweh.
“I am with you.
I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you,
but I will not completely destroy you.
I will correct you with justice.
I won’t let you go entirely unpunished.”

Water is rising in the north.
It will become an overflowing river.
It will overflow the land and everything in it,
the cities and those who live in them.
People will cry out and everyone who lives in the land will cry loudly.
³ They will hear the sound of galloping war horses,
the rattling of enemy chariots,
and the rumbling of their wheels.
Fathers who lack courage abandon their children.
⁴ The time has come to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon any Philistine
who might have escaped to get help.
Yahweh will destroy the Philistines
and anyone who is left from the island of Crete.
⁵ Gaza will shave its head in mourning.
Ashkelon will be destroyed.
How long will you cut yourselves, you people left on the plains?
⁶ You cry out, “Sword of Yahweh,
how long will you keep on fighting?
Go back into your scabbard.
Stay there and rest!”
⁷ How can the sword of Yahweh rest?
Yahweh has ordered it to attack Ashkelon and the coast.
He has put it there.

⁴ They ramble.
They speak arrogantly.
All troublemakers brag about themselves.
⁵ They crush your people, O Yahweh.
They make those who belong to you suffer.
⁶ They kill widows and foreigners, and they murder orphans.
⁷ They say, “Yah doesn’t see it.
The Elohim of Jacob doesn’t even pay attention to it.”

⁸ Pay attention, you stupid people!
When will you become wise, you fools?
⁹ Elohim created ears.
Do you think he can’t hear?
He formed eyes.
Do you think he can’t see?
¹⁰ He disciplines nations.
Do you think he can’t punish?
He teaches people.
Do you think he doesn’t know anything?
¹¹ Yahweh knows that people’s thoughts are pointless.

¹² O Yah, blessed is the person
whom you discipline and instruct from your teachings.
¹³ You give him peace and quiet from times of trouble
while a pit is dug to trap wicked people.

¹⁴ Yahweh will never desert his people
or abandon those who belong to him.
¹⁵ The decisions of judges will again become fair,
and everyone whose motives are decent will pursue justice.^[a]

¹⁶ Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
Who will stand by my side against troublemakers?
¹⁷ If Yahweh had not come to help me,
my soul would have quickly fallen silent in death.

¹⁸ When I said, “My feet are slipping,”
your mercy, O Yahweh, continued to hold me up.
¹⁹ When I worried about many things,
your assuring words soothed my soul.

²⁰ Are wicked rulers who use the law to do unlawful things
able to be your partners?
²¹ They join forces to take the lives of righteous people.
They condemn innocent people to death.
²² Yahweh has become my stronghold.
My Elohim has become my rock of refuge.
²³ He has turned their own wickedness against them.
He will destroy them because of their sins.
Yahweh our Elohim will destroy them.

⁷ Like a lame person’s limp legs,
so is a proverb in the mouths of fools.
⁸ Like tying a stone to a sling,
so is giving honor to a fool.