The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday August 25, 2018 (NIV)

⁶ If I speak, or if I don’t,
I hurt all the same.
My torment continues.
⁷ God has worn me down
and destroyed my family;
⁸ my shriveled up skin proves
that I am his prisoner.
⁹ God is my hateful enemy,
glaring at me
and attacking
with his sharp teeth.
¹⁰ Everyone is against me;
they sneer and slap my face.
¹¹ And God is the one
who handed me over
to this merciless mob.

¹⁸ If I should die,
I beg the earth
not to cover
my cry for justice.
¹⁹ Even now, God in heaven
is both my witness
and my protector.
²⁰ My friends have rejected me,
but God is the one I beg^[b]
21 to show that I am right,
just as a friend should.
²² Because in only a few years,
I will be dead and gone.

⁶ You, God, are the reason
I am insulted and spit on.
⁷ I am almost blind with grief;
my body is a mere shadow.

⁸ People who are truly good
would feel so alarmed,
that they would become angry
at my worthless friends.
⁹ They would do the right thing
and because they did,
they would grow stronger.^[c]
10 But none of my friends
show any sense.

¹¹ My life is drawing to an end;
hope has disappeared.
¹² But all my friends can do
is offer empty hopes.^[d]
13 I could tell the world below
to prepare me a bed.
¹⁴ Then I could greet the grave
as my father
and say to the worms,
“Hello, mother and sisters!”

¹⁵ But what kind of hope is that?
¹⁶ Will it keep me company
in the world of the dead?

⁵ The lamps of sinful people
soon are snuffed out,
⁶ leaving their tents dark.
⁷ Their powerful legs become weak,
and they stumble on schemes
of their own doing.
⁸ Before they know it,
⁹ they are trapped
in a net,
¹⁰ hidden along the path.
¹¹ Terror strikes and pursues
from every side.
¹² Starving, they run,
only to meet disaster,
¹³ then afterwards to be eaten alive
by death itself.

¹⁴ Those sinners are dragged
from the safety of their tents
to die a gruesome death.
¹⁵ Then their tents and possessions
are burned to ashes,
¹⁶ and they are left like trees,
dried up from the roots.
¹⁷ They are gone and forgotten,
¹⁸ thrown far from the light
into a world of darkness,
¹⁹ without any children
to carry on their name.
²⁰ Everyone, from east to west,
is overwhelmed with horror.
²¹ Such is the fate of sinners
and their families
who don’t know God.

⁷ Though I pray to be rescued
from this torment,
no whisper of justice
answers me.
⁸ God has me trapped
with a wall of darkness
⁹ and stripped of respect.
¹⁰ God rips me apart,
uproots my hopes,
¹¹ and attacks with fierce anger,
as though I were his enemy.
¹² His entire army advances,
then surrounds my tent.

²³ I wish that my words
could be written down
²⁴ or chiseled into rock.
²⁵ I know that my Savior^[f] lives,
and at the end
he will stand on this earth.
²⁶ My flesh may be destroyed,
yet from this body
I will see God.^[g]
27 Yes, I will see him for myself,
and I long for that moment.

²⁸ My friends, you think up ways
to blame and torment me,
saying
I brought it on myself.
²⁹ But watch out for the judgment,
when God will punish you!

⁴ You bless all of those
who trust you, Lord,
and refuse to worship idols
or follow false gods.
⁵ You, Lord God, have done
many wonderful things,
and you have planned
marvelous things for us.
No one is like you!
I would never be able to tell
all you have done.

⁶ Sacrifices and offerings
are not what please you;
gifts and payment for sin
are not what you demand.
But you made me willing
to listen and obey.
⁷ And so, I said, “I am here
to do what is written
about me in the book,
where it says,
⁸ ’I enjoy pleasing you.
Your Law is in my heart.’”

⁹ When your people worshiped,
you know I told them,
“Our Lord always helps!”
¹⁰ When all your people met,
I did not keep silent.
I said, “Our Lord is kind.
He is faithful and caring,
and he saves us.”