The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday September 26, 2021 (NIV)

¹² “Listen to me, Jacob,
and Israel, the one called by me:
I am he; I am the first,
I am also the last.^(A)
13 My own hand founded the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;^(B)
when I summoned them,
they stood up together.
¹⁴ All of you, assemble and listen!
Who among the idols^[a] has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;^[b]
he will accomplish his will against Babylon,^(C)
and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵ I—I have spoken;
yes, I have called him;^(D)
I have brought him,
and he will succeed in his mission.^(E)
16 Approach me and listen to this.
From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;^(F)
from the time anything existed, I was there.”
And now the Lord God
has sent me and his Spirit.^(G)

I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you for your benefit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to my commands.
Then your peace would have been like a river,^(J)
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.^(K)
19 Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand,^(L)
and the offspring of your body like its grains;
their name would not be cut off
or eliminated from my presence.

49 Coasts and islands,^[c] listen to me;
distant peoples, pay attention.
The Lord called^(P) me before I was born.
He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.^(Q)
2 He made my words like a sharp sword;^(R)
he hid me in the shadow of his hand.^(S)
He made me like a sharpened arrow;
he hid me in his quiver.
³ He said to me, “You are my servant,^(T)
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
⁴ But I myself said: I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and futility;
yet my vindication is with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God.
⁵ And now, says the Lord,
who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him
so that Israel might be gathered to him;
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God is my strength—
⁶ he says,
“It is not enough for you to be my servant
raising up the tribes of Jacob
and restoring the protected ones of Israel.
I will also make you a light for the nations,^(U)
to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”^(V)
7 This is what the Lord,
the Redeemer^(W) of Israel, his Holy One, says
to one who is despised,
to one abhorred by people,^[d](X)
to a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see, princes will stand up,
and they^[e] will all bow down
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel^(Y)—and he has chosen you.”^(Z)

I will answer you in a time of favor,
and I will help you in the day of salvation.^(AA)
I will keep you, and I will appoint you
to be a covenant for the people,^(AB)
to restore the land,
to make them possess the desolate inheritances,
⁹ saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”^(AC)
and to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They will feed along the pathways,
and their pastures will be on all the barren heights.^(AD)
10 They will not hunger or thirst,
the scorching heat or sun will not strike them;
for their compassionate one will guide them,
and lead them to springs.^(AE)
11 I will make all my mountains into a road,
and my highways will be raised up.^(AF)
12 See, these will come from far away,
from the north and from the west,^[f](AG)
and from the land of Sinim.^[g][h]

¹⁴ Zion says, “The Lord has abandoned me;
the Lord has forgotten me!”
¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;^(AK)
your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders^[i] hurry;
those who destroy and devastate you will leave you.
¹⁸ Look up, and look around.
They all gather together; they come to you.^(AL)
As I live”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“you will wear all your children^[j] as jewelry,
and put them on as a bride does.
¹⁹ For your waste and desolate places
and your land marked by ruins
will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants,^(AM)
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰ Yet as you listen, the children
that you have been deprived of will say,
‘This place is too small for me;
make room for me so that I may settle.’^(AN)
21 Then you will say within yourself,
‘Who fathered these for me?
I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive,
exiled and wandering—
but who brought them up?
See, I was left by myself—
but these, where did they come from?’” ^[k]

Look, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and raise my banner to the peoples.^(AO)
They will bring your sons in their arms,
and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.^(AP)
23 Kings will be your guardians
and their queens^[l] your nursing mothers.^(AQ)
They will bow down to you
with their faces to the ground
and lick the dust at your feet.^(AR)
Then you will know that I am the Lord;^(AS)
those who put their hope in me
will not be put to shame.^(AT)

Where is your mother’s divorce certificate
that I used to send her away?^(AY)
Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?^(AZ)
Look, you were sold for your iniquities,^(BA)
and your mother was sent away
because of your transgressions.
² Why was no one there when I came?
Why was there no one to answer when I called?
Is my arm too weak to redeem?^(BB)
Or do I have no power to rescue?
Look, I dry up the sea by my rebuke;^(BC)
I turn the rivers into a wilderness;
their fish rot because of lack of water
and die of thirst.
³ I dress the heavens in black
and make sackcloth their covering.^(BD)

⁴ The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are instructed^(BE)
to know how to sustain the weary with a word.
He awakens me each morning;
he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.^(BF)
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn back.^(BG)
6 I gave my back to those who beat me,
and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard.
I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.^(BH)

¹ Save me, God,
for the water has risen to my neck.^(B)
2 I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing;
I have come into deep water,
and a flood sweeps over me.^(C)
3 I am weary from my crying;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.^(D)
4 Those who hate me without cause
are more numerous than the hairs of my head;
my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me,
are powerful.^(E)
Though I did not steal, I must repay.^(F)