Month: July 2023

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday July 31, 2023 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 29

Hezekiah Consecrates the Temple

29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother[a] was Abijah,[b] the daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did what the Lord approved, just as his ancestor David had done.[c]

3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and Levites and assembled them in the square on the east side. 5 He said to them: “Listen to me, you Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, so you can consecrate the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors.[d] Remove from the sanctuary what is ceremonially unclean. 6 For our fathers were unfaithful; they did what is evil in the sight of[e] the Lord our God and abandoned him. They turned away[f] from the Lord’s dwelling place and rejected him.[g] 7 They closed the doors of the temple porch and put out the lamps; they did not offer incense or burnt sacrifices in the sanctuary of the God of Israel. 8 The Lord was angry at Judah and Jerusalem and made them an appalling object of horror at which people hiss out their scorn,[h] as you can see with your own eyes. 9 Look, our fathers died violently[i] and our sons, daughters, and wives were carried off[j] because of this. 10 Now I intend[k] to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that he may relent from his raging anger.[l] 11 My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him,[m] to be his ministers,[n] and offer sacrifices.”[o]

12 The following Levites prepared to carry out the king’s orders:[p]

From the Kohathites: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah;

from the Merarites: Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel;

from the Gershonites: Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;

13 from the descendants of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeiel;

from the descendants of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah;

14 from the descendants of Heman: Jehiel and Shimei;

from the descendants of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel.

15 They assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves. Then they went in to purify the Lord’s temple, just as the king had ordered, in accordance with the word[q] of the Lord. 16 The priests then entered the Lord’s temple to purify it; they brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple every ceremonially unclean thing they discovered inside.[r] The Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley. 17 On the first day of the first month they began consecrating; by the eighth day of the month they reached the porch of the Lord’s temple.[s] For eight more days they consecrated the Lord’s temple. On the sixteenth day of the first month they were finished. 18 They went to King Hezekiah and said: “We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, including the altar of burnt sacrifice and all its equipment, and the table for the Bread of the Presence and all its equipment. 19 We have prepared and consecrated all the items that King Ahaz removed during his reign when he acted unfaithfully. They are in front of the altar of the Lord.”

20 Early the next morning King Hezekiah assembled the city officials and went up to the Lord’s temple. 21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah.[t] The king[u] told the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer burnt sacrifices on the altar of the Lord. 22 They slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood on the altar; next they slaughtered the lambs and splashed the blood on the altar. 23 Finally they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they placed their hands on them. 24 Then the priests slaughtered them. They offered their blood as a sin offering on the altar to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had decreed[v] that the burnt sacrifice and sin offering were for all Israel.

25 Hezekiah[w] stationed the Levites in the Lord’s temple with cymbals and stringed instruments just as David, Gad the king’s prophet,[x] and Nathan the prophet had ordered. (The Lord had actually given these orders through his prophets.) 26 The Levites had[y] David’s musical instruments and the priests had trumpets. 27 Hezekiah ordered the burnt sacrifice to be offered on the altar. As they began to offer the sacrifice, they also began to sing to the Lord, accompanied by the trumpets and the musical instruments of King David of Israel. 28 The entire assembly worshiped, as the singers sang and the trumpeters played. They continued until the burnt sacrifice was completed.

29 When the sacrifices were completed, the king and all who were with him bowed down and worshiped. 30 King Hezekiah and the officials told the Levites to praise the Lord, using the psalms[z] of David and Asaph the prophet.[aa] So they joyfully offered praise and bowed down and worshiped. 31 Hezekiah said, “Now you have consecrated yourselves[ab] to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings[ac] to the Lord’s temple.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and whoever desired to do so[ad] brought burnt sacrifices.

32 The assembly brought a total of 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs as burnt sacrifices to the Lord,[ae] 33 and 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep[af] were consecrated. 34 But there were not enough priests to skin all the animals,[ag] so their brothers, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished and the priests could consecrate themselves. (The Levites had been more conscientious about consecrating themselves than the priests.)[ah] 35 There was a large number of burnt sacrifices, as well as fat from the peace offerings and drink offerings that accompanied the burnt sacrifices. So the service of the Lord’s temple was reinstituted.[ai] 36 Hezekiah and all the people were happy about what God had done[aj] for them,[ak] for it had been done quickly.[al]

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 29:1 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
  2. 2 Chronicles 29:1 tn The parallel passage in 2 Kgs 18:2 has “Abi.”
  3. 2 Chronicles 29:2 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which David his father had done.”
  4. 2 Chronicles 29:5 tn Heb “fathers.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 29:6 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  6. 2 Chronicles 29:6 tn Heb “turned their faces.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 29:6 tn Heb “and turned the back.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 29:8 tn Heb “and he made them [an object] of dread and devastation and hissing.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 29:9 tn Heb “fell by the sword.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 29:9 tn Heb “are in captivity.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 29:10 tn Heb “now it is with my heart.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 29:10 tn Heb “so that the rage of his anger might turn from us.” The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding statement of intention.
  13. 2 Chronicles 29:11 tn That is, to conduct the religious rituals directed to the Lord.
  14. 2 Chronicles 29:11 tn That is, to be his ministers for the nation.
  15. 2 Chronicles 29:11 tn Heb “ones who cause [sacrifices] to go up in smoke.” The Hiphil form of קָטַר (qatar) can refer specifically to offering incense (e.g. 2 Chr 26:19; 32:12), but it may also be a general word for making sacrifices (e.g. 1 Chr 6:49). If it refers to burning incense, then the altar of incense in the Holy place of the tabernacle may be in view. Otherwise it is more general (they sacrifice animals later in this chapter, 2 Chr 29:21-24) and includes making sacrifices as well as offering incense.
  16. 2 Chronicles 29:12 tn Heb “and the Levites arose.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 29:15 tn Heb “words” (plural).
  18. 2 Chronicles 29:16 tn Heb “in the temple of the Lord.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 29:17 tn Heb “porch of the Lord.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 29:21 sn Perhaps these terms refer metonymically to the royal court, the priests and Levites, and the people, respectively.
  21. 2 Chronicles 29:21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  22. 2 Chronicles 29:24 tn Heb “said.”
  23. 2 Chronicles 29:25 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hezekiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  24. 2 Chronicles 29:25 tn Or “seer.”
  25. 2 Chronicles 29:26 tn Heb “stood with” (i.e., stood holding).
  26. 2 Chronicles 29:30 tn Heb “with the words.”
  27. 2 Chronicles 29:30 tn Or “seer.”
  28. 2 Chronicles 29:31 tn Heb “filled your hand.”
  29. 2 Chronicles 29:31 tn Or “tokens of thanks.”
  30. 2 Chronicles 29:31 tn Heb “and all who were willing of heart.”
  31. 2 Chronicles 29:32 tn Heb “and the number of burnt sacrifices which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs; for a burnt sacrifice to the Lord were all these.”
  32. 2 Chronicles 29:33 tn The Hebrew term צֹאן (tsoʾn) denotes smaller livestock in general; depending on context it can refer to sheep only or goats only, but there is nothing in the immediate context here to specify one or the other.
  33. 2 Chronicles 29:34 tn Heb “the burnt sacrifices.”
  34. 2 Chronicles 29:34 tn Heb “for the Levites were more pure of heart to consecrate themselves than the priests.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 29:35 tn Or “established.”
  36. 2 Chronicles 29:36 tn Heb “prepared.”
  37. 2 Chronicles 29:36 tn Heb “the people.” The pronoun “them” has been used here for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
  38. 2 Chronicles 29:36 tn Heb “for quickly was the matter.”
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Romans 14

Exhortation to Mutual Forbearance

14 Now receive the one who is weak in the faith, and do not have disputes over differing opinions.[a] 2 One person believes in eating everything, but the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not despise the one who does not, and the one who abstains must not judge the one who eats everything, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord[b] is able to make him stand.

5 One person regards one day holier than other days, and another regards them all alike.[c] Each must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day does it for the Lord. The[d] one who eats, eats for the Lord because he gives thanks to God, and the one who abstains from eating abstains for the Lord, and he gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself and none dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For this reason Christ died and returned to life, so that he may be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

10 But you who eat vegetables only—why do you judge your brother or sister?[e] And you who eat everything—why do you despise your brother or sister?[f] For we will all stand before the judgment seat[g] of God. 11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.”[h] 12 Therefore, each of us will give an account of himself to God.[i]

Exhortation for the Strong not to Destroy the Weak

13 Therefore we must not pass judgment on one another, but rather determine never to place an obstacle or a trap before a brother or sister.[j] 14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean in itself; still, it is unclean to the one who considers it unclean. 15 For if your brother or sister[k] is distressed because of what you eat,[l] you are no longer walking in love.[m] Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you consider good[n] be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For the one who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by people.[o]

19 So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for building up one another. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean,[p] it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything that causes your brother to stumble.[q] 22 The faith[r] you have, keep to yourself before God. Blessed is the one who does not judge himself by what he approves. 23 But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.[s]

Footnotes:

  1. Romans 14:1 tn Grk “over opinions.” The qualifier “differing” has been supplied to clarify the meaning.
  2. Romans 14:4 tc Most mss, especially Western and Byzantine (D F G L 048 33 1739 1175 1241 1505 1881 M latt), read θεός (theos, “God”) in place of κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) here. However, κύριος is found in many of the most significant mss (P46 א A B C P Ψ co), and θεός looks to be an assimilation to θεός in v. 3.
  3. Romans 14:5 tn Grk “For one judges day from day, and one judges all days.”
  4. Romans 14:6 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
  5. Romans 14:10 tn Grk “But why do you judge your brother?” The introductory phrase has been supplied in the translation to clarify whom Paul is addressing, i.e., the “weak” Christian who eats only vegetables (see vv. 2-3). The author uses the singular pronoun here to rhetorically address one person, but the plural has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  6. Romans 14:10 tn Grk “Or again, why do you despise your brother?” The introductory phrase has been supplied in the translation to clarify whom Paul is addressing, i.e., the “strong” Christian who eats everything (see vv. 2-3). The author uses the singular pronoun here to rhetorically address one person, but the plural has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  7. Romans 14:10 sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bēma) was a raised platform mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly or making pronouncements, often on judicial matters. The judgment seat was a familiar item in Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora, the public square or marketplace in the center of a city.
  8. Romans 14:11 sn A quotation from Isa 45:23.
  9. Romans 14:12 tc ‡ The words “to God” are absent from some mss (B F G 6 630 1739 1881) but are found in א A C D Ψ 0209 33 1175 1241 1505 M lat sy co. External evidence somewhat favors their inclusion since Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine mss are well represented. From an internal standpoint, however, it is easy to see the words as a scribal gloss intended to clarify the referent, especially as a reinforcement to the quotation of Isa 45:23 in v. 11. Not only that, but the abrupt ending of the verse without “to God” is harsh, both in Greek and in English. In this instance, the internal considerations seem overwhelming on the side of the omission. At the same time, English stylistic needs require the words and they have been put into the translation, even though they are most likely not original. NA28 places the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.tn Or “each of us is accountable to God.”
  10. Romans 14:13 tn Grk “brother.”
  11. Romans 14:15 tn Grk “brother.”
  12. Romans 14:15 tn Grk “on account of food.”
  13. Romans 14:15 tn Grk “according to love.”
  14. Romans 14:16 tn Grk “do not let your good.”
  15. Romans 14:18 tn Grk “by men,” but ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos) is generic here (“people”) since the contrast in context is between God and humanity.
  16. Romans 14:20 sn Here clean refers to food being ceremonially clean.
  17. Romans 14:21 tc A large number of mss, some of them quite significant (P46vid א2 B D F G Ψ 0209 33 1881 M lat sa), read “or to be offended or to be made weak” after “to stumble.” The shorter reading “to stumble” is found only in Alexandrian mss (א* A C 048 81 945 1506 1739 bo). Although external evidence favors inclusion, internal evidence points to a scribal expansion, perhaps reminiscent of 1 Cor 8:11-13. The shorter reading is therefore preferred.
  18. Romans 14:22 tc ‡ Several significant Alexandrian witnesses (א A B C 048) have the relative pronoun ἥν (hēn, “the faith that you have”) at this juncture, but D F G Ψ 1175 1241 1505 1739 1881 M lat co lack it. Without the pronoun, the clause is more ambiguous (either “Keep the faith [that] you have between yourself and God” or “Do you have faith? Keep it between yourself and God”). The pronoun thus looks to be a motivated reading, created to clarify the meaning of the text. Even though it is found in the better witnesses, in this instance internal evidence should be given preference. NA28 places the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
  19. Romans 14:23 tc Some mss insert 16:25-27 at this point. See the tc note at 16:25 for more information.
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Psalm 24

Psalm 24[a]

A psalm of David.

24 The Lord owns the earth and all it contains,
the world and all who live in it.
2 For he set its foundation upon the seas,
and established[b] it upon the ocean currents.[c]
3 Who is allowed to ascend[d] the mountain of the Lord?[e]
Who may go up to his holy dwelling place?
4 The one whose deeds are blameless
and whose motives are pure,[f]
who does not lie,[g]
or make promises with no intention of keeping them.[h]
5 Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord,[i]
and vindicated by the God who delivers them.[j]
6 Such purity characterizes the people who seek his favor,
Jacob’s descendants, who pray to him.[k] (Selah)
7 Look up,[l] you gates.
Rise up,[m] you eternal doors.
Then the majestic king[n] will enter.[o]
8 Who is this majestic king?[p]
The Lord who is strong and mighty.
The Lord who is mighty in battle.
9 Look up, you gates.
Rise up, you eternal doors.
Then the majestic king will enter.
10 Who is this majestic king?
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies.[q]
He is the majestic king. (Selah)

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 24:1 sn Psalm 24. The psalmist affirms the universal kingship of the sovereign creator, reminds his people that only the morally pure are qualified to worship him, and celebrates his splendor as a mighty warrior king.
  2. Psalm 24:2 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite, referring to the creation of the world.
  3. Psalm 24:2 sn He…established it upon the ocean currents. The description reflects ancient Israelite prescientific cosmology, which is based on outward appearances. The language also suggests that God’s creative work involved the subjugation of chaos, symbolized by the sea.
  4. Psalm 24:3 tn The imperfects in v. 3 are modal, expressing potential or permission.
  5. Psalm 24:3 sn In this context the Lord’s mountain probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem (see Isa 2:2-3).
  6. Psalm 24:4 tn Heb “the innocent of hands and the pure of heart.” The “hands” allude to one’s actions, the “heart” to one’s thought life and motives.
  7. Psalm 24:4 tn Heb “who does not lift up for emptiness my life.” The first person pronoun on נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my life”) makes little sense here; many medieval Hebrew mss support the ancient versions in reading a third person pronoun “his.” The idiom “lift the life” here means to “long for” or “desire strongly.” In this context (note the reference to an oath in the following line) “emptiness” probably refers to speech (see Ps 12:2).
  8. Psalm 24:4 tn Heb “and does not swear an oath deceitfully.”
  9. Psalm 24:5 tn Heb “he (the righteous individual described in v. 4) lifts up a blessing from the Lord.” The singular subject is representative here, as v. 6 makes clear. The referent (godly people like the individual in v. 4) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The imperfect verbal form is generalizing; such people are typically rewarded for their deeds.
  10. Psalm 24:5 tn “and vindication from the God of his deliverance.”
  11. Psalm 24:6 tn Heb “this [is the] generation of the ones seeking him, the ones seeking your face, Jacob.” To “seek the Lord’s face” means to seek his favor through prayer (see 2 Sam 21:1; Pss 27:8; 105:4).sn This verse presents a somewhat idealized view of Jacob’s descendants as devoted worshipers of the Lord.
  12. Psalm 24:7 tn Heb “lift up your heads.” The gates of the Lord’s dwelling place are here personified. The idiom “lift up the head” often means “be confident, bold” (see Judg 8:28; Job 10:15; Ps 83:2; Zech 1:21).
  13. Psalm 24:7 tn Heb “lift yourselves up.”
  14. Psalm 24:7 tn Or “king of glory.”
  15. Psalm 24:7 tn Following the imperatives of the preceding lines, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.
  16. Psalm 24:8 sn Who is this majestic king? Perhaps the personified gates/doors ask this question, in response to the command given in v. 7.
  17. Psalm 24:10 tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts,” a title which here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle.
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Proverbs 20:12

12 The ear that hears and the eye that sees[a]—
the Lord has made them both.[b]

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 20:12 sn The first half of the verse refers to two basic senses that the Lord has given to people. C. H. Toy, however, thinks that they represent all the faculties (Proverbs [ICC], 388). But in the book of Proverbs seeing and hearing come to the fore. By usage, “hearing” also means obeying (15:31; 25:12), and “seeing” also means perceiving and understanding (Isa 6:9-10).
  2. Proverbs 20:12 sn The verse not only credits God with making these faculties of hearing and sight and giving them to people, but it also emphasizes their spiritual use in God’s service.
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

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7/30/2023 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27, Romans 13:1-14, Psalm 23:1-6, Proverbs 20:11

Today is the 30th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you today, as we greet a brand-new shiny, sparkly, week and this shiny, sparkly brand-new beginning comes at the very end of the month. So, we will begin the week and before the week is over, we will transition into a brand-new month, the month of August. But let’s stay here in July for a couple more days. We have a couple more steps to take in the Scriptures and like we said at the beginning, our journey takes us through every book, every chapter, every verse of the Bible and we have to take every step, every day to make that happen. And so, let’s take the next step forward together. This week, we will read from the Christian Standard Bible. And we have been navigating our way through the book of Second Chronicles for a while now. We will be transitioning Second Chronicles and moving forward this week as well. But for today, Second Chronicles chapters 26, 27 and 28.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for your word. It is Your word, the Scriptures, this tangible gift that we can hold in our hands and read with our eyes. It is this gift that draws us together in community. It is, day-by-day, step-by-step, working our way through what You have revealed in Your word and allowing it to shape us and orient us in the direction that we are moving in. And so, we thank You for this gift. And because of this gift, we are knitted together in community, all over this earth, because You have allowed us to be on this earth, at this time in history, where we can do such a thing. And so, we thank You that You have knit us together, brothers and sisters, all over this earth, literally on the same page because we’re moving page-by-page, step-by-step, day-by-day, together. We are grateful. And as we so often do, we ask, Holy Spirit, come and lead us into all truth, that we might walk in the truth, that we may live in the light, that we may recognize the darkness for what it is and that we may be ambassadors of the good news. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, family this is Patrick in Northern Nevada. I’ve been, I’ve only called in a few times, over the, a little over 11 years that I’ve been listening. I actually started listening a couple months before Ezekiel was born. And so, Happy Birthday Ezekiel. I’m sure you are gonna be as fantastic and amazing of a, of a person as, you know, as your parents and your family are. So, Happy Birthday. I would like to ask for prayer for my sister-in-law and well, actually for my brother and their children. My sister-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer that has spread to her liver, her spine and an MRI just revealed that it is at the base of her brain. So, obviously that doesn’t, it doesn’t sound very good. And obviously, you know, God’s will be done. But I do pray, and I ask for prayers for miraculous healing, if that’s possible. And if His will is that He calls her, then I pray that she goes in peace with minimal suffering and pain. But strength for my brother and for the children. They’re all grown but it’s still tough. She’s a wonderful woman and I just pray for, pray for them. And I pray for all of you, out there too. I’ve been listening, you know, for 11 years, you know, without missing. So, just prayers to all. And God bless you. Thank you.

Good morning, DAB family. This is LaChula calling from Las Angelas. I just wanna wish Ezekiel a Happy Birthday. Happy 11 years of light, Ezekiel. Thank you for following in your father and your mothers’ footsteps in bringing the word of the Lord to the masses. I just wanna partner up with what Pastor Brian Hardin said about having the DAB community means so much more while his wife and his son were in that hospital room and he’s doing the DAB and asking for prayers. I wanna say that a few years ago, I asked the DAB community for prayers over my daughter, as she battled and was pregnant. And make a long story short, all my three daughters at this time today, have three miracle babies and its only God’s grace and the power of prayer. And I just want to encourage anybody who is struggling with maybe thinking they’re not gonna be a parent or a child is not gonna come into their, into their partnership with their husband or their partner. So, God’s timing is always perfect and the power of prayer. I can’t say enough. I just thank the DAB community for helping my family, helping me individually grow in God’s grace, word and I just thank you. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Jill. Thank you, China. Thank you to the entire Hardin Family for just loving people. Jesus is our example. And you all have the heart of Jesus. Thank you. Have a beautiful, blessed day.

Hey Daily Audio Bible, this is Zack again. I’m from Tennessee. I called about a week ago about my grandfather, who’s in the hospital with lymphoma cancer, who is unresponsive. And he had spots all over his body, including his brain, with the cancer. And I just want to thank anybody that prayed for me and my family. Any prayers work more than you can know. And I want to thank a very incredible woman who called in for me and my family and my grandfather. I appreciate you more than you know. I just wanna update the situation. My grandfather is now responsive and is up and walking. It’s an unbelievable thing, it’s an incredible miracle. But I know it’s no coincidence. I know this is God working. And I know this is you amazing people praying on my behalf and my family’s behalf. The spot on his brain has grown but the spots on his organs and there are some spots that shrunk. So, now they’re gonna be targeting that spot on his brain with chemo. So, I just wanna ask if you guys could continue to pray and do what you’re doing. Cause God is moving right now. And that’s because of what everybody is doing and the thoughtfulness. Just the prayers you have been pouring out. Thank you so much to everybody that’s been doing that. God bless everybody.

Hello, just wanted to pray for our marriages today. I, I’m so glad to hear Morning Lift, that you are in a better, better spot at least. It sounds like then the first time we heard from you a few weeks ago. So, continue to pray for you. I still remember Kingdom Seeker Daniel when you called in to pray with your wife, I think it was months ago, at this point. But that was just so encouraging to hear how excited you were to be able to call in with her. So, I continue to pray for you guys. And I appreciate your prayers for all of our marriages many times. And I think of the other man, I’m sorry I don’t remember your name, that called in just recently, that was very broken for his marriage and where it’s at. And then I would like you to remember mine, as well. Cause it is still in a rough place. Still getting a lot of antagonism from my wife and her trying to alienate me from my, my son. So, Lord I pray that you would help us. You are the only one who can work in situations where we cannot see the way forward. And so, Lord, I pray that You would help us to do what is right, to do what is right no matter fear of what others might do or fear of anything else, or anyone else. So, Lord, I pray that You would lead us, guide us, that You would restore us. Help us to, to obey You, to love You, to seek You, no matter what in our lives. And then that we would leave what we cannot control in Your hands. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday July 30, 2023 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 26-28

Uzziah’s Reign

26 All the people of Judah took Uzziah,[a] who was sixteen years old, and made him king in his father Amaziah’s place. 2 Uzziah[b] built up Elat and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah[c] had passed away.[d]

3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecholiah, who was from Jerusalem. 4 He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Amaziah had done.[e] 5 He followed[f] God during the lifetime of[g] Zechariah, who taught him how to honor God. As long as he followed[h] the Lord, God caused him to succeed.[i]

6 Uzziah attacked[j] the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. He built cities in the region of Ashdod and throughout Philistine territory.[k] 7 God helped him in his campaigns[l] against the Philistines, the Arabs living in Gur Baal, and the Meunites. 8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah and his fame reached[m] the border of Egypt, for he grew in power.

9 Uzziah built and fortified towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, Valley Gate, and at the Angle.[n] 10 He built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, for he owned many herds in the foothills[o] and on the plain. He had workers in the fields and vineyards in the hills and in Carmel,[p] for he loved agriculture.[q]

11 Uzziah had an army of skilled warriors trained for battle. They were organized by divisions according to the muster rolls made by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the authority of Hananiah, a royal official. 12 The total number of family leaders who led warriors was 2,600. 13 They commanded an army of 307,500 skilled and able warriors who were ready to defend[r] the king against his enemies. 14 Uzziah supplied shields, spears, helmets, breastplates, bows, and slingstones for the entire army. 15 In Jerusalem he made war machines carefully designed to shoot arrows and large stones from the towers and corners of the walls. He became very famous, for he received tremendous support and became powerful.[s]

16 But once he became powerful, his pride destroyed him.[t] He disobeyed[u] the Lord his God. He entered the Lord’s temple to offer incense on the incense altar. 17 Azariah the priest and eighty other brave priests of the Lord followed him in. 18 They confronted[v] King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not proper for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord. That is the responsibility of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have disobeyed[w] and the Lord God will not honor you!” 19 Uzziah, who had an incense censer in his hand, became angry. While he was ranting and raving[x] at the priests, a skin disease[y] appeared on his forehead right there in front of the priests in the Lord’s temple near the incense altar. 20 When Azariah the high priest and the other priests looked at him, there was a skin disease on his forehead. They hurried him out of there; even the king[z] himself wanted to leave quickly because the Lord had afflicted him. 21 King Uzziah suffered from a skin disease until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters,[aa] afflicted by a skin disease and banned from the Lord’s temple. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.

22 The rest of the events of Uzziah’s reign, from start to finish, were recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.[ab] 23 Uzziah passed away[ac] and was buried near his ancestors[ad] in a cemetery[ae] belonging to the kings. (This was because he had a skin disease.)[af] His son Jotham replaced him as king.

Jotham’s Reign

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother[ag] was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. 2 He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done.[ah] (He did not, however, have the audacity to enter the temple.)[ai] Yet the people were still sinning.

3 He built the Upper Gate to the Lord’s temple and did a lot of work on the wall in the area known as Ophel.[aj] 4 He built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.

5 He launched a military campaign[ak] against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites paid him 100 talents[al] of silver, 10,000 cors[am] of wheat, and 10,000 cors[an] of barley. The Ammonites also paid this same amount of annual tribute the next two years.[ao]

6 Jotham grew powerful because he was determined to please the Lord his God.[ap] 7 The rest of the events of Jotham’s reign, including all his military campaigns and his accomplishments, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel and Judah.[aq] 8 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9 Jotham passed away[ar] and was buried in the City of David.[as] His son Ahaz replaced him as king.

Ahaz’s Reign

28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what pleased the Lord, in contrast to his ancestor David.[at] 2 He followed in the footsteps of[au] the kings of Israel; he also made images of the Baals. 3 He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire,[av] a horrible sin practiced by the nations[aw] whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

5 The Lord his God handed him over to the king of Syria. The Syrians[ax] defeated him and deported many captives to Damascus.[ay] He was also handed over to the king of Israel, who thoroughly defeated him.[az] 6 In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 warriors in Judah, because they had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors.[ba] 7 Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, Azrikam, the supervisor of the palace, and Elkanah, the king’s second-in-command. 8 The Israelites seized from their brothers 200,000 wives, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a huge amount of plunder and took it[bb] back to Samaria.

9 Oded, a prophet of the Lord, was there. He went to meet the army as they arrived in Samaria and said to them: “Look, because the Lord God of your ancestors was angry with Judah he handed them over to you. You have killed them so mercilessly that God has taken notice.[bc] 10 And now you are planning[bd] to enslave[be] the people[bf] of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the Lord your God? 11 Now listen to me! Send back those you have seized from your brothers, for the Lord is very angry at you!”[bg] 12 So some of[bh] the Ephraimite family leaders, Azariah son of Jehochanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jechizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai confronted[bi] those returning from the battle. 13 They said to them, “Don’t bring those captives here! Are you planning on making us even more sinful and guilty before the Lord?[bj] Our guilt is already great, and the Lord is very angry at Israel.”[bk] 14 So the soldiers released the captives and the plunder before the officials and the entire assembly. 15 Men were assigned to take the prisoners and find clothes among the plunder for those who were naked.[bl] So they clothed them, supplied them with sandals, gave them food and drink, and provided them with oil to rub on their skin.[bm] They put the ones who couldn’t walk on donkeys.[bn] They brought them back to their brothers at Jericho, the city of date palm trees, and then returned to Samaria.

16 At that time King Ahaz asked the king[bo] of Assyria for help. 17 The Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried off captives. 18 The Philistines had raided the cities of Judah in the foothills[bp] and the Negev.[bq] They captured and settled in Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its surrounding villages, Timnah and its surrounding villages, and Gimzo and its surrounding villages. 19 The Lord humiliated[br] Judah because of King Ahaz of Israel,[bs] for he encouraged Judah to sin and was very[bt] unfaithful to the Lord. 20 King Tiglath-Pileser[bu] of Assyria came, but he gave him more trouble than support.[bv] 21 Ahaz gathered riches[bw] from the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and the officials and gave them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help.

22 During his time of trouble King Ahaz was even more unfaithful to the Lord. 23 He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus whom he thought had defeated him.[bx] He reasoned,[by] “Since the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me.” But they caused him and all Israel to stumble. 24 Ahaz gathered the items in God’s temple and removed them. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and erected altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. 25 In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the Lord God of his ancestors.

26 The rest of the events of Ahaz’s reign, including his accomplishments from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel.[bz] 27 Ahaz passed away[ca] and was buried in the city of Jerusalem; they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah replaced him as king.

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 26:1 tn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 15:1-8 has the variant spelling “Azariah.”
  2. 2 Chronicles 26:2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Uzziah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. 2 Chronicles 26:2 tn Heb “after the king”; the referent (Amaziah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  4. 2 Chronicles 26:2 tn “slept with his fathers.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 26:4 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which Amaziah his father had done.”
  6. 2 Chronicles 26:5 tn Heb “sought.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 26:5 tn Heb “in the days of.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 26:5 tn Heb “in the days of his seeking.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 26:5 tn Or “prosper.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 26:6 tn Heb “went out and fought.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 26:6 tn Heb “in Ashdod and among the Philistines.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 26:7 tn The words “in his campaigns” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
  13. 2 Chronicles 26:8 tn Heb “and his name went to.”
  14. 2 Chronicles 26:9 tn On the meaning of the Hebrew word מִקְצוֹעַ (miqtsoaʿ), see HALOT 628 s.v. עַ(וֹ)מִקְצֹ. The term probably refers to an “angle” or “corner” somewhere on the eastern wall of Jerusalem.
  15. 2 Chronicles 26:10 sn The foothills (שְׁפֵלָה, shephelah) are the region between the Judean hill country and the Mediterranean coastal plain.
  16. 2 Chronicles 26:10 tn Heb “workers and vinedressers in the hills and in Carmel.” The words “he had” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  17. 2 Chronicles 26:10 tn Heb “for a lover of the ground he [was].”
  18. 2 Chronicles 26:13 tn Heb “help.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 26:15 tn Heb “and his name went out to a distant place, for he did extraordinarily to be helped until he was strong.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 26:16 tn Heb “his heart was high [i.e., proud] until to destroy.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 26:16 tn Or “was unfaithful to.”
  22. 2 Chronicles 26:18 tn Heb “stood against.”
  23. 2 Chronicles 26:18 tn Or “been unfaithful.”
  24. 2 Chronicles 26:19 tn Heb “angry.”
  25. 2 Chronicles 26:19 tn Traditionally “leprosy,” but this was probably a skin disorder of some type, not leprosy (technically known today as Hansen’s disease). See 2 Kgs 5:1.
  26. 2 Chronicles 26:20 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  27. 2 Chronicles 26:21 tn The precise meaning of בֵּית הַחָפְשִׁית (bet hakhofshit, “house of [?]”) is uncertain. NASB, NIV, NRSV all have “in a separate house”; NEB has “in his own house…relieved of all duties.” For a discussion of various proposals, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 166-67.
  28. 2 Chronicles 26:22 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Uzziah, the former and the latter, Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, recorded.”
  29. 2 Chronicles 26:23 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
  30. 2 Chronicles 26:23 tn Heb “fathers.”
  31. 2 Chronicles 26:23 tn Heb “a field of burial.”
  32. 2 Chronicles 26:23 tn Heb “for they said, ‘He had a skin disease.’”
  33. 2 Chronicles 27:1 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
  34. 2 Chronicles 27:2 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which Uzziah his father had done.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 27:2 tn Heb “except he did not enter the house of the Lord.”
  36. 2 Chronicles 27:3 tn Heb “wall of Ophel.” See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.
  37. 2 Chronicles 27:5 tn Heb “he fought with.”
  38. 2 Chronicles 27:5 tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).
  39. 2 Chronicles 27:5 sn As a unit of dry measure a cor was roughly equivalent to six bushels (about 220 liters).
  40. 2 Chronicles 27:5 tn Heb “10,000 cors of wheat and 10,000 of barley.” The unit of measure of the barley is omitted in the Hebrew text, but is understood to be “cors,” the same as the measures of wheat.
  41. 2 Chronicles 27:5 tn Heb “This the sons of Ammon brought to him, and in the second year and the third.”
  42. 2 Chronicles 27:6 tn Heb “because he established his ways before the Lord his God.”
  43. 2 Chronicles 27:7 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jotham, and his battles and his ways, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.”
  44. 2 Chronicles 27:9 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
  45. 2 Chronicles 27:9 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
  46. 2 Chronicles 28:1 tn Heb “and he did not do what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father.”
  47. 2 Chronicles 28:2 tn Heb “he walked in the ways of.”
  48. 2 Chronicles 28:3 sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice (NEB “burnt his sons in the fire”; NASB “burned his sons in the fire”; NIV “sacrificed his sons in the fire”; NRSV “made his sons pass through fire”). For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.
  49. 2 Chronicles 28:3 tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”
  50. 2 Chronicles 28:5 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Syrians) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  51. 2 Chronicles 28:5 tn Heb “and took captive from him a great captivity and brought [them] to Damascus.”
  52. 2 Chronicles 28:5 tn Heb “who struck him down with a great striking.”
  53. 2 Chronicles 28:6 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 25).
  54. 2 Chronicles 28:8 tn Heb “the loot.” The pronoun (“it”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
  55. 2 Chronicles 28:9 tn Heb “and you killed them with anger [that] reaches as far as heaven.”
  56. 2 Chronicles 28:10 tn Heb “saying.”
  57. 2 Chronicles 28:10 tn Heb “to enslave as male servants and female servants.”
  58. 2 Chronicles 28:10 tn Heb “sons.”
  59. 2 Chronicles 28:11 tn Heb “for the rage of the anger of the Lord is upon you.”
  60. 2 Chronicles 28:12 tn Heb “men from.”
  61. 2 Chronicles 28:12 tn Heb “arose against.”
  62. 2 Chronicles 28:13 tn Heb “for to the guilt of the Lord upon us you are saying to add to our sins and our guilty deeds.”
  63. 2 Chronicles 28:13 tn Heb “for great is [the] guilt to us and rage of anger is upon Israel.”
  64. 2 Chronicles 28:15 tn Heb “and the men who were designated by names arose and took the captives and all their naked ones they clothed from the loot.”
  65. 2 Chronicles 28:15 tn Heb “and poured oil on them.”
  66. 2 Chronicles 28:15 tn Heb “and they led them on donkeys, with respect to everyone stumbling.”
  67. 2 Chronicles 28:16 tc Most Hebrew mss read the plural, “kings,” but one Hebrew ms, the LXX and Vulgate read the singular “king.” Note the singular in v. 20.
  68. 2 Chronicles 28:18 sn The foothills (שְׁפֵלָה, shephelah) are the region between the Judean hill country and the Mediterranean coastal plain.
  69. 2 Chronicles 28:18 sn The Negev is an area of central, southern Judah, south of the hill country and Beer Sheba and west of the rift valley.
  70. 2 Chronicles 28:19 tn Or “subdued.”
  71. 2 Chronicles 28:19 sn That is, “of Judah.” Frequently in 2 Chronicles “Israel” is substituted for “Judah.”
  72. 2 Chronicles 28:19 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the cognate nominal form to emphasize the degree of Ahaz’s unfaithfulness.
  73. 2 Chronicles 28:20 tn Heb “Tilgath-Pilneser,” a variant spelling of Tiglath-Pileser.
  74. 2 Chronicles 28:20 tn Heb “and he caused him distress and did not strengthen him.”
  75. 2 Chronicles 28:21 tn Heb “divided up,” but some read חִלֵּץ (khillets, “despoiled”).
  76. 2 Chronicles 28:23 tn Heb “the gods of Damascus, the ones who had defeated him.” The words “he thought” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The perspective is that of Ahaz, not the narrator! Another option is that “the kings” has been accidentally omitted after “gods of.” See v. 23b.
  77. 2 Chronicles 28:23 tn Heb “said.”
  78. 2 Chronicles 28:26 tn Heb “As for the rest of his events, and all his ways, the former and the latter, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.”
  79. 2 Chronicles 28:27 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Romans 13

Submission to Civil Government

13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment,[a] and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 So the person who resists such authority[b] resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment 3 (for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation 4 because it is God’s servant for your well-being. But be afraid if you do wrong because government[c] does not bear the sword for nothing. It is God’s servant to administer punishment on the person who does wrong. 5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities[d] but also because of your conscience.[e] 6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities[f] are God’s servants devoted to governing.[g] 7 Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Exhortation to Love Neighbors

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments,[h] “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,”[i] (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[j] 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Motivation to Godly Conduct

11 And do this[k] because we know[l] the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers. 12 The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. 13 Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.[m]

Footnotes:

  1. Romans 13:1 tn Grk “by God.”
  2. Romans 13:2 tn Grk “the authority,” referring to the authority just described.
  3. Romans 13:4 tn Grk “it.”
  4. Romans 13:5 tn Grk “its wrath”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  5. Romans 13:5 tn Grk “because of (the) conscience,” but the English possessive “your” helps to show whose conscience the context implies.
  6. Romans 13:6 tn Grk “they”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  7. Romans 13:6 tn Grk “devoted to this very thing.”
  8. Romans 13:9 tn Grk “For the…” (with the word “commandments” supplied for clarity). The Greek article (“the”) is used here as a substantiver to introduce the commands that are quoted from the second half of the Decalogue (ExSyn 238).
  9. Romans 13:9 sn A quotation from Exod 20:13-15, 17; Deut 5:17-19, 21.
  10. Romans 13:9 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
  11. Romans 13:11 tn Grk “and this,” probably referring to the command to love (13:8-10); hence, “do” is implied from the previous verses.
  12. Romans 13:11 tn The participle εἰδότες (eidotes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
  13. Romans 13:14 tn Grk “make no provision for the flesh unto desires.”
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23[a]

A psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd,[b]
I lack nothing.[c]
2 He takes me to lush pastures,[d]
he leads me to refreshing water.[e]
3 He restores my strength.[f]
He leads me down[g] the right paths[h]
for the sake of his reputation.[i]
4 Even when I must walk through the darkest valley,[j]
I fear[k] no danger,[l]
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff reassure me.[m]
5 You prepare a feast before me[n]
in plain sight of my enemies.
You refresh[o] my head with oil;
my cup is completely full.[p]
6 Surely your goodness and faithfulness[q] will pursue[r] me all my days,[s]
and I will live in[t] the Lord’s house[u] for the rest of my life.[v]

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 23:1 sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.
  2. Psalm 23:1 sn The Lord is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the Lord is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.
  3. Psalm 23:1 tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the Lord as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.
  4. Psalm 23:2 tn Heb “he makes me lie down in lush pastures.” The Hiphil verb יַרְבִּיצֵנִי (yarbitseni) has a causative-modal nuance here (see IBHS 445-46 §27.5 on this use of the Hiphil), meaning “allows me to lie down” (see also Jer 33:12). The point is that the shepherd takes the sheep to lush pastures and lets them eat and rest there. Both imperfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing and highlight the psalmist’s typical experience.
  5. Psalm 23:2 tn Both genitives in v. 2 indicate an attribute of the noun they modify: דֶּשֶׁא (desheʾ) characterizes the pastures as “lush” (i.e., rich with vegetation), while מְנֻחוֹת (menukhot) probably characterizes the water as refreshing. In this case the plural indicates an abstract quality. Some take מְנֻחוֹת in the sense of “still, calm” (i.e., as describing calm pools in contrast to dangerous torrents), but it is unlikely that such a pastoral scene is in view. Shepherds usually watered their sheep at wells (see Gen 29:2-3; Exod 2:16-19). Another option is to take מְנֻחוֹת as “resting places” and to translate, “water of/at the resting places” (i.e., a genitive of location; see IBHS 147-48 §9.5.2e).sn Within the framework of the metaphor, the psalmist/sheep is declaring in v. 2 that his shepherd provides the essentials for physical life. At a deeper level the psalmist may be referring to more than just physical provision, though that would certainly be included.
  6. Psalm 23:3 tn The appearance of the Hebrew term נַפְשִׁי (nafshi), traditionally translated “my soul,” might suggest a spiritualized interpretation for the first line of v. 3. However, at the surface level of the shepherd/sheep metaphor, this is unlikely. When it occurs with a pronominal suffix נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v.נֶפֶשׁ 4.a). In this context, where the statement most naturally refers to the physical provision just described, the form is best translated simply “me.” The accompanying verb (a Polel form [factitive use] of שׁוּב [shuv]), if referring to the physical provision just described, carries the nuance “refresh, restore strength.”
  7. Psalm 23:3 tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 (יְשׁוֹבֵב [yeshovev] and יַנְחֵנִי [yankheni]), like those in vv. 1-2, highlight what is typical of the shepherd/sheep relationship.
  8. Psalm 23:3 tn The attributive genitive צֶדֶק (tsedeq) is traditionally translated “righteousness” here, as if designating a moral or ethical quality. But this seems unlikely, for it modifies מַעְגְּלֵי (maʿgele, “paths”). Within the shepherd/sheep metaphor, the phrase likely refers to “right” or “correct” paths, i.e., ones that lead to pastures, wells, or the fold. While צֶדֶק usually does carry a moral or ethical nuance, it can occasionally refer to less abstract things, such as weights and offerings. In this context, which emphasizes divine provision and protection, the underlying reality is probably God’s providential guidance. The psalmist is confident that God takes him down paths that will ultimately lead to something beneficial, not destructive.
  9. Psalm 23:3 tn The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the shepherd’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.) The statement לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ (lemaʿan shemo, “for the sake of his name”) makes excellent sense within the framework of the shepherd/sheep metaphor. Shepherds, who sometimes hired out their services, were undoubtedly concerned about their vocational reputation. To maintain their reputation as competent shepherds, they had to know the “lay of the land” and make sure they led the sheep down the right paths to the proper destinations. The underlying reality is a profound theological truth: God must look out for the best interests of the one he has promised to protect, because if he fails to do so, his faithfulness could legitimately be called into question and his reputation damaged.
  10. Psalm 23:4 tn The Hebrew term צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet) has traditionally been understood as a compound noun meaning “shadow of death” (צֵל [tsel] + מָוֶת [mavet]; see BDB 853 s.v. צַלְמָוֶת). Other scholars prefer to vocalize the form צָלְמוּת (tsalmut) and understand it as an abstract noun (from the root צָלַם, tsalam) meaning “darkness.” An examination of the word’s usage favors the latter derivation. It is frequently associated with darkness/night and contrasted with light/morning (see Job 3:5; 10:21-22; 12:22; 24:17; 28:3; 34:22; Ps 107:10, 14; Isa 9:1; Jer 13:16; Amos 5:8). In some cases the darkness described is associated with the realm of death (Job 10:21-22; 38:17), but this is a metaphorical application of the word and does not reflect its inherent meaning. If the word does indeed mean “darkness,” it modifies גַיְא (gayʾ, “valley, ravine”) quite naturally. At the metaphorical level, v. 4 pictures the shepherd taking his sheep through a dark ravine where predators might lurk. The life-threatening situations faced by the psalmist are the underlying reality behind the imagery.
  11. Psalm 23:4 tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 4, as in vv. 1-3, highlight what is typical in the psalmist’s experience.
  12. Psalm 23:4 tn The Hebrew term רָע (raʿ) is traditionally translated “evil” here, perhaps suggesting a moral or ethical nuance. But at the level of the metaphor, the word means “danger, injury, harm,” as a sheep might experience from a predator. The life-threatening dangers faced by the psalmist, especially the enemies mentioned in v. 5, are the underlying reality.
  13. Psalm 23:4 tn The Piel of נָחַם (nakham), when used with a human object, means “comfort, console.” But here, within the metaphorical framework, it refers to the way in which a shepherd uses his implements to assure the sheep of his presence and calm their nerves. The underlying reality is the emotional stability God provides the psalmist during life threatening situations.
  14. Psalm 23:5 sn In v. 5 the metaphor switches. (It would be very odd for a sheep to have its head anointed and be served wine.) The background for the imagery is probably the royal banquet. Ancient Near Eastern texts describe such banquets in similar terms to those employed by the psalmist. (See M. L. Barre and J. S. Kselman, “New Exodus, Covenant, and Restoration in Psalm 23, ” The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth, 97-127.) The reality behind the imagery is the Lord’s favor. Through his blessings and protection he demonstrates to everyone, including dangerous enemies, that the psalmist has a special relationship with him.
  15. Psalm 23:5 tn The imperfect verbal form in v. 5a carries on the generalizing mood of vv. 1-4. However, in v. 5b the psalmist switches to a perfect (דִּשַּׁנְתָּ, dishanta), which may have a generalizing force as well. But then again the perfect is conspicuous here and may be present perfect in sense, indicating that the divine host typically pours oil on his head prior to seating him at the banquet table. The verb דָשַׁן (dashan; the Piel is factitive) is often translated “anoint,” but this is misleading, for it might suggest a symbolic act of initiation into royal status. One would expect the verb מָשָׁח (mashan) in this case; דָשַׁן here describes an act of hospitality extended to guests and carries the nuance “refresh.” In Prov 15:30 it stands parallel to “make happy” and refers to the effect that good news has on the inner being of its recipient.
  16. Psalm 23:5 tn The rare noun רְוָיָה (revayah) is derived from the well-attested verb רָוָה (ravah, “be saturated, drink one’s fill”). In this context, where it describes a cup, it must mean “filled up,” but not necessarily to overflowing.
  17. Psalm 23:6 tn The noun חֶסֶד (khesed; v. 6) has been the subject of several monographs. G. R. Clark concludes that חֶסֶד “is not merely an attitude or an emotion; it is an emotion that leads to an activity beneficial to the recipient.” He explains that an act of חֶסֶד is “a beneficent action performed, in the context of a deep and enduring commitment between two persons or parties, by one who is able to render assistance to the needy party who in the circumstances is unable to help him- or herself.” (See G. R. Clark, The Word Hesed in the Hebrew Bible [JSOTSup], 267.) HALOT 336-37 s.v. defines the word as “loyalty,” or “faithfulness.” Other appropriate meanings might be “commitment” and “devotion.”
  18. Psalm 23:6 tn The use of רָדַף (radaf, “pursue, chase”) with טוֹב וָחֶסֶד (tov vakhesed, “goodness and faithfulness”) as subject is ironic. This is the only place in the entire OT where either of these nouns appears as the subject of this verb רָדַף (radaf, “pursue”). This verb is often used to describe the hostile actions of enemies. One might expect the psalmist’s enemies (see v. 5) to chase him, but ironically God’s “goodness and faithfulness” (which are personified and stand by metonymy for God himself) pursue him instead. The word “pursue” is used outside of its normal context in an ironic manner and creates a unique, but pleasant word picture of God’s favor (or a kind God) “chasing down” the one whom he loves.
  19. Psalm 23:6 tn Heb “all the days of my life.”
  20. Psalm 23:6 tn The verb form וְשַׁבְתִּי (veshavti) is a Qal perfect (with vav [ו] consecutive), first common singular, from שׁוּב (shuv, “return”) and should be translated, “and I will return.” But this makes no sense when construed with the following phrase, “in the house of the Lord.” The term שׁוּב (shuv) appears only here with the following phrase בְּבֵית (bevet). The form should be emended to וְשִׁבְתִּי (veshivti; an infinitive construct from יָשַׁב [yashav, “live”] with pronominal suffix) or to וְיָשַׁבְתִּי (veyashavti; a Qal perfect with vav [ו] consecutive, first common singular, from ישׁב [see BHS, note c]). In either case one could then translate, “and I will live [in the house of the Lord].” The phrase “in the house” frequently follows the verb יָשַׁב in the OT.
  21. Psalm 23:6 tn Heb “the house of the Lord.” The phrase may be purely metaphorical here, referring to the royal palace where the royal host of v. 5 holds his banquet and lives. If one takes the phrase more literally, it would refer to the earthly tabernacle (if one accepts Davidic authorship) or the later temple (see Judg 19:18; 1 Sam 1:7, 24; 2 Sam 12:20; 1 Kgs 7:12, 40, 45, 51).
  22. Psalm 23:6 tn The phrase אֹרֶךְ יָמִים (ʾorekh yamim, “length of days”) is traditionally translated “forever.” However, this phrase, when used elsewhere of people, usually refers to a lengthy period of time, such as one’s lifetime, and does not mean “forever” in the sense of eternity. (Cf. Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20.) Furthermore, the parallel phrase “all the days of my life” suggests this more limited meaning. Psalm 21:4, where the phrase is followed by “forever and ever,” may be an exception, though the juxtaposition of the phrases may be an example of intensification, where the second phrase goes beyond the limits of the first, rather than synonymity. Even if one takes both expressions as referring to eternal life, the language is part of the king’s hyperbolic description of the Lord’s blessings and should not be taken literally.
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Proverbs 20:11

11 Even a young man[a] is known[b] by his actions,
whether his activity is pure and whether it is right.[c]

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 20:11 sn In the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs the Hebrew term נַעַר (naʿar) referred to an adolescent, a young person whose character was being formed in his early life.
  2. Proverbs 20:11 sn The Hebrew verb נָכַר (nakhar) means “to recognize” more than simply “to know.” Certain character traits can be recognized in a child by what he does (cf. NCV “by their behavior”).
  3. Proverbs 20:11 sn Character is demonstrated by actions at any age. But the emphasis of the book of Proverbs would also be that if the young child begins to show such actions, then the parents must try to foster and cultivate them; if not, they must try to develop them through teaching and discipline.
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

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7/28/2023 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21, Romans 11:13-36, Psalm 22:1-18, Proverbs 20:7

Today is the 28th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy to be around the Global Campfire another day, as we take another step forward on our journey through the Scriptures. Right now, we’re navigating…navigating our way through Second Chronicles in the Old Testament and Paul’s letter to the Romans in the new. And we’ll obviously continue the journey until we reach new territory. But for now, that’s where we are. And so, let’s dive in, today Second Chronicles chapters 21, 22 and 23.

Commentary:

Okay, listen to these words that we read from our reading in the Psalms today, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish. My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Those aren’t particularly comforting words, but I find comfort in them because I’ve had experiences in my life that felt like that and we’re reading it out of the Bible and it’s comforting to know, I’m or we’re not the only one who has felt that way. This Psalm was written by David a King, the king of Israel, even kings have this experience. Words from this Psalm were spoken by Jesus hanging from across. So, if those words resonate in any sort of way, and You’ve had a similar experience, you’re not alone. What that feels like was captured and memorialized in the Bible. So, from the Bible, we’ve, we learn a lot about David and his life. And so, we know he was a musician, very skilled, he was a poet. So, he often turned to music that, as a way to get it out, to express, to release, what’s going on inside. But Psalm 22 is not particularly happy song, it simply captures the raw expression from David of what was happening inside of his, inside of himself in his mind, in his heart. A lot of the time we try to sidestep those things for lots of reasons, we don’t want to be honest and tell the truth about what’s happening inside of us, because we don’t want to seem sacrilegious, or we stuff things down inside and try to cover them over with other things. We’ll turn to comfort food to bring comfort or binge-watching television, just anything that we think will bring comfort and distraction from what’s really happening inside. And let’s just remember, David’s the king, he has no shortage of things to distract him, and he has the best distractions that are available. David turned to music to articulate and name his feelings, what was going on and that’s powerful because when we can name it, when we can say what it is, we can see it because it’s in the light. It’s not this nebulous, just anxiety that’s just in there and when our habit is just distraction, then what’s going on inside just continues to build up and accumulate until…until that there’s so much going on that we can even unravel it anymore. It’s just unnamed anxiety that lives in our guts, twisting us into a ball which just leads us into more confusion, rather than bringing clarity. So, maybe we try what’s being modeled by David. Maybe we write it down right down, write down what’s heavy inside of us right now. Maybe if we play music, we…we do it to music. Name what’s going on for what it is and be as honest as what we read in the Bible from the Psalms. We don’t have to be afraid of honesty. David wasn’t, God isn’t, it’s in the Bible. David says, you brought me out of the womb, you made me trust you, even at my mother’s breast, from birth I was cast on You, from my mother’s womb You have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. That’s pretty raw, that’s pretty honest and that is most certainly a quotation from the Bible. So, if this is a difficult season and feels like it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, be honest about that. Write it down, name it, name what’s happening, say what it feels like, see it for what it is, in the presence of God, bring it before God. What we’re reading, that is so raw from the Psalms today, is spoken to God. Honesty is honesty, and honesty is more true than distraction. Distractions don’t fix things. They kick the can down the road, so that more things can accumulate and the problems worse. So, if we’re feeling overwhelmed, and trust me I know what that feels like. If we’re feeling helpless, I know what that feels like. If we’re feeling hopeless, whatever it is that we are walking through, face it, name it, bring it to God, turn it into worship. That’s what we’re watching the psalmist David do. Worship is certainly a joyous and happy thing, but it is also for the lowest of the low times when we can’t even make a sentence make sense. God will understand that sentence, and we will find God in our honesty, and we may find profound relief in getting it out and giving it to the only one who can help.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You, we thank You that You have invited us into a life that is true. We’ve watched this in the Gospels. We’ve seen it modeled in the life of Jesus, we are invited to be who we were created to be, and at times things get twisted inside of us and we do all kinds of things to not deal with them. And what we’re seeing in the Psalms today is that we can be honest with what’s going on and that, in and of itself, is a comfort that we can be honest about where we are knowing that this is not the end of the story. This is just where we are at the moment and we name it and we confess it and we bring it to you and we ask for your help, knowing that you will help, that you will not leave us or forsake us. And so, come Holy Spirit into the struggles of our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that’s the website, that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. And you can put that in the palm of your hand and a lot more by downloading the Daily Audio Bible app, it’s free and you can download it from…from the App Store that works with your device. So, check that out. Check out the different sections like the Community Section. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. This is where the different links to get connected on social media are, so check that out.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if bringing the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anybody, anywhere, anytime, is meaningful and life-giving and if building community around this rhythm of showing up every day is meaningful, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, beautiful family. This is Prisoner of Hope. I am just driving into work and on my commute. I decided to call in for a couple of people. CeCe from North Carolina, you called in to give praise for your husband coming to the Lord after six years. And that is a long time, you said it was a long time, it is long. It is, I’m glad it wasn’t any longer. And I thank You Lord, that You’ve saved her husband, that You’ve called him into an eternal relationship with You, that he would be blessed by You. And I pray for those in our community who don’t have saved spouses, such as myself. And we’ve been praying for many, many years ourselves. And I pray that You would call them as well. Draw them in, enable them to come to know You Lord. Please don’t make us wait any longer, Lord. But would You please call our spouses into a eternal relationship with You. That they would decide to follow Jesus, all the days of their life. Carpam Diem Driver, I am just so blessed by you. You’re always calling in and saying you want to have the Lord help you so that you can bless others and glorify Him. You are already doing that, you are already glorifying God and you are already blessing this community. So, while you can ask that God continues to do that, I mean, He’s already doing it. And I hope you recognize that. I hope you that you realize there’s nothing that you need from Him to glorify Him in the way that you do. But with that said, I still lift you up, Carpam Diem Driver. I’m asking if, Lord Jesus, that You would please deliver him from the obstacles in his life, for things that just keep being thrown at him, Lord. He feels like he is against, up against the world. Lord, we know that You are for us, Your word says if God is for us, who can be against us. He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things. We ask for You to do that in Carpam Diem’s life and in our lives. In the precious name of Jesus and powerful name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello, my DAB family. This is Jamie in New Jersey, Standing on the Word of God. I humbly ask you to please pray with me. Dear Father in Heaven, words can never express our deep gratitude but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We are so undeserving of Your grace and mercy, not just for salvation but for every day. Father, we ask that You soften our hearts to think more of others than we do of ourselves. Help us to put into order our priorities in life. You see every joy and difficulty and You love us through it all. Give us the grace today not to store up things for ourselves, where moth and decay can destroy or thieves break in and steal, but to gather up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, or thieves break in and steal. Allow us the grace today to desire a relationship with You above all earthly things. By Your grace, we ask that You help us to be strong and courageous in the face of adversity. Strengthen us Father to uphold all people with the love that You have received, we have received from You. May Your love be our strength and Your peace fill our hearts. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for praying along with me, my brothers and sisters. I love you all dearly. Have a good night.

Hi, Daily Audio Bible family. I hope you’re all having a God blessed day, night, whenever you’re all listening to this. And so, I want to give an update to the situation that I called in to the Daily Audio Bible Family here about. Which I left on June 18th which was Father’s Day. Where I talked about how my mom had sustained a business for almost 20 years but unfortunately passed away from stage 4 brain cancer. And how my cousin had tooken up on the business that my mom had started and how my grandma had passed away recently and then how my cousin had ended up in the hospital and how our family is struggling in finances. And how my dad’s in Kansas and won’t be able to help out much. And so, good thing, my cousins been out of the hospital for a couple weeks now. She got out either ever since July 3rd of July 4th. So, hallelujah to that. But yeah, if ya’ll could please keep praying for our financial situation. We were, thankfully, able to make it through this month by the grace of God. And so, please keep praying for us. And so, thankfully, we’re still going through some trials and tribulations but again, God always gets us through the trials and tribulations. You know this really reminds me of how you know like, Jesus you know, when he slept on the boat you know, in the middle of a storm. And how, you know the disciples were panicking and you know, you know Jesus rebuked the wind. You know, it’s just, you know, God’s gonna help get us through. But yeah, if ya’ll could please pray for us with the financial situation, that God would provide us with the exact finances that we need, to just simply get on by. That would certainly greatly be appreciated. God bless ya’ll. Thank ya’ll so much and please stay encouraged. And please pray for me to stay encouraged as well. God bless ya’ll. Peace.

Today is July 25th, why does that sound special? Oh, it’s Ezekiel’s 11th birthday. Happy Birthday Ezekiel. You are wonderful. I listen to you, even though I’m not a little kid. I’m a grown-up kid. I so love listening to you. You speak so clearly; you have inflection in your voice, and you bring the word of God to all of us. And I thank you for that. And I can’t say Happy Birthday enough. I love you. Happy Birthday Ezekiel. Happy Birthday Zeekee, and byyyyyyyyyyeee. It’s Jersy Jane for Jesus. God bless, God bless everyone in the DAB community.

Posted on

07/29/2023 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28, Romans 12:1-21, Psalms 22:19-31, Proverbs 20:8-10

Today is the 29th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here around the Global Campfire together with you as we bring another of the weeks that we get to share together to a close. And we’re bringing a week to a close, but we’re right here at the end of a month as well. So, we have some endings and some beginnings in front of us and that seems to be the nature of life. So, let’s step forward together. Our next step forward in the Scriptures leads us back in the book of second Chronicles. And today second Chronicles chapters 24 and 25.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You. We thank You deeply, sincerely from the bottom of our hearts. From a full heart we thank You for Your word and the guidance that it provides to our lives, the way that it orients our lives to move in a certain direction. And that direction is in Your presence. And we are grateful. And we take to heart what we were learning from the apostle Paul in Romans today about living love in action in our lives. And, so, along with the Scriptures we ask Holy Spirit, come help us to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Help us to be devoted to one another in love and to honor one another above ourselves, to not be so self-absorbed and self-focused. We pray that we would not be lacking in zeal, but that our spiritual fervor would be ignited by serving You. May we be joyful in hope. Holy Spirit, come and help us be patient in affliction. Help us be faithful in prayer. May we be observant and share with all of Your people, our brothers and sisters, those who are in need. Help us Father to bless those who persecute us, to bless and not curse, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to mourn with those who mourn, to live in harmony with one another other. Father, You have given us guidance. You have given us the path that will lead to peace not only in our own hearts but in this world. You have given us what we need and we have not been wise. Holy Spirit, come and make us wise. Bring the words from the Scriptures that we immerse ourselves in each day back to mind as we make the choices that we make. We need You. We need You now. We need You five minutes from now. We need You at every moment of our lives. And to that need You’ve simply said, okay, here I am, I am here. And yet we ignore Your presence so often to our own peril. And, so, come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that is home. Like I say every day. That is home base, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app is connected to home as well, and that puts everything from the web and a lot more in the palm of your hand. So, check that out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We have these new Daily Audio Bible Kids shirts that we have talked about, the By-E shirts and those can be found in the lifestyle section of the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check those out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then thank you humbly. Thank you. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible it is the 25th of July and it’s Ezekiel ’s birthday. I heard Brian telling the story of how Ezekiel came into the world. I was not a member of Daily Audio Bible at that time. I was reading the Daily Bible from 1986. When I encountered the printed page it changed my life. Now I’m a part of this community and Ezekiel has come into my life and the life of each one of us and has changed us in such an awesome way. He’s not only ministering to kids but he’s ministering to each one of us as adults. The lines of the younger ones are ministering to us. And, so, I just want to thank God for Ezekiel’s life. I’m going to pray for You Ezekiel now. And Ezekiel I’m praying for You that God will continue to use You in a mighty way. Obviously, He had…he’s had his hand on Your life from the time You were in Jill’s womb and You’re here and You’re making a tremendous blessing a tremendous difference, pardon me, in the lives of so many people. Father, we pray for Ezekiel that You’ll continue to use him mightily. We pray Lord God that the plans and the purposes that You have for his life will be fully operationalized as he goes through his life and that he will be a blessing to his mom and dad and that he would be a blessing to the next generation as we obviously see that he is already. We bless him, we bless him, and we bless him mightily in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello, my name is Shirley. I live in North Carolina. I live and work at a Christian campus and I’m blessed with that. I have…my husband and I have five grandchildren, fourteen grandchildren and three great grandchildren. I’m one of the introverts that just listening in the background but do pray for each prayer request. Father, bless this DABbing community and thank You Father for allowing me to be a part of it. Thank You, Lord in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey good morning this is Gift of God calling in. Just want to wish Ezekiel a wonderful happy birthday. Ezekiel we just adore listening to you read the Bible and your prayers, I tell you, are awesome. You are really maturing in the word of God and we just love listening, my granddaughter. Just wanted to say happy birthday and By-E.

Hey DAB family it’s your sister Ashley from California. Today is July 25th. I called in this last weekend to ask for prayer for my son Jackson and I. Jackson has T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and he is finishing up the fourth phase of chemo. His counts were very low, a zero in fact and if a fever popped up we would be admitted. Well, it did and we’ve been here since Thursday night. But I want to come on here to say a couple of other things. One, what a good God that we have the technology to access his word and a biblical community like this. It’s truly a blessing. I’m grateful for it during these hospital stays. And the second thing is is that God’s word is alive and active. The past couple of days from Romans 8 and Psalm 19 blessed my socks off. To know that my job is to believe, trust, and obey when challenges come because there’s nothing that’s separates us from Christ’s love. And when we’re lost, being in the word is more precious than anything. Trusting and obeying leads us to wholeness and it brings us to what we need. So, I just want to say thank you Brian for your faithful teaching and for leading and guiding us and I just want to say thank you DAB family for being a part of my life. I love you and I’m praying with you and for you all. Alright. Bye.

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday July 29, 2023 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 24-25

Joash’s Reign

24 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign. He reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother[a] was Zibiah, who was from Beer Sheba. 2 Joash did what the Lord approved[b] throughout the lifetime[c] of Jehoiada the priest. 3 Jehoiada chose two wives for him who gave him sons and daughters.

4 Later, Joash was determined to repair the Lord’s temple.[d] 5 He assembled the priests and Levites and ordered them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect the annual quota of silver from all Israel for repairs on the temple of your God. Be quick about it!” But the Levites delayed.

6 So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest,[e] and said to him, “Why have you not made[f] the Levites collect[g] from Judah and Jerusalem the tax authorized by Moses the Lord’s servant and by the assembly of Israel at the tent containing the tablets of the law?”[h] 7 (Wicked Athaliah and her sons had broken into God’s temple and used all the holy items of the Lord’s temple in their worship of the Baals.) 8 The king ordered a chest to be made and placed outside the gate of the Lord’s temple.[i] 9 An edict was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem requiring the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses, God’s servant, imposed on Israel in the wilderness.[j] 10 All the officials and all the people gladly brought their silver and threw it into the chest until it was full. 11 Whenever the Levites brought the chest to the royal accountant and they saw there was a lot of silver, the royal scribe and the accountant of the high priest emptied the chest and then took it back to its place. They went through this routine every day and collected a large amount of silver.

12 The king and Jehoiada gave it to the construction foremen[k] assigned to the Lord’s temple. They hired carpenters and craftsmen to repair the Lord’s temple, as well as those skilled in working with iron and bronze to restore the Lord’s temple. 13 They worked hard and made the repairs.[l] They followed the measurements specified for God’s temple and restored it.[m] 14 When they were finished, they brought the rest of the silver to the king and Jehoiada. They used it to make items for the Lord’s temple, including items used in the temple service and for burnt sacrifices, pans, and various other gold and silver items. Throughout Jehoiada’s lifetime, burnt sacrifices were offered regularly in the Lord’s temple.

15 Jehoiada grew old and died at the age of 130. 16 He was buried in the City of David[n] with the kings, because he had accomplished good in Israel and for God and his temple.

17 After Jehoiada died, the officials of Judah visited the king and declared their loyalty to him.[o] The king listened to their advice.[p] 18 They abandoned the temple of the Lord God of their ancestors[q] and worshiped[r] the Asherah poles and idols. Because of this sinful activity, God was angry with Judah and Jerusalem. 19 The Lord sent prophets among them to lead them back to him.[s] They warned[t] the people, but they would not pay attention. 20 God’s Spirit energized[u] Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why are you violating the commands of the Lord? You will not be prosperous. Because you have rejected the Lord, he has rejected you!’” 21 They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. 22 King Joash disregarded[v] the loyalty Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him and killed Jehoiada’s[w] son. As Zechariah[x] was dying, he said, “May the Lord take notice and seek vengeance!”[y]

23 At the beginning[z] of the year the Syrian army attacked[aa] Joash[ab] and invaded Judah and Jerusalem. They wiped out all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder they gathered to the king of Damascus. 24 Even though the invading Syrian army was relatively weak, the Lord handed over to them Judah’s very large army,[ac] for the people of Judah[ad] had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors. The Syrians[ae] gave Joash what he deserved.[af] 25 When they withdrew, they left Joash[ag] badly wounded. His servants plotted against him because of what he had done to[ah] the son[ai] of Jehoiada the priest. They murdered him on his bed. Thus[aj] he died and was buried in the City of David,[ak] but not in the tombs of the kings. 26 The conspirators were Zabad son of Shimeath (an Ammonite woman) and Jehozabad son of Shimrith (a Moabite woman).

27 The list of Joash’s[al] sons, the many prophetic oracles about him, and the account of his building project on God’s temple are included in the record of the Scroll of the Kings.[am] His son Amaziah replaced him as king.

Amaziah’s Reign

25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother[an] was Jehoaddan, who was from Jerusalem. 2 He did what the Lord approved,[ao] but not with wholehearted devotion.[ap]

3 When he had secured control of the kingdom,[aq] he executed the servants who had assassinated his father the king. 4 However, he did not execute their sons. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses,[ar] “Fathers must not be executed for what their sons do,[as] and sons must not be executed for what their fathers do.[at] A man must be executed only for his own sin.”[au]

5 Amaziah assembled the people of Judah[av] and assigned them by families to the commanders of units of 1,000 and the commanders of units of 100 for all Judah and Benjamin. He counted those twenty years old and up and discovered there were 300,000 young men of fighting age[aw] equipped with spears and shields.[ax] 6 He hired 100,000 Israelite warriors for 100 talents[ay] of silver.

7 But a prophet[az] visited him and said: “O king, the Israelite troops must not go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel or any of the Ephraimites.[ba] 8 Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will defeat you[bb] before the enemy. God is capable of helping or defeating.”[bc] 9 Amaziah asked the prophet:[bd] “But what should I do about the 100 talents of silver I paid the Israelite troops?” The prophet[be] replied, “The Lord is capable of giving you more than that.” 10 So Amaziah dismissed the troops that had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home.[bf] They were very angry at Judah and returned home incensed. 11 Amaziah boldly led his army to the Valley of Salt,[bg] where he defeated[bh] 10,000 Edomites.[bi] 12 The men[bj] of Judah captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff and threw them over.[bk] All the captives[bl] fell to their death.[bm] 13 Now the troops Amaziah had dismissed and had not allowed to fight in the battle[bn] raided[bo] the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed[bp] 3,000 people and carried off a large amount of plunder.

14 When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people[bq] of Seir and made them his personal gods.[br] He bowed down before them and offered them sacrifices. 15 The Lord was angry at Amaziah and sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why are you following[bs] these gods[bt] that could not deliver their own people from your power?”[bu] 16 While he was speaking, Amaziah[bv] said to him, “Did we appoint you to be a royal counselor? Stop prophesying or else you will be killed!”[bw] So the prophet stopped, but added, “I know that God has decided[bx] to destroy you, because you have done this thing and refused to listen to my advice.”

17 After King Amaziah of Judah consulted with his advisers,[by] he sent this message to the king of Israel, Joash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, “Come, face me on the battlefield.”[bz] 18 King Joash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thorn bush in Lebanon sent this message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal of Lebanon came by and trampled down the thorn bush.[ca] 19 You defeated Edom[cb] and it has gone to your head.[cc] Gloat over your success,[cd] but stay in your palace. Why bring calamity on yourself? Why bring down yourself and Judah along with you?”[ce]

20 But Amaziah did not heed the warning,[cf] for God wanted to hand them over to Joash because they followed the gods of Edom.[cg] 21 So King Joash of Israel attacked. He and King Amaziah of Judah faced each other on the battlefield[ch] in Beth Shemesh of Judah. 22 Judah was defeated by Israel, and each man ran back home.[ci] 23 King Joash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Joash son of Jehoahaz, in Beth Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem. He broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate—a distance of about 600 feet.[cj] 24 He took away all the gold and silver, all the items found in God’s temple that were in the care of Obed-Edom, the riches in the royal palace, and some hostages. Then he went back to Samaria.

25 King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of King Joash son of Jehoahaz of Israel. 26 The rest of the events of Amaziah’s reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel.[ck] 27 From the time Amaziah turned from following the Lord, conspirators plotted against him in Jerusalem,[cl] so he fled to Lachish. But they sent assassins after him[cm] and they killed him there. 28 His body was carried back by horses,[cn] and he was buried with his ancestors[co] in the City of David.[cp]

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 24:1 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
  2. 2 Chronicles 24:2 tn Heb “and Joash did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord.”
  3. 2 Chronicles 24:2 tn Heb “all the days of.”
  4. 2 Chronicles 24:4 tn Heb “and it was, later, there was with the heart of Joash to repair the house of the Lord.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 24:6 tn Heb “Jehoiada the head”; the word “priest” not in the Hebrew text but is implied.
  6. 2 Chronicles 24:6 tn Heb “demanded of.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 24:6 tn Heb “to bring.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 24:6 tn Heb “the tent of testimony.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 24:8 tn Heb “and the king said [it] and they made a chest and placed it in the gate of the house of the Lord outside.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 24:9 tn Heb “and they gave voice in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord the tax of Moses the servant of God upon Israel in the wilderness.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 24:12 tn Heb “doers of the work.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 24:13 tn Heb “and the doers of the work worked, and the repairs went up for the work by their hand.”
  13. 2 Chronicles 24:13 tn Heb “and they caused the house of God to stand according to its measurements and they strengthened it.”
  14. 2 Chronicles 24:16 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
  15. 2 Chronicles 24:17 tn Heb “came and bowed down to the king.”
  16. 2 Chronicles 24:17 tn Heb “to them.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 24:18 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 24).
  18. 2 Chronicles 24:18 tn Heb “served.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 24:19 tn Heb “and he sent among them prophets to bring them back to the Lord.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 24:19 tn Heb “testified among.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 24:20 tn Heb “clothed.”
  22. 2 Chronicles 24:22 tn Heb “did not remember.”
  23. 2 Chronicles 24:22 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  24. 2 Chronicles 24:22 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Zechariah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  25. 2 Chronicles 24:22 tn Heb “and seek [—].” The direct object of “seek” is omitted in the Hebrew text but implied; “vengeance” is supplied for clarification.
  26. 2 Chronicles 24:23 tn Heb “turning.”
  27. 2 Chronicles 24:23 tn Heb “went up against.”
  28. 2 Chronicles 24:23 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joash) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  29. 2 Chronicles 24:24 tn Heb “though with a small amount of men the army of Aram came, the Lord gave into their hand an army [that was] very large.”
  30. 2 Chronicles 24:24 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people of Judah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  31. 2 Chronicles 24:24 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Syrians) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  32. 2 Chronicles 24:24 tn Heb “executed judgments on Joash.”
  33. 2 Chronicles 24:25 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joash) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  34. 2 Chronicles 24:25 tn Heb “because of the shed blood of.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 24:25 tc The MT has the plural בְּנֵי (bene, “sons”), but the final yod is dittographic. Note the yod that immediately follows.
  36. 2 Chronicles 24:25 tn Heb “and he died.”
  37. 2 Chronicles 24:25 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
  38. 2 Chronicles 24:27 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joash) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  39. 2 Chronicles 24:27 tn Heb “and the founding of the house of God, look, they are written on the writing of the scroll of the kings?”
  40. 2 Chronicles 25:1 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
  41. 2 Chronicles 25:2 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord.”
  42. 2 Chronicles 25:2 tn Heb “a complete heart.”
  43. 2 Chronicles 25:3 tn Heb “when the kingdom was secure upon him.”
  44. 2 Chronicles 25:4 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the Lord commanded, saying.”
  45. 2 Chronicles 25:4 tn Heb “on account of sons.”
  46. 2 Chronicles 25:4 tn Heb “on account of fathers.”
  47. 2 Chronicles 25:4 sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.
  48. 2 Chronicles 25:5 tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy here for the people of Judah.
  49. 2 Chronicles 25:5 tn Heb “young men going out to war.”
  50. 2 Chronicles 25:5 tn Heb “holding a spear and a shield.”
  51. 2 Chronicles 25:6 tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).
  52. 2 Chronicles 25:7 tn Heb “man of God.”
  53. 2 Chronicles 25:7 tn Heb “Israel, all the sons of Ephraim.”
  54. 2 Chronicles 25:8 tn Heb “cause you to stumble.”
  55. 2 Chronicles 25:8 tn Heb “to cause to stumble.”
  56. 2 Chronicles 25:9 tn Heb “said to the man of God.”
  57. 2 Chronicles 25:9 tn Heb “man of God.”
  58. 2 Chronicles 25:10 tn Heb “and Amaziah separated them, the troops who came to him from Ephraim, to go to their place.”
  59. 2 Chronicles 25:11 tn Heb “and Amaziah strengthened himself and led his people and went to the Valley of Salt.”
  60. 2 Chronicles 25:11 tn Or “struck down.”
  61. 2 Chronicles 25:11 tn Heb “sons of Seir.”
  62. 2 Chronicles 25:12 tn Heb “sons.”
  63. 2 Chronicles 25:12 tn Heb “and threw them from the top of the cliff.”
  64. 2 Chronicles 25:12 tn Heb “all of them.”
  65. 2 Chronicles 25:12 tn Heb “smashed in pieces.”
  66. 2 Chronicles 25:13 tn Heb “had sent back from going with him to the battle.”
  67. 2 Chronicles 25:13 tn Heb “stripped.”
  68. 2 Chronicles 25:13 tn Heb “struck down.”
  69. 2 Chronicles 25:14 tn Heb “sons.”
  70. 2 Chronicles 25:14 tn Heb “caused them to stand for him as gods.”
  71. 2 Chronicles 25:15 tn Heb “seeking,” perhaps in the sense of “consulting [an oracle from].”
  72. 2 Chronicles 25:15 tn Heb “the gods of the people.”
  73. 2 Chronicles 25:15 tn Heb “hand.”
  74. 2 Chronicles 25:16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Amaziah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  75. 2 Chronicles 25:16 tn Heb “Stop yourself! Why should they strike you down?”
  76. 2 Chronicles 25:16 tn The verb יָעַץ (yaʿats, “has decided”) is from the same root as יוֹעֵץ (yoʿets, “counselor”) in v. 16 and עֵצָה (ʿetsah, “advice”) later in v. 16. The wordplay highlights the appropriate nature of the divine punishment. Amaziah rejected the counsel of God’s prophet; now he would be the victim of God’s “counsel.”
  77. 2 Chronicles 25:17 tn The words “with his advisers” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  78. 2 Chronicles 25:17 tn Heb “let us look at each other [in the] face.” The expression refers here not to a visit but to meeting in battle. See v. 21.
  79. 2 Chronicles 25:18 sn The thorn bush in the allegory is Judah. Amaziah’s success had deceived him into thinking he was on the same level as the major powers in the area (symbolized by the cedar). In reality he was not capable of withstanding an attack by a real military power such as Israel (symbolized by the wild animal).
  80. 2 Chronicles 25:19 tn Heb “you say [to yourself], ‘look, you have defeated Edom.’”
  81. 2 Chronicles 25:19 tn Heb “and your heart is lifted up.”
  82. 2 Chronicles 25:19 tn Heb “to glorify.”
  83. 2 Chronicles 25:19 tn Heb “Why get involved in calamity and fall, you and Judah with you?”
  84. 2 Chronicles 25:20 tn Heb “did not listen.”
  85. 2 Chronicles 25:20 tn Heb “because it was from God in order to give them into the hand because they sought the gods of Edom.”
  86. 2 Chronicles 25:21 tn Heb “looked at each other [in the] face.” See the note on the expression “Come on, face me on the battlefield” in v. 17.
  87. 2 Chronicles 25:22 tn Heb “and Judah was struck down before Israel and they fled, each to his tent.”
  88. 2 Chronicles 25:23 tn Heb “400 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the distance would have been about 600 feet (180 m).
  89. 2 Chronicles 25:26 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Amaziah, the former and the latter, are they not—behold, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.”
  90. 2 Chronicles 25:27 tn Heb “and they conspired against him [with] a conspiracy in Jerusalem.”
  91. 2 Chronicles 25:27 tn Heb “and they sent after him to Lachish.”
  92. 2 Chronicles 25:28 tn Heb “and they carried him on horses.”
  93. 2 Chronicles 25:28 tn Heb “fathers.”
  94. 2 Chronicles 25:28 tc The Hebrew text has “Judah,” but some medieval mss read “David,” as does the parallel passage in 2 Kgs 14:20.sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
New English Translation (NET)

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Romans 12

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God[b]—which is your reasonable service. 2 Do not be conformed[c] to this present world,[d] but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve[e] what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Conduct in Humility

3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you[f] a measure of faith.[g] 4 For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, 5 so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. 6 And we have different gifts[h] according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.[i] 7 If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; 8 if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.

Conduct in Love

9 Love must be[j] without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.[k] Do not be conceited.[l] 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people.[m] 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.[n] 19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath,[o] for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,”[p] says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.[q] 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Footnotes:

  1. Romans 12:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
  2. Romans 12:1 tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.sn Taken as predicate adjectives, the terms alive, holy, and pleasing are showing how unusual is the sacrifice that believers can now offer, for OT sacrifices were dead. As has often been quipped about this text, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.”
  3. Romans 12:2 tn Although συσχηματίζεσθε (suschēmatizesthe) could be either a passive or middle, the passive is more likely since it would otherwise have to be a direct middle (“conform yourselves”) and, as such, would be quite rare for NT Greek. It is very telling that being “conformed” to the present world is viewed as a passive notion, for it may suggest that it happens, in part, subconsciously. At the same time, the passive could well be a “permissive passive,” suggesting that there may be some consciousness of the conformity taking place. Most likely, it is a combination of both.
  4. Romans 12:2 tn Grk “to this age.”
  5. Romans 12:2 sn The verb translated test and approve (δοκιμάζω, dokimazō) carries the sense of “test with a positive outcome,” “test so as to approve.”
  6. Romans 12:3 tn The words “of you” have been supplied for clarity.
  7. Romans 12:3 tn Or “to each as God has distributed a measure of faith.”
  8. Romans 12:6 tn This word comes from the same root as “grace” in the following clause; it means “things graciously given,” “grace-gifts.”
  9. Romans 12:6 tn The last part of this verse has no verb; either an indicative or imperative is implied. Most likely an imperative is intended because of the general tenor of this section of the epistle as exhortation and because of the particular flow of this verse, which seems to imply how to use spiritual gifts.
  10. Romans 12:9 tn The verb “must be” is understood in the Greek text.
  11. Romans 12:16 tn Or “but give yourselves to menial tasks.” The translation depends on whether one takes the adjective “lowly” as masculine or neuter.
  12. Romans 12:16 tn Grk “Do not be wise in your thinking.”
  13. Romans 12:17 tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos) is used as a generic and refers to both men and women.
  14. Romans 12:18 tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos) is used as a generic and refers to both men and women.
  15. Romans 12:19 tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as the remainder of the verse shows.
  16. Romans 12:19 sn A quotation from Deut 32:35.
  17. Romans 12:20 sn A quotation from Prov 25:21-22.
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Psalm 22:19-31

19 But you, O Lord, do not remain far away.
You are my source of strength.[a] Hurry and help me![b]
20 Deliver me[c] from the sword.
Save[d] my life[e] from the claws[f] of the wild dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lion,[g]
and from the horns of the wild oxen.[h]
You have answered me.[i]
22 I will declare your name to my countrymen.[j]
In the middle of the assembly I will praise you.
23 You loyal followers of the Lord,[k] praise him.
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him.
All you descendants of Israel, stand in awe of him.[l]
24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering[m] of the oppressed.[n]
He did not ignore him;[o]
when he cried out to him, he responded.[p]
25 You are the reason I offer praise[q] in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my promises before the Lord’s loyal followers.[r]
26 Let the oppressed eat and be filled.[s]
Let those who seek his help praise the Lord.
May you[t] live forever!
27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him.[u]
Let all the nations[v] worship you.[w]
28 For the Lord is king[x]
and rules over the nations.
29 All the thriving people[y] of the earth will join the celebration and worship;[z]
all those who are descending into the grave[aa] will bow before him,
including those who cannot preserve their lives.[ab]
30 A whole generation[ac] will serve him;
they will tell the next generation about the Lord.[ad]
31 They will come and tell about his saving deeds;[ae]
they will tell a future generation what he has accomplished.[af]

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 22:19 tn Heb “O my strength.”
  2. Psalm 22:19 tn Heb “hurry to my help.”
  3. Psalm 22:20 tn Or “my life.”
  4. Psalm 22:20 tn The verb “save” is supplied in the translation; it is understood by ellipsis (see “deliver” in the preceding line).
  5. Psalm 22:20 tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone.
  6. Psalm 22:20 tn Heb “from the hand.” Here “hand” is understood by metonymy as a reference to the “paw” and thus the “claws” of the wild dogs.
  7. Psalm 22:21 sn The psalmist again compares his enemies to vicious dogs and ferocious lions (see vv. 13, 16).
  8. Psalm 22:21 tn The Hebrew term רֵמִים (remim) appears to be an alternate spelling of רְאֵמִים (reʾemim, “wild oxen”; see BDB 910 s.v. רְאֵם).
  9. Psalm 22:21 tn Heb “and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.” Most take the final verb with the preceding prepositional phrase. Some understand the verb form as a relatively rare precative perfect, expressing a wish or request (see IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew. (See the discussion at Ps 3:7.) Others prefer to take the perfect in its usual indicative sense. The psalmist, perhaps in response to an oracle of salvation, affirms confidently that God has answered him, assuring him that deliverance is on the way. The present translation takes the prepositional phrase as parallel to the preceding “from the mouth of the lion” and as collocated with the verb “rescue” at the beginning of the verse. “You have answered me” is understood as a triumphant shout which marks a sudden shift in tone and introduces the next major section of the psalm. By isolating the statement syntactically, the psalmist highlights the declaration.
  10. Psalm 22:22 tn Or “brothers,” but here the term does not carry a literal familial sense. It refers to the psalmist’s fellow members of the Israelite covenant community (see v. 23).
  11. Psalm 22:23 tn Heb “[you] fearers of the Lord.” See Ps 15:4.
  12. Psalm 22:23 tn Heb “fear him.”
  13. Psalm 22:24 tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”
  14. Psalm 22:24 sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.
  15. Psalm 22:24 tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).
  16. Psalm 22:24 tn Heb “heard.”
  17. Psalm 22:25 tn Heb “from with you [is] my praise.”
  18. Psalm 22:25 tn Heb “my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.” When asking the Lord for help, the psalmists would typically promise to praise the Lord publicly if he intervened and delivered them.
  19. Psalm 22:26 sn Eat and be filled. In addition to praising the Lord, the psalmist also offers a thank offering to the Lord and invites others to share in a communal meal.
  20. Psalm 22:26 tn Heb “may your heart[s].”
  21. Psalm 22:27 tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.
  22. Psalm 22:27 tn Heb “families of the nations.”
  23. Psalm 22:27 tn Heb “before you.”
  24. Psalm 22:28 tn Heb “for to the Lord [is] dominion.”
  25. Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yeshene, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishne, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.
  26. Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.
  27. Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings—the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.
  28. Psalm 22:29 tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”
  29. Psalm 22:30 tn Heb “offspring.”
  30. Psalm 22:30 tn Heb “it will be told concerning the Lord to the generation.” The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
  31. Psalm 22:31 tn Heb “his righteousness.” Here the noun צִדָקָה (tsidaqah) refers to the Lord’s saving deeds whereby he vindicates the oppressed.
  32. Psalm 22:31 tn Heb “to a people [to be] born that he has acted.” The words “they will tell” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
New English Translation (NET)

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Proverbs 20:8-10

8 A king sitting on the throne to judge[a]
separates out[b] all evil with his eyes.[c]
9 Who can say,[d] “I have kept my heart[e] clean;[f]
I am pure[g] from my sin”?
10 Diverse weights and diverse measures[h]—
the Lord abhors[i] both of them.

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 20:8 tn The infinitive construct דִּין (din, “to judge”) indicates purpose (so NIV, NCV), even though it does not have a preposition with it.
  2. Proverbs 20:8 tn The second line uses the image of winnowing (cf. NIV, NRSV) to state that the king’s judgment removes evil from the realm. The verb form is מְזָרֶה (mezareh), the Piel participle. It has been translated “to sift; to winnow; to scatter” and “to separate”—i.e., separate out evil from the land. The text is saying that a just government roots out evil (cf. NAB “dispels all evil”), but few governments have been consistently just.
  3. Proverbs 20:8 sn The phrase with his eyes indicates that the king will closely examine or look into all the cases that come before him.
  4. Proverbs 20:9 sn The verse is a rhetorical question; it is affirming that no one can say this because no one is pure and free of sin.
  5. Proverbs 20:9 tn The noun לֵב (lev) commonly translated “heart” includes the “mind” and embraces both motives and thoughts.
  6. Proverbs 20:9 tn In the Qal this verb, זָכָה (zakhah), means to be (morally) “clean; pure.” Here in the Piel it is factitive to “make clean” (so NRSV) or “keep clean” (so NIV). This verb only appears 8 times in the Bible, but this phrase “to cleanse the heart/mind” also occurs in Ps 73:13, where Asaph despairs of having cleansed his heart (or kept it clean). Ps 119:9 remarks that one can keep your path clean by carefully observing God’s word. And Isa 1:16 advises cleansing oneself by putting away and ceasing to do evil. In an ultimate sense, no one has kept a clean heart in every regard. However these other passages suggest that one can repent in order to cleanse the heart and attend to God’s word to keep it clean. The question thus points out the inherent lack of purity and poses the obligation to take steps to safeguard purity. In other words, since my heart is not (natively) pure, what do I need to do to keep it pure (as in being true to God not in a sense of works adding up to purity)?
  7. Proverbs 20:9 sn The Hebrew verb (טָהֵר, taher) means to “be clean; pure” and may refer to physical cleanliness or the absence of disease, mildew, infectants, or blemishes. As a Levitical term it normally refers to cleanness from infectants or religious ceremonial cleanness (though often the two are related). The term is applied morally (specifically “clean from sin” as in this verse) in Lev 16:30 as part of the Day of Atonement. After the High Priest confesses the sins of the people and makes the sacrifice on their behalf, the people are considered “clean.” So on the one hand, the question sounds rhetorical—no one can claim to be pure on their own merit. On the other hand, the cultic answer would be those who have confessed sin and offered a sacrifice are cleansed.
  8. Proverbs 20:10 tn The construction simply uses repetition to express different kinds of weights and measures: “a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah.”
  9. Proverbs 20:10 tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The phrase features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.” sn Behind this proverb is the image of the dishonest merchant who has different sets of weights and measures which are used to cheat customers. The Lord hates dishonesty in business transactions.
New English Translation (NET)

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday July 28, 2023 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 21-23

21 Jehoshaphat passed away[a] and was buried with his ancestors[b] in the City of David.[c] His son Jehoram[d] replaced him as king.

Jehoram’s Reign

2 His brothers, Jehoshaphat’s sons, were Azariah, Jechiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael, and Shephatiah. All these were sons of King Jehoshaphat of Israel.[e] 3 Their father gave them many presents, including silver, gold, and other precious items, along with fortified cities in Judah. But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn.

4 Jehoram took control of his father’s kingdom and became powerful.[f] Then he killed all his brothers,[g] as well as some of the officials of Israel. 5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 6 He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter.[h] He did evil in the sight of[i] the Lord. 7 But the Lord was unwilling to destroy David’s dynasty[j] because of the promise[k] he had made to give David a perpetual dynasty.[l]

8 During Jehoram’s[m] reign Edom freed themselves from Judah’s control and set up their own king.[n] 9 Jehoram crossed over with his officers and all his chariots. The Edomites, who had surrounded him, attacked at night and defeated him and his chariot officers.[o] 10 So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day.[p] At that same time Libnah also rebelled and freed themselves from Judah’s control[q] because Jehoram[r] rejected the Lord God of his ancestors. 11 He also built high places on the hills of Judah; he encouraged the residents of Jerusalem to be unfaithful to the Lord[s] and led Judah away from the Lord.[t]

12 Jehoram[u] received this letter from Elijah the prophet: “This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: ‘You[v] have not followed in the footsteps[w] of your father Jehoshaphat and of[x] King Asa of Judah, 13 but have instead followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel. You encouraged the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem to be unfaithful to the Lord, just as the family of Ahab does in Israel.[y] You also killed your brothers, members of your father’s family,[z] who were better than you. 14 So look, the Lord is about to severely afflict[aa] your people, your sons, your wives, and all you own. 15 And you will get a serious, chronic intestinal disease which will cause your intestines to come out.’”[ab]

16 The Lord stirred up against Jehoram the Philistines[ac] and the Arabs who lived beside the Cushites. 17 They attacked Judah and swept through it.[ad] They carried off everything they found in the royal palace,[ae] including his sons and wives. None of his sons was left, except for his youngest, Ahaziah. 18 After all this happened, the Lord afflicted him with an incurable intestinal disease.[af] 19 After about two years his intestines came out because of the disease, so that he died a very painful death.[ag] His people did not make a bonfire to honor him, as they had done for his ancestors.[ah]

20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. No one regretted his death;[ai] he was buried in the City of David,[aj] but not in the royal tombs.

Ahaziah’s Reign

22 The residents of Jerusalem made his youngest son Ahaziah king in his place, for the raiding party that invaded the camp with the Arabs had killed all the older sons.[ak] So Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah. 2 Ahaziah was twenty-two[al] years old when he became king, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother[am] was Athaliah, the granddaughter[an] of Omri. 3 He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty,[ao] for his mother gave him evil advice.[ap] 4 He did evil in the sight of[aq] the Lord like Ahab’s dynasty because, after his father’s death, they[ar] gave him advice that led to his destruction. 5 He followed their advice and joined Ahab’s son King Joram[as] of Israel in a battle against King Hazael of Syria[at] at Ramoth Gilead in which the Syrians defeated Joram. 6 Joram[au] returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians[av] in Ramah when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. Ahaziah[aw] son of King Jehoram of Judah went down to visit Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he had been wounded.[ax]

7 God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall through his visit to Joram.[ay] When Ahaziah[az] arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had commissioned[ba] to wipe out Ahab’s family.[bb] 8 While Jehu was dishing out punishment to Ahab’s family, he discovered the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives who were serving Ahaziah and killed them. 9 He looked for Ahaziah, who was captured while hiding in Samaria. They brought him to Jehu and then executed him. They did give him a burial, for they reasoned,[bc] “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with his whole heart.” There was no one in Ahaziah’s family strong enough to rule in his place.[bd]

Athaliah is Eliminated

10 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she was determined to destroy the entire royal line[be] of Judah.[bf] 11 So Jehoshabeath,[bg] the daughter of King Jehoram,[bh] took Ahaziah’s son Joash and stole him away from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored. So Jehoshabeath the daughter of King Jehoram, wife of Jehoiada the priest and sister of Ahaziah, hid him from Athaliah so she could not execute him. 12 He remained in hiding in God’s temple[bi] for six years while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

23 In the seventh year Jehoiada made a bold move. He made a pact[bj] with the officers of the units of hundreds: Azariah son of Jehoram, Ishmael son of Jehochanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zikri. 2 They traveled throughout Judah and assembled the Levites from all the cities of Judah, as well as the Israelite family leaders.

They came to Jerusalem, 3 and the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the temple of God. Jehoiada[bk] said to them, “The king’s son will rule, just as the Lord promised David’s descendants. 4 This is what you must do. One-third of you priests and Levites who are on duty during the Sabbath will guard the doors. 5 Another third of you will be stationed at the royal palace and still another third at the Foundation Gate. All the others[bl] will stand in the courtyards of the Lord’s temple. 6 No one must enter the Lord’s temple except the priests and Levites who are on duty. They may enter because they are ceremonially pure. All the others should carry out their assigned service to the Lord. 7 The Levites must surround the king. Each of you must hold his weapon in his hand. Whoever tries to enter the temple[bm] must be killed. You must accompany the king wherever he goes.”[bn]

8 The Levites and all the men of Judah[bo] did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath. Jehoiada the priest did not release his divisions from their duties. 9 Jehoiada the priest gave to the officers of the units of hundreds King David’s spears and shields[bp] that were kept in God’s temple. 10 He placed the men at their posts, each holding his weapon in his hand. They lined up from the south side of the temple to the north side and stood near the altar and the temple, surrounding the king.[bq] 11 Jehoiada and his sons led out the king’s son and placed on him the crown and the royal insignia.[br] They proclaimed him king and poured olive oil on his head.[bs] They declared, “Long live the king!”

12 When Athaliah heard the royal guard[bt] shouting and praising the king, she joined the crowd[bu] at the Lord’s temple. 13 Then she saw[bv] the king standing by his pillar at the entrance. The officers and trumpeters stood beside the king and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets, and the musicians with various instruments were leading the celebration. Athaliah tore her clothes and yelled, “Treason! Treason!”[bw] 14 Jehoiada the priest sent out the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, and ordered them, “Bring her outside the temple to the guards.[bx] Put the sword to anyone who follows her.” The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord’s temple.[by] 15 They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses’ entrance.[bz] There they executed her.

16 Jehoiada then drew up a covenant stipulating that he, all the people, and the king should be loyal to the Lord.[ca] 17 All the people went and demolished[cb] the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols.[cc] They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. 18 Jehoiada then assigned the duties of the Lord’s temple to the priests, the Levites whom David had assigned to the Lord’s temple. They were responsible for offering burnt sacrifices to the Lord with joy and music, according to[cd] the law of Moses and the edict of David. 19 He posted guards at the gates of the Lord’s temple, so no one who was ceremonially unclean in any way could enter. 20 He summoned[ce] the officers of the units of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people, and all the people of the land, and he then led the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the royal palace through the Upper Gate and seated the king on the royal throne. 21 All the people of the land celebrated, for the city had rest now that they had killed Athaliah.[cf]

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 21:1 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
  2. 2 Chronicles 21:1 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 10, 12, 19).
  3. 2 Chronicles 21:1 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
  4. 2 Chronicles 21:1 tn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 8:20-24 has the variant spelling “Joram” for the son of Jehoshaphat.
  5. 2 Chronicles 21:2 sn A number of times in 2 Chronicles “Israel” is used instead of the more specific “Judah”; see 2 Chr 12:6; 23:2). In the interest of consistency some translations (e.g., NAB, NRSV) substitute “Judah” for “Israel” here.
  6. 2 Chronicles 21:4 tn Heb “and Jehoram arose over the kingdom of his father and strengthened himself.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 21:4 tn Heb “and he killed all his brothers with the sword.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 21:6 tn Heb “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 21:6 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 21:7 tn Heb “house.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 21:7 tn Or “covenant.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 21:7 tn Heb “which he made to David, just as he had promised to give him and his sons a lamp all the days.” Here “lamp” is metaphorical, symbolizing the Davidic dynasty.
  13. 2 Chronicles 21:8 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Jehoram) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
  14. 2 Chronicles 21:8 tn Heb “in his days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and enthroned a king over them.”
  15. 2 Chronicles 21:9 tc Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Jehoram was surrounded and launched a victorious nighttime counterattack. Yet v. 10 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֹתוֹ [ʾoto, “him”] instead of just אֶת [ʾet]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. See also 2 Kgs 8:21.
  16. 2 Chronicles 21:10 tn Heb “and Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 21:10 tn Or “from Jehoram’s control”; Heb “from under his hand.” The pronominal suffix may refer to Judah in general or, more specifically, to Jehoram.
  18. 2 Chronicles 21:10 tn Heb “he.” This pronoun could refer to Judah, but the context focuses on Jehoram’s misdeeds. See especially v. 11.
  19. 2 Chronicles 21:11 tn Heb “and he caused the residents of Jerusalem to commit adultery.” In this context spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord is in view rather than physical adultery.
  20. 2 Chronicles 21:11 tn Heb “and drove Judah away.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 21:12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoram) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
  22. 2 Chronicles 21:12 tn Heb “Because you…” In the Hebrew text this lengthy sentence is completed in vv. 14-15. Because of its length and complexity (and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences), the translation has divided it up into several English sentences.
  23. 2 Chronicles 21:12 tn Heb “walked in the ways.”
  24. 2 Chronicles 21:12 tn Heb “in the ways of.”
  25. 2 Chronicles 21:13 tn Heb “and you walked in the way of the kings of Israel and caused Judah and the residents of Jerusalem to commit adultery, like the house of Ahab causes to commit adultery.”
  26. 2 Chronicles 21:13 tn Heb “the house of your father.”
  27. 2 Chronicles 21:14 tn Heb “to strike with a great striking.”
  28. 2 Chronicles 21:15 tn Heb “and you [will have] a serious illness, an illness of the intestines until your intestines come out because of the illness days upon days.”
  29. 2 Chronicles 21:16 tn Heb “the spirit of the Philistines.”
  30. 2 Chronicles 21:17 tn Heb “broke it up.”
  31. 2 Chronicles 21:17 tn Heb “all the property which was found in the house of the king.”
  32. 2 Chronicles 21:18 tn Heb “in his intestines with an illness [for which] there was no healing.”
  33. 2 Chronicles 21:19 tn Heb “and it was to days from days, and about the time of the going out of the end for the days, two, his intestines came out with his illness and he died in severe illness.”
  34. 2 Chronicles 21:19 tn Heb “and his people did not make for him a fire, like the fire of his fathers.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 21:20 tn Heb “and he went without desire.”
  36. 2 Chronicles 21:20 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
  37. 2 Chronicles 22:1 tn Heb “for all the older [ones] the raiding party that came with the Arabs to the camp had killed.”
  38. 2 Chronicles 22:2 tc Heb “forty-two,” but some mss of the LXX and the Syriac along with the parallel passage in 2 Kgs 8:26 read “twenty-two.”
  39. 2 Chronicles 22:2 tn Heb “The name of his mother.”
  40. 2 Chronicles 22:2 tn The Hebrew term בַּת (bat, “daughter”) can refer, as here, to a granddaughter. See HALOT 165-66 s.v. I בַּת 1.
  41. 2 Chronicles 22:3 tn Heb “and also he walked in the ways of the house of Ahab.”
  42. 2 Chronicles 22:3 tn Heb “for his mother was his adviser to do evil.”
  43. 2 Chronicles 22:4 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  44. 2 Chronicles 22:4 tn That is, the members of Ahab’s royal house.
  45. 2 Chronicles 22:5 tn Heb “Jehoram.”Jehoram and Joram are alternate spellings of the Israelite king’s name (also in vv. 6-7). The shorter form is used in these verses to avoid confusion with King Jehoram of Judah, father of Azariah.
  46. 2 Chronicles 22:5 tn Heb “Aram” (also in v. 6).
  47. 2 Chronicles 22:6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  48. 2 Chronicles 22:6 tn Heb “which they inflicted [on] him.”
  49. 2 Chronicles 22:6 tc Most Hebrew mss read “Azariah.” A few Hebrew mss, the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac read “Ahaziah” (cf. 2 Kgs 8:29).
  50. 2 Chronicles 22:6 tn Heb “because he was sick,” presumably referring to the wounds he received in the battle with the Syrians.
  51. 2 Chronicles 22:7 tn Heb “From God was the downfall of Ahaziah by going to Joram.”
  52. 2 Chronicles 22:7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ahaziah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  53. 2 Chronicles 22:7 tn Heb “anointed.”
  54. 2 Chronicles 22:7 tn Heb “to cut off the house of Ahab.”
  55. 2 Chronicles 22:9 tn Heb “they said.”
  56. 2 Chronicles 22:9 tn Heb “and there was no one belonging to the house of Ahaziah to retain strength for kingship.”
  57. 2 Chronicles 22:10 tn Heb “she arose and she destroyed all the royal offspring.” The verb קוּם (qum, “arise”) is here used in an auxiliary sense to indicate that she embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 125.
  58. 2 Chronicles 22:10 tn Heb “house of Judah.”
  59. 2 Chronicles 22:11 sn Jehoshabeath is a variant spelling of the name Jehosheba (2 Kgs 11:2).
  60. 2 Chronicles 22:11 tn Heb “the king”; the referent (King Jehoram, see later in this verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  61. 2 Chronicles 22:12 tn Heb “and he was with them in the house of God hiding.”
  62. 2 Chronicles 23:1 tn Or “covenant.”
  63. 2 Chronicles 23:3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada the priest, cf. v. 8) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  64. 2 Chronicles 23:5 tn Heb “all the people.”
  65. 2 Chronicles 23:7 tn Heb “house.”
  66. 2 Chronicles 23:7 tn Heb “and be with the king when he goes in/enters and when he goes out/exits.”
  67. 2 Chronicles 23:8 tn Heb “all Judah.” The words “the men of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the men of Judah.
  68. 2 Chronicles 23:9 tn The Hebrew text lists two different types of shields here. Most translations render “the large and small shields” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; NEB “King David’s spears, shields, and bucklers”).
  69. 2 Chronicles 23:10 tn Heb “and he stationed all the people, each with his weapon in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”
  70. 2 Chronicles 23:11 tn The Hebrew word עֵדוּת (ʿedut) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain (see the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 128). Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant (see HALOT 790-91 s.v.).
  71. 2 Chronicles 23:11 tn Or “they made him king and anointed him.”
  72. 2 Chronicles 23:12 tn Heb “and Athaliah heard the sound of the people, the runners.”
  73. 2 Chronicles 23:12 tn Heb “she came to the people.”
  74. 2 Chronicles 23:13 tn Heb “and she saw, and behold.”
  75. 2 Chronicles 23:13 tn Or “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!”
  76. 2 Chronicles 23:14 tn Heb “ranks.”
  77. 2 Chronicles 23:14 tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Do not put her to death in the house of the Lord.’”
  78. 2 Chronicles 23:15 tn Heb “and they placed hands on her, and she went through the entrance of the gate of the horses [into] the house of the king.” Some English versions treat the phrase “gate of the horses” as the name of the gate (“the Horse Gate”; e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
  79. 2 Chronicles 23:16 tn Heb “and Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and [between] all the people and [between] the king, to become a people for the Lord.”
  80. 2 Chronicles 23:17 tn Or “tore down.”
  81. 2 Chronicles 23:17 tn Or “images.”
  82. 2 Chronicles 23:18 tn Heb “as it is written in.”
  83. 2 Chronicles 23:20 tn Heb “took.”
  84. 2 Chronicles 23:21 tn Heb “killed Athaliah with the sword.”
New English Translation (NET)

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Romans 11:13-36

13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the first portion[a] of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.[b]

17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in[c] the richness of the olive root, 18 do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted![d] They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. 22 Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God—harshness toward those who have fallen, but[e] God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness;[f] otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And even they—if they do not continue in their unbelief—will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters,[g] so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel[h] until the full number[i] of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so[j] all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion;
he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them,[k]
when I take away their sins.”[l]

28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now[m] receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[n]

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how unfathomable his ways!

34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?[o]
35 Or who has first given to God,[p]
that God[q] needs to repay him?[r]

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.

Footnotes:

  1. Romans 11:16 tn Grk “firstfruits,” a term for the first part of something that has been set aside and offered to God before the remainder can be used.
  2. Romans 11:16 sn Most interpreters see Paul as making use of a long-standing metaphor of the olive tree (the root…the branches) as a symbol for Israel. See, in this regard, Jer 11:16, 19. A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul’s Technique and Theology, 121-24, cites rabbinic use of the figure of the olive tree, and goes so far as to argue that Rom 11:17-24 is a midrash on Jer 11:16-19.
  3. Romans 11:17 tn Grk “became a participant of.”
  4. Romans 11:20 tn Grk “well!”, an adverb used to affirm a statement. It means “very well,” “you are correct.”
  5. Romans 11:22 tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.
  6. Romans 11:22 tn Grk “if you continue in (the) kindness.”
  7. Romans 11:25 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
  8. Romans 11:25 tn Or “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.”
  9. Romans 11:25 tn Grk “fullness.”
  10. Romans 11:26 tn It is not clear whether the phrase καὶ οὕτως (kai houtōs, “and so”) is to be understood in a modal sense (“and in this way”) or in a temporal sense (“and in the end”). Neither interpretation is conclusive from a grammatical standpoint, and in fact the two may not be mutually exclusive. Some, like H. Hübner, who argue strongly against the temporal reading, nevertheless continue to give the phrase a temporal significance, saying that God will save all Israel in the end (Gottes Ich und Israel [FRLANT], 118).
  11. Romans 11:27 sn A quotation from Isa 59:20-21.
  12. Romans 11:27 sn A quotation from Isa 27:9; Jer 31:33-34.
  13. Romans 11:31 tc Some significant Alexandrian and Western mss (א B D*,c 1506 bo) read νῦν (nun, “now”) here. A few other mss (33 365 sa) have ὕστερον (husteron, “finally”). mss that lack the word are P46 A D1 F G Ψ 81 1175 1241 1505 1739 1881 M latt. External evidence slightly favors omission with good representatives from the major text-forms, and because of the alliance of Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (with the Byzantine going against its normal tendency to embrace the longer reading). Internally, scribes could have added νῦν here to give balance to the preceding clause (οὗτοι νῦν ἠπείθησαν…αὐτοὶ νῦν ἐλεηθῶσιν [|outoi nun ēpeithēsan…autoi nun eleēthōsin; “they have now been disobedient…they may now receive mercy”]). However, it seems much more likely that they would have deleted it because of its seeming inappropriateness in this context. That some witnesses have ὕστερον presupposes the presence of νῦν in their ancestors. A decision is difficult, but νῦν is slightly preferred, since it is the more difficult reading and is adequately represented in the mss.
  14. Romans 11:32 tn Grk “to all”; “them” has been supplied for stylistic reasons.
  15. Romans 11:34 sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.
  16. Romans 11:35 tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  17. Romans 11:35 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  18. Romans 11:35 sn A quotation from Job 41:11.
New English Translation (NET)

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Psalm 22:1-18

Psalm 22[a]

For the music director, according to the tune “Morning Doe”;[b] a psalm of David.

22 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?[c]
I groan in prayer, but help seems far away.[d]
2 My God, I cry out during the day,
but you do not answer,
and during the night my prayers do not let up.[e]
3 You are holy;
you sit as king receiving the praises of Israel.[f]
4 In you our ancestors[g] trusted;
they trusted in you[h] and you rescued them.
5 To you they cried out, and they were saved;
in you they trusted and they were not disappointed.[i]
6 But I[j] am a worm,[k] not a man;[l]
people insult me and despise me.[m]
7 All who see me taunt[n] me;
they mock me[o] and shake their heads.[p]
8 They say,[q]
“Commit yourself[r] to the Lord!
Let the Lord[s] rescue him!
Let the Lord[t] deliver him, for he delights in him.”[u]
9 Yes, you are the one who brought me out[v] from the womb
and made me feel secure on my mother’s breasts.
10 I have been dependent on you since birth;[w]
from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God.[x]
11 Do not remain far away from me,
for trouble is near and I have no one to help me.[y]
12 Many bulls[z] surround me;
powerful bulls of Bashan[aa] hem me in.
13 They[ab] open their mouths to devour me[ac]
like a roaring lion that rips its prey.[ad]
14 My strength drains away like water;[ae]
all my bones are dislocated.
My heart[af] is like wax;
it melts away inside me.
15 The roof of my mouth[ag] is as dry as a piece of pottery;
my tongue sticks to my gums.[ah]
You[ai] set me in the dust of death.[aj]
16 Yes,[ak] wild dogs surround me—
a gang of evil men crowd around me;
like a lion they pin my hands and feet.[al]
17 I can count[am] all my bones;
my enemies[an] are gloating over me in triumph.[ao]
18 They are dividing up my clothes among themselves;
they are rolling dice[ap] for my garments.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 22:1 sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.
  2. Psalm 22:1 tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.
  3. Psalm 22:1 sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).
  4. Psalm 22:1 tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (sheʾagah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (shaʾag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.
  5. Psalm 22:2 tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”
  6. Psalm 22:3 tn Heb “[O] one who sits [on] the praises of Israel.” The verb “receiving” is supplied in the translation for clarity. The metaphorical language pictures the Lord as sitting enthroned as king in his temple, receiving the praises that his people Israel offer up to him.
  7. Psalm 22:4 tn Heb “fathers.”
  8. Psalm 22:4 tn The words “in you” are supplied in the translation. They are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).
  9. Psalm 22:5 tn Or “were not ashamed.”
  10. Psalm 22:6 tn The grammatical construction (conjunction + pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist’s experience and that of his ancestors. When he considers God’s past reliability, it only heightens his despair and confusion, for God’s present silence stands in stark contrast to his past saving acts.
  11. Psalm 22:6 tn The metaphor expresses the psalmist’s self-perception, which is based on how others treat him (see the following line).
  12. Psalm 22:6 tn Or “not a human being.” The psalmist perceives himself as less than human.
  13. Psalm 22:6 tn Heb “a reproach of man and despised by people.”
  14. Psalm 22:7 tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”
  15. Psalm 22:7 tn Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.
  16. Psalm 22:7 sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.
  17. Psalm 22:8 tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons. The psalmist here quotes the sarcastic taunts of his enemies.
  18. Psalm 22:8 tn Heb “roll [yourself].” The Hebrew verb גָּלַל (galal) here has the sense of “commit” (see Prov 16:3). The imperatival form in the Hebrew text indicates the enemies here address the psalmist. Since they refer to him in the third person in the rest of the verse, some prefer to emend the verb to a perfect, “he commits himself to the Lord.”
  19. Psalm 22:8 tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  20. Psalm 22:8 tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  21. Psalm 22:8 tn That is, “for he [the Lord] delights in him [the psalmist].” For other cases where the expression “delight in” refers to God’s delight in a person, see Num 14:8; 1 Kgs 10:9; Pss 18:19; 40:8.sn This statement does not necessarily reflect the enemies’ actual belief, but it does reflect the psalmist’s confession. The psalmist’s enemies sarcastically appeal to God to help him, because he claims to be an object of divine favor. However, they probably doubted the reality of his claim.
  22. Psalm 22:9 tn Or “the one who pulled me.” The verb is derived from either גָּחָה (gakhah; see HALOT 187 s.v. גחה) or גִּיחַ (giakh; see BDB 161 s.v. גִּיחַ) and seems to carry the nuance “burst forth” or “pull out.”
  23. Psalm 22:10 tn Heb “upon you I was cast from [the] womb.”
  24. Psalm 22:10 tn Heb “from the womb of my mother you [have been] my God.”sn Despite the enemies’ taunts, the psalmist is certain of his relationship with God, which began from the time of his birth (from the time I came out of my mother’s womb).
  25. Psalm 22:11 tn Heb “and there is no helper.”
  26. Psalm 22:12 sn The psalmist figuratively compares his enemies to dangerous bulls.
  27. Psalm 22:12 sn Bashan, located east of the Jordan River, was well-known for its cattle. See Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1.
  28. Psalm 22:13 tn “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”
  29. Psalm 22:13 tn Heb “they open against me their mouth[s].” To “open the mouth against” is a Hebrew idiom associated with eating and swallowing (see Ezek 2:8; Lam 2:16).
  30. Psalm 22:13 tn Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”
  31. Psalm 22:14 tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”
  32. Psalm 22:14 sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.
  33. Psalm 22:15 tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhi), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khiki, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.
  34. Psalm 22:15 tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”
  35. Psalm 22:15 sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).
  36. Psalm 22:15 sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.
  37. Psalm 22:16 tn Or “for.”
  38. Psalm 22:16 tc The Masoretic text reads “like a lion, my hands and my feet.” The reading is difficult and the ancient versions vary, so the textual difficulty is probably very early. Without a verb, the syntax appears broken and the role of “hands and feet” unclear. One option is to understand the verb of the previous line to apply again, a poetic technique called ellipsis and double duty. But “my hands and feet” would be an odd object for a verb meaning “they encircled.” Otherwise, the broken syntax may represent the emotional outcry of the Psalmist, first mentioning the lion as part of the third person description, but suddenly shifting to the first person perspective and crying out as the lion attacks, pinning down his hands and feet (a scene depicted in ancient Near Eastern art). But this development seems late textually. All the other witnesses have a verb instead of “like a lion.” The LXX says “they dug my hands and feet; the verb ὀρύσσω (orussō) means “to burrow in the ground, to dig.” A Qumran witness seems to read similarly, “they dug.” Instead of the MT’s כארי (kᵉʾariy; like a lion”), the scroll from Nahal Hever has a verb form כארו (kaʾaru) ending with vav instead of yod. Supposing that the א (ʾaleph) is a superfluous spelling variant, the form would be understood as כרו (karu) from the root כרה (karah), meaning “they dug.” In that case, the Qumran scroll and the LXX agree because כרה is one of the two verbs translated in the LXX by ὀρύσσω. But as both these verbs mean “to dig [in the dirt]” this has not helped us understand the context. Assuming that the enemies are still the subject, we might expect “they dug a pit for my hands and feet.” In fact the Hebrew words behind “they dug a pit” look similar (כרו בור) so it is not hard to imagine that one of these two would be overlooked by a scribed and dropped from the text. Some suppose that “to dig [in the ground]” means “to pierce” in reference to hands and feet (possibly from the root כור). Other variants and suggestions include “they bound,” or “they picked clean” (from אָרָה, ʾarah, “to pluck”) my hands and feet. Or “my hands and feet are consumed,” or “worn out.” The latter two assume a copying error of resh for lamed, making the verb come from כלה. P. Craigie (Psalms [WBC], 1:196) opts for this last but also cites Syriac and Akkadian for additional root K-R-H meaning “to be shrunken, shriveled.” The Akkadian verb (karu) is said of body parts and can refer to paralysis, which is the kind of metaphor which occurs in battle contexts elsewhere (e.g. Ps 76:5). It would be very natural to read “my hands and my feet” as the subject of the verb because verb-subject is typical word order. There is no decisive answer to the problem and the NET translation includes the lion imagery (cf. v. 13) and supposes a verb that conveys an attack.
  39. Psalm 22:17 tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 17-18 draw attention to the progressive nature of the action.
  40. Psalm 22:17 tn Heb “they.” The masculine form indicates the enemies are in view. The referent (the psalmist’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  41. Psalm 22:17 tn Heb “they gaze, they look upon me.”
  42. Psalm 22:18 tn Heb “casting lots.” The precise way in which this would have been done is not certain.
New English Translation (NET)

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Proverbs 20:7

7 The righteous person[a] behaves in integrity;[b]
blessed are his children after him.[c]

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 20:7 sn Two terms describe the subject of this proverb: “righteous” and “integrity.” The first describes the person as a member of the covenant community who strives to live according to God’s standards; the second emphasizes that his lifestyle is blameless.
  2. Proverbs 20:7 tn Heb “walks in his integrity” (so NASB); cf. NIV “leads a blameless life.” The Hitpael participle of הָלַךְ (halakh) means “to walk about; to walk to and fro.” The idiom of walking representing living is intensified here in this stem. This verbal stem is used in scripture to describe people “walking with” God.
  3. Proverbs 20:7 sn The nature and the actions of parents have an effect on children (e.g., Exod 20:4-6); if the parents are righteous, the children will enjoy a blessing—the respect and the happiness which the parent reflects on them.
New English Translation (NET)

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday July 27, 2023 (NIV)

2 Chronicles 19-20

19 When King Jehoshaphat of Judah returned home safely to Jerusalem, 2 the prophet[a] Jehu son of Hanani confronted him;[b] he said to King Jehoshaphat, “Is it right to help the wicked and be an ally of those who oppose the Lord?[c] Because you have done this, the Lord is angry with you![d] 3 Nevertheless you have done some good things;[e] you removed[f] the Asherah poles from the land and you were determined to follow God.”[g]

Jehoshaphat Appoints Judges

4 Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem. He went out among the people from Beer Sheba to the hill country of Ephraim and encouraged them to follow[h] the Lord God of their ancestors.[i] 5 He appointed judges throughout the land and in each of the fortified cities of Judah.[j] 6 He told the judges, “Be careful what you do,[k] for you are not judging for men, but for the Lord, who will be with you when you make judicial decisions. 7 Respect the Lord and make careful decisions, for the Lord our God disapproves of injustice, partiality, and bribery.”[l]

8 In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites, priests, and Israelite family leaders to judge on behalf of the Lord[m] and to settle disputes among the residents of Jerusalem.[n] 9 He commanded them: “Carry out your duties with respect for the Lord, with honesty, and with pure motives.[o] 10 Whenever your countrymen who live in the cities bring a case before you[p] (whether it involves a violent crime[q] or other matters related to the law, commandments, rules, and regulations), warn them that they must not sin against the Lord. If you fail to do so, God will be angry with you and your colleagues, but if you obey, you will be free of guilt.[r] 11 Take note, Amariah the chief priest will oversee[s] you in every matter pertaining to the Lord and Zebadiah son of Ishmael, the leader of the family of Judah, in every matter pertaining to the king. The Levites will serve as officials before you. Act courageously,[t] and may the Lord be with those who do well!”

The Lord Gives Jehoshaphat Military Success

20 Later the Moabites and Ammonites, along with some of the Meunites,[u] attacked Jehoshaphat. 2 Messengers[v] arrived and reported to Jehoshaphat, “A huge army is attacking you from the other side of the Dead Sea,[w] from the direction of Edom.[x] Look, they are in Hazazon Tamar (that is, En Gedi).” 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he decided to seek the Lord’s advice.[y] He decreed that all Judah should observe a fast. 4 The people of Judah[z] assembled to ask for the Lord’s help;[aa] they came from all the cities of Judah to ask for the Lord’s help.[ab]

5 Jehoshaphat stood before the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the Lord’s temple, in front of the new courtyard. 6 He prayed: “O Lord God of our ancestors,[ac] you are the God who lives in heaven[ad] and rules over all the kingdoms of the nations. You possess strength and power; no one can stand against you. 7 Our God, you drove out[ae] the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it as a permanent possession[af] to the descendants of your friend[ag] Abraham. 8 They settled down in it and built in it a temple[ah] to honor you,[ai] saying, 9 ‘If disaster comes on us in the form of military attack,[aj] judgment, plague, or famine, we will stand in front of this temple before you, for you are present in this temple.[ak] We will cry out to you for help in our distress, so that you will[al] hear and deliver us.’ 10 Now the Ammonites, Moabites, and men from Mount Seir are coming![am] When Israel came from the land of Egypt, you did not allow them to invade these lands.[an] They bypassed them and did not destroy them. 11 Look how they are repaying us! They come to drive us out of our allotted land which you assigned to us! 12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless against this huge army that attacks us. We don’t know what we should do; we look to you for help.”[ao]

13 All the men of Judah[ap] were standing before the Lord, along with their infants, wives, and children. 14 Then in the midst of the assembly, the Lord’s Spirit came upon Jachaziel son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph. 15 He said: “Pay attention, all you people of Judah,[aq] residents of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Don’t be afraid and don’t panic[ar] because of this huge army! For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them as[as] they come up the Ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the ravine in front of the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will not fight in this battle. Take your positions, stand, and watch the Lord deliver you,[at] O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid and don’t panic![au] Tomorrow march out toward them; the Lord is with you!’”

18 Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face toward the ground, and all the people of Judah[av] and the residents of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord and worshiped him.[aw] 19 Then some Levites, from the Kohathites and Korahites, got up and loudly praised the Lord God of Israel.[ax]

20 Early the next morning they marched out to the wilderness of Tekoa. When they were ready to march, Jehoshaphat stood up and said: “Listen to me, you people of Judah[ay] and residents of Jerusalem! Trust in the Lord your God and you will be safe![az] Trust in the message of his prophets and you will win.” 21 He met[ba] with the people and appointed musicians to play before the Lord and praise his majestic splendor. As they marched ahead of the warriors they said: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his loyal love endures.”[bb]

22 When they began to shout and praise, the Lord suddenly attacked[bc] the Ammonites, Moabites, and men from Mount Seir[bd] who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 23 The Ammonites and Moabites attacked the men from Mount Seir[be] and annihilated them.[bf] When they had finished off the men[bg] of Seir, they attacked and destroyed one another.[bh] 24 When the men of Judah[bi] arrived at the observation post overlooking the wilderness and looked at[bj] the huge army, they saw dead bodies on the ground; there were no survivors. 25 Jehoshaphat and his men[bk] went to gather the plunder; they found a huge amount of supplies, clothing,[bl] and valuable items. They carried away everything they could.[bm] There was so much plunder, it took them three days to haul it off.[bn]

26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, where[bo] they praised the Lord. So that place is called the Valley of Berachah[bp] to this very day. 27 Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat leading them; the Lord had given them reason to rejoice over their enemies. 28 They entered Jerusalem to the sound of stringed instruments and trumpets and proceeded to the temple of the Lord. 29 All the kingdoms of the surrounding lands were afraid of God[bq] when they heard how the Lord had fought against Israel’s enemies. 30 Jehoshaphat’s kingdom enjoyed peace; his God made him secure on every side.[br]

Jehoshaphat’s Reign Ends

31 Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother[bs] was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. 32 He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved.[bt] 33 However, the high places were not eliminated; the people were still not devoted to the God of their ancestors.[bu]

34 The rest of the events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Annals of Jehu son of Hanani, which are included in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel.[bv]

35 Later King Jehoshaphat of Judah made an alliance with King Ahaziah of Israel, who[bw] did evil. 36 They agreed[bx] to make large seagoing merchant ships;[by] they built the ships in Ezion Geber. 37 Eliezer son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, “Because[bz] you made an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord will shatter what you have made.” The ships were wrecked and unable to go to sea.[ca]

Footnotes:

  1. 2 Chronicles 19:2 tn Or “seer.”
  2. 2 Chronicles 19:2 tn Heb “went out to his face.”
  3. 2 Chronicles 19:2 tn Heb “and love those who hate the Lord?”
  4. 2 Chronicles 19:2 tn Heb “and because of this upon you is anger from before the Lord.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 19:3 tn Heb “nevertheless good things are found with you.”
  6. 2 Chronicles 19:3 tn Here בָּעַר (baʿar) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער.
  7. 2 Chronicles 19:3 tn Heb “and you set your heart to seek God.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 19:4 tn Heb “and turned them back to.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 19:4 tn Heb “fathers.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 19:5 tn Heb “in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 19:6 tn Heb “see what you are doing.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 19:7 tn Heb “and now let the terror of the Lord be upon you, be careful and act for there is not with the Lord our God injustice, lifting up of a face, and taking a bribe.”
  13. 2 Chronicles 19:8 tn Heb “for the judgment of the Lord.”
  14. 2 Chronicles 19:8 tc Heb “and to conduct a case [or “for controversy”], and they returned [to] Jerusalem.” Some emend וַיָּשֻׁבוּ (vayyashuvu, “and they returned”) to וַיֵּשְׁבוּ (vayyeshevu, “and they lived [in]”). The present translation assumes an emendation to יֹשְׁבֵי (yoshevey, “residents of”).
  15. 2 Chronicles 19:9 tn Heb “This you must do with the fear of the Lord, with honesty, and with a complete heart.”
  16. 2 Chronicles 19:10 tn Heb “and every case which comes to you from your brothers who live in their cities.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 19:10 tn Heb “between blood pertaining to blood.”
  18. 2 Chronicles 19:10 tn Heb “and anger will be upon you and your brothers; do this and you will not be guilty.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 19:11 tn Heb “will be over you.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 19:11 tn Heb “Be strong and act!”
  21. 2 Chronicles 20:1 tc The Hebrew text has “Ammonites,” but they are mentioned just before this. Most translations, following some mss of the LXX, read “Meunites” (see 2 Chr 26:7; so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
  22. 2 Chronicles 20:2 tn Heb “they”; the implied referent (messengers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  23. 2 Chronicles 20:2 tn Heb “the Sea”; in context (“from the direction of Edom”) this must refer to the Dead Sea, which has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. NEB, NLT).
  24. 2 Chronicles 20:2 tc Most Hebrew mss, the LXX, and Vulgate read “from Aram” (i.e., Syria), but this should be emended to “Edom,” which is the reading of one Hebrew ms and the Old Latin.
  25. 2 Chronicles 20:3 tn Heb “and he set his face to seek the Lord.”
  26. 2 Chronicles 20:4 tn The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the people of Judah.
  27. 2 Chronicles 20:4 tn Heb “to seek from the Lord.” The verb here (בָּקַשׁ, baqash) is different from the one translated “seek” in v. 3 (דָּרַשׁ, darash).
  28. 2 Chronicles 20:4 tn Heb “to seek the Lord.” The verb here (בָּקַשׁ, baqash) is different from the one translated “seek” in v. 3 (דָּרַשׁ, darash).
  29. 2 Chronicles 20:6 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 33).
  30. 2 Chronicles 20:6 tn Heb “are you not God in heaven?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “yes,” resulting in the positive statement “you are the God who lives in heaven” employed in the translation.
  31. 2 Chronicles 20:7 tn Heb “did you not drive out . . . ?” This is another rhetorical question which expects a positive response; see the note on the word “heaven” in the previous verse.
  32. 2 Chronicles 20:7 tn Heb “permanently.”
  33. 2 Chronicles 20:7 tn Or perhaps “your covenantal partner.” See Isa 41:8.
  34. 2 Chronicles 20:8 tn Or “sanctuary.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 20:8 tn Heb “for your name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “to honor you”).
  36. 2 Chronicles 20:9 tn Heb “sword.”
  37. 2 Chronicles 20:9 tn Heb “for your name is in this house.” The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name. In this case the temple is referred to as a “house” where the Lord himself can reside.
  38. 2 Chronicles 20:9 tn Or “so that you may.”
  39. 2 Chronicles 20:10 tn Heb “now, look, the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir.”
  40. 2 Chronicles 20:10 tn Heb “whom you did not allow Israel to enter when they came from the land of Egypt.”
  41. 2 Chronicles 20:12 tn Heb “for [or “indeed”] upon you are our eyes.”
  42. 2 Chronicles 20:13 tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the men of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the men of Judah.
  43. 2 Chronicles 20:15 tn Heb “all Judah.” The words “you people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the people of Judah. Unlike the previous instance in v. 13 where infants, wives, and children are mentioned separately, this reference appears to include them all.
  44. 2 Chronicles 20:15 tn Or perhaps “don’t get discouraged.”
  45. 2 Chronicles 20:16 tn Heb “look.”
  46. 2 Chronicles 20:17 tn Heb “the deliverance of the Lord with you.”
  47. 2 Chronicles 20:17 tn Or perhaps “don’t get discouraged.”
  48. 2 Chronicles 20:18 tn Heb “all Judah.” The words “you people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. See the note on the word “Judah” in v. 15.
  49. 2 Chronicles 20:18 tn Heb “to worship the Lord.”
  50. 2 Chronicles 20:19 tn Heb “arose to praise the Lord God of Israel with a very loud voice.”
  51. 2 Chronicles 20:20 tn Heb “O Judah.” The words “you people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. See the note on the word “Judah” in v. 15.
  52. 2 Chronicles 20:20 tn There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text. The Hiphil verb form הַאֲמִינוּ (haʾaminu, “trust”) and the Niphal form תֵאָמֵנוּ (teʾamenu, “you will be safe”) come from the same verbal root (אָמַן, ʾaman).
  53. 2 Chronicles 20:21 tn Or “consulted.”
  54. 2 Chronicles 20:21 tn Or “is eternal.”
  55. 2 Chronicles 20:22 tn Heb “set ambushers against.” This is probably idiomatic here for launching a surprise attack.
  56. 2 Chronicles 20:22 tn Heb “the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir.”
  57. 2 Chronicles 20:23 tn Heb “the sons of Ammon and Moab stood against the residents of Mount Seir.”
  58. 2 Chronicles 20:23 tn Heb “to annihilate and to destroy.”
  59. 2 Chronicles 20:23 tn Heb “residents.”
  60. 2 Chronicles 20:23 tn Heb “they helped, each one his fellow, for destruction.” The verb עָזַר (ʿazar), traditionally understood as the well-attested verb meaning “to help,” is an odd fit in this context. It is possible that it is from a homonymic root, perhaps meaning to “attack.” This root is attested in Ugaritic in a nominal form meaning “young man, warrior, hero.” For a discussion of the proposed root, see HALOT 811 s.v. II עזר.
  61. 2 Chronicles 20:24 tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the men of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the men of Judah.
  62. 2 Chronicles 20:24 tn Heb “turned toward.”
  63. 2 Chronicles 20:25 tn Or “army.”
  64. 2 Chronicles 20:25 tc The MT reads פְגָרִים (fegarim, “corpses”), but this seems odd among a list of plunder. A few medieval Hebrew mss and the Vulgate read בְגָדִים (vegadim, “clothing”), which fits the context much better.
  65. 2 Chronicles 20:25 tn Heb “and they snatched away for themselves so that there was no carrying away.”
  66. 2 Chronicles 20:25 tn Heb “and they were three days looting the plunder for it was great.”
  67. 2 Chronicles 20:26 tn Heb “for there.”
  68. 2 Chronicles 20:26 sn The name Berachah, which means “blessing” in Hebrew, is derived from the verbal root “to praise [or “to bless”],” which appears earlier in the verse.
  69. 2 Chronicles 20:29 tn Heb “and the terror of God [or “a great terror”] was upon all the kingdoms of the lands.” It is uncertain if אֱלֹהִים (ʾelohim) should be understood as a proper name here (“God”), or taken in an idiomatic superlative sense.
  70. 2 Chronicles 20:30 tn Heb “and his God gave him rest all around.”
  71. 2 Chronicles 20:31 tn Heb “The name of his mother.”
  72. 2 Chronicles 20:32 tn Heb “he walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn from it, doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.”
  73. 2 Chronicles 20:33 tn Heb “and still the people did not set their heart[s] on the God of their fathers.”
  74. 2 Chronicles 20:34 tn Heb “the rest of the events of Jehoshaphat, the former and the latter, look, they are written in the records of Jehu son of Hanani, which are taken up in the scroll of the kings of Israel.”
  75. 2 Chronicles 20:35 tn Heb “he.” The pronoun has been translated as a relative pronoun for stylistic reasons.
  76. 2 Chronicles 20:36 tn Heb “he made an alliance with him.”
  77. 2 Chronicles 20:36 tn Heb “make ships to go to Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish; a “Tarshish-ship” was essentially a large seagoing merchant ship.
  78. 2 Chronicles 20:37 tn Heb “when.”
  79. 2 Chronicles 20:37 tn Heb “to go to Tarshish.”
New English Translation (NET)

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Romans 10:14-11:12

14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them?[a] 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely[b] is the arrival[c] of those who proclaim the good news.”[d] 16 But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”[e] 17 Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word[f] of Christ.[g]

18 But I ask, have they[h] not heard?[i] Yes, they have:[j] Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.[k] 19 But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand?[l] First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.”[m] 20 And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.”[n] 21 But about Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!”[o]

Israel’s Rejection not Complete nor Final

11 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!”[p] 4 But what was the divine response[q] to him? “I have kept for myself 7,000 people[r] who have not bent the knee to Baal.”[s]

5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The[t] rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear,
to this very day.”[u]

9 And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10 let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see,
and make their backs bend continually.”[v]

11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall,[w] did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel[x] jealous. 12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration[y] bring?

Footnotes:

  1. Romans 10:14 tn Grk “preaching”; the words “to them” are supplied for clarification.
  2. Romans 10:15 tn The word in this context seems to mean “coming at the right or opportune time” (see BDAG 1103 s.v. ὡραῖος 1); it may also mean “beautiful, attractive, welcome.”
  3. Romans 10:15 tn Grk “the feet.” The metaphorical nuance of “beautiful feet” is that such represent timely news.
  4. Romans 10:15 sn A quotation from Isa 52:7; Nah 1:15.
  5. Romans 10:16 sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.
  6. Romans 10:17 tn The Greek term here is ῥῆμα (rhēma), which often (but not exclusively) focuses on the spoken word.
  7. Romans 10:17 tc Most mss (א1 A D1 Ψ 33 1175 1241 1505 1881 2464 M sy) have θεοῦ (theou) here rather than Χριστοῦ (Christou; found in א* B C D* 6 81 629 1506 1739 lat co). Although the Nestle-Aland apparatus includes P46vid for this reading, more recent photographs by CSNTM reveal it to be κυρίου (“Lord”), a singular reading. External evidence strongly favors the reading “Christ” here. Internal evidence is also on its side, for the expression ῥῆμα Χριστοῦ (rhēma Christou) occurs nowhere else in the NT; thus scribes would be prone to change it to a known expression.tn The genitive could be understood as either subjective (“Christ does the speaking”) or objective (“Christ is spoken about”), but the latter is more likely here.
  8. Romans 10:18 tn That is, Israel (see the following verse).
  9. Romans 10:18 tn Grk “they have not ‘not heard,’ have they?” This question is difficult to render in English. The basic question is a negative sentence (“Have they not heard?”), but it is preceded by the particle μή (mē) which expects a negative response. The end result in English is a double negative (“They have not ‘not heard,’ have they?”). This has been changed to a positive question in the translation for clarity. See BDAG 646 s.v. μή 3.a.; D. Moo, Romans (NICNT), 666, fn. 32; and C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 537, for discussion.
  10. Romans 10:18 tn Here the particle μενοῦνγε (menounge) is correcting the negative response expected by the particle μή (mē) in the preceding question. Since the question has been translated positively, the translation was changed here to reflect that rendering.
  11. Romans 10:18 sn A quotation from Ps 19:4.
  12. Romans 10:19 tn Grk “Israel did not ‘not know,’ did he?” The double negative in Greek has been translated as a positive affirmation for clarity (see v. 18 above for a similar situation).
  13. Romans 10:19 sn A quotation from Deut 32:21.
  14. Romans 10:20 sn A quotation from Isa 65:1.
  15. Romans 10:21 sn A quotation from Isa 65:2.
  16. Romans 11:3 sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.
  17. Romans 11:4 tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”
  18. Romans 11:4 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anēr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.
  19. Romans 11:4 sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.
  20. Romans 11:7 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
  21. Romans 11:8 sn A quotation from Deut 29:4; Isa 29:10.
  22. Romans 11:10 sn A quotation from Ps 69:22-23.
  23. Romans 11:11 tn Grk “that they might fall.”
  24. Romans 11:11 tn Grk “them”; the referent (Israel, cf. 11:7) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  25. Romans 11:12 tn Or “full inclusion”; Grk “their fullness.”
New English Translation (NET)

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Psalm 21

Psalm 21[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

21 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give;[b]
he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide.[c]
2 You grant[d] him his heart’s desire;
you do not refuse his request.[e] (Selah)
3 For you bring him[f] rich[g] blessings;[h]
you place a golden crown on his head.
4 He asked you to sustain his life,[i]
and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty.[j]
5 Your deliverance brings him great honor;[k]
you give him majestic splendor.[l]
6 For you grant him lasting blessings;
you give him great joy by allowing him into your presence.[m]
7 For the king trusts[n] in the Lord,
and because of the Most High’s[o] faithfulness he is not shaken.[p]
8 You[q] prevail over[r] all your enemies;
your power is too great for those who hate you.[s]
9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace[t] when you appear.[u]
The Lord angrily devours them;[v]
the fire consumes them.
10 You destroy their offspring[w] from the earth,
their descendants[x] from among the human race.[y]
11 Yes,[z] they intend to do you harm;[aa]
they dream up a scheme,[ab] but they do not succeed.[ac]
12 For you make them retreat[ad]
when you aim your arrows at them.[ae]
13 Rise up, O Lord, in strength![af]
We will sing and praise[ag] your power.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 21:1 sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.
  2. Psalm 21:1 tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).
  3. Psalm 21:1 tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”
  4. Psalm 21:2 tn The translation assumes the perfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing, stating factually what God typically does for the king. Another option is to take them as present perfects, “you have granted…you have not refused.” See v. 4, which mentions a specific request for a long reign.
  5. Psalm 21:2 tn Heb “and the request of his lips you do not refuse.”
  6. Psalm 21:3 tn Or “meet him [with].”
  7. Psalm 21:3 tn Heb “good.”
  8. Psalm 21:3 sn You bring him rich blessings. The following context indicates that God’s “blessings” include deliverance/protection, vindication, sustained life, and a long, stable reign (see also Pss 3:8; 24:5).
  9. Psalm 21:4 tn Heb “life he asked from you.” Another option is to translate the perfect verbal forms in v. 4 with the present tense, “he asks…you grant.”
  10. Psalm 21:4 tn Heb “you have granted him length of days forever and ever.” The phrase “length of days,” when used of human beings, usually refers to a lengthy period of time (such as one’s lifetime). See, for example, Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20. The additional phrase “forever and ever” is hyperbolic. While it seems to attribute eternal life to the king (see Pss 61:6-7; 72:5 as well), the underlying reality is the king’s enduring dynasty. He will live on, as it were, through his descendants, who will continue to rule over his kingdom long after he has passed off the scene.
  11. Psalm 21:5 tn Or “great glory.”
  12. Psalm 21:5 tn Heb “majesty and splendor you place upon him.” For other uses of the phrase הוֹד וְהָדָר (hod vehadar, “majesty and splendor”) see 1 Chr 16:27; Job 40:10; Pss 96:6; 104:1; 111:3.
  13. Psalm 21:6 tn Heb “you make him happy with joy with [i.e., “close by” or “in”] your face.” On the idiom “with your face” (i.e., “in your presence”) see Ps 16:11 and BDB 816 s.v. פָּנֻה II.2.a.
  14. Psalm 21:7 tn The active participle draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action.
  15. Psalm 21:7 sn The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ʿelyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. Note the focus of vv. 8-12 and see Ps 47:2.
  16. Psalm 21:7 tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “he will not be shaken” (cf. NRSV “he shall not be moved”). Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense.
  17. Psalm 21:8 tn The king is now addressed. One could argue that the Lord is still being addressed, but v. 9 militates against this proposal, for there the Lord is mentioned in the third person and appears to be distinct from the addressee (unless, of course, one takes “Lord” in v. 9 as vocative; see the note on “them” in v. 9b). Verse 7 begins this transition to a new addressee by referring to both the king and the Lord in the third person (in vv. 1-6 the Lord is addressed and only the king referred to in the third person).
  18. Psalm 21:8 tn Heb “your hand finds.” The idiom pictures the king grabbing hold of his enemies and defeating them (see 1 Sam 23:17). The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 8-12 may be translated with the future tense, as long as the future is understood as generalizing.
  19. Psalm 21:8 tn Heb “your right hand finds those who hate you.”
  20. Psalm 21:9 tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).
  21. Psalm 21:9 tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.
  22. Psalm 21:9 tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).
  23. Psalm 21:10 tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.
  24. Psalm 21:10 tn Heb “seed.”
  25. Psalm 21:10 tn Heb “sons of man.”
  26. Psalm 21:11 tn Or “for.”
  27. Psalm 21:11 tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).
  28. Psalm 21:11 sn See Ps 10:2.
  29. Psalm 21:11 tn Heb “they lack ability.”
  30. Psalm 21:12 tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”
  31. Psalm 21:12 tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”
  32. Psalm 21:13 tn Heb “in your strength,” but English idiom does not require the pronoun.sn The psalm concludes with a petition to the Lord, asking him to continue to intervene in strength for the king and nation.
  33. Psalm 21:13 tn Heb “sing praise.”
New English Translation (NET)

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Proverbs 20:4-6

4 The sluggard will not plow[a] during the planting season,[b]
so at harvest time he asks[c] for grain[d] but has nothing.
5 Counsel[e] in a person’s heart[f] is like[g] deep water,[h]
but an understanding person[i] draws it out.
6 Many people profess their loyalty,[j]
but a faithful person[k]—who can find?[l]

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 20:4 sn The act of plowing is put for the whole process of planting a crop.
  2. Proverbs 20:4 tn Heb “from winter.” The preposition מִן (min) may designate the starting point “from winter [onward]” or the cause “due to” (so ASV “by reason of the winter”). The noun “winter” refers to the time for sowing seed and having the early growth of crops. The right time for planting was after the autumn harvest and the rainy season of autumn and winter began.
  3. Proverbs 20:4 tc The Kethib reads a Qal imperfect, while the Qere reads a vav plus Qal perfect consecutive. Both forms would be future; the Qere more overtly states this as a consequence.tn The basic meaning of the Qal verb שָׁאַל (shaʾal) is “to ask;” by extension it sometimes means “to wish for; to desire; to borrow” and perhaps “to beg.” The Piel can mean “to beg” and does not require emending the consonantal text. Because he did not plant, or did not do it at the right time, he is reduced to begging and will have nothing (cf. KJV, ASV; NASB “he begs during the harvest”).
  4. Proverbs 20:4 tn The phrase “for grain” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
  5. Proverbs 20:5 sn The noun means “advice, counsel”; it can have the connotation of planning or making decisions. Those with understanding can sort out plans.
  6. Proverbs 20:5 tn The Hebrew term לֶב (lev) refers to the “mind” (NRSV) as well as the “heart” (KJV, NIV, NASB). The expression refers to unspoken thoughts.
  7. Proverbs 20:5 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
  8. Proverbs 20:5 sn The motives or plans of a person are “difficult to fathom”; it takes someone with understanding to discover and surface them (the verb in the last colon continues the figure with the sense of bringing the plans to the surface and sorting them out).
  9. Proverbs 20:5 tn Heb “a man of understanding”; TEV “someone with insight”; NLT “the wise.”
  10. Proverbs 20:6 tn Heb “many a man calls/proclaims a man of his loyal love.” The Syriac and Tg. Prov 20:6 render the verb as passive: “many are called kind.” Other suggestions include: “most men meet people who will do them occasional kindnesses” (RSV); “many men profess friendship” (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 384); “many men invite only the one who has shown them kindness.” The simplest interpretation in this context is “many proclaim [themselves to be] a kind person (= a loyal friend).” The contrast is between many who claim to be loyal friends and the one who actually proves to be faithful.
  11. Proverbs 20:6 tn The shift to the expression “a man of faithfulness[es]” in the second line indicates that of all those who claim to show faithful love, it is rare to find one who is truly reliable (as the word אֱמוּנִים [ʾemunim] indicates clearly); cf. NAB, NRSV “one worthy of trust.”
  12. Proverbs 20:6 sn The point of the rhetorical question is that a truly faithful friend is very difficult to find.
New English Translation (NET)

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07/27/2023 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37, Romans 10:14-11:12, Psalms 21:1-13, Proverbs 20:4-6

Today is the 27th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather again around the Global Campfire like we do every day. And I for one, am grateful to take for granted what we have here that the Lord would let is live at a time when technology like this exists that we can be knit together all over the world. Centered around the Scriptures as amazing so grateful to be here grateful to be with you. Grateful to be around the global campfire and grateful to take the next step forward and that next step has us has us back in the book of second Chronicles we will spend the next several days working our way through the conclusion of second Chronicles. So let’s take the next step forward today. Second Chronicles chapters 19 and 20.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of second Chronicles today we encounter a story with King Jehoshaphat and an invading army that really gives us a posture or a lesson to learn for our own lives. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we feel really boxed in. Like there’s no there’s no avenue of escape. There’s no way out there attack is coming against us. And there’s there’s no way out and it looks it seems like we can be destroyed, and this is the scenario that’s happening. Under King Jehoshaphat’s reign. This Story Takes Pl. in Jerusalem but also in the Judean desert with the Dead Sea as the great landmark, and three armies from from nations. On the other side of the Dead Sea have allied themselves together to cross the Dead Sea and invade the land in an attacking Jerusalem as a by the time King Jehoshaphat understands what’s happening these invading armies of invaded they’ve crossed over the Dead Sea. Another sort of assembling and grouping for the war, and there at a place called in Getty which is a source of freshwater in the desert. The Dead Sea region. We talked about this before is is barren wilderness it’s full on desert. It’s the lowest point on the earth. And although though there’s plenty of water in the Dead Sea’s not drinkable at all. So the oasis of an Getty still exists until today is something we’ve talked about in the past to this beautiful waterfall there as well as a a lot of history there biblical and otherwise so King Jehoshaphat feared God restored the people to God. He was doing what was right in the sight of the Lord, but despite his efforts of restoring the land that God this vast horde was coming to attack Jerusalem and they were that far away. About 18 miles so they didn’t have time to get a committee together and call in the Army garrisons and build reinforcements and make a plan for how to subvert the plans of the invading army then have this kind of time and they didn’t have resources to to make it happen either. So King Jehoshaphat was terrified and and maybe that’s a point we should sit with four second he was afraid, and for good reason. So let’s acknowledge that he was afraid when circumstances in our lives come out of nowhere and we feel boxed in and we don’t know what to do. We can feel those feelings of being just completely overwhelmed and confused and hopeless we can find ourselves having panic attacks or are night terrors. So it’s the next move. In this story that can give us guidance because Jehoshaphat was terrified. He was afraid of the implications of what could happen when he didn’t melt down in going the other direction either just going to overdrive trying to do everything possible to to see if there’s anything that can be done to reinforce Jerusalem. He also didn’t send ambassadors down to the armies to negotiate terms of surrender. What he did do was bag the Lord to tell them what to do he call all the people together to fast and stand before the Lord and bag God for his assistance. And that’s very much worth paying attention to because often we find ourselves in these kinds of circumstances where we don’t know what to do and that doesn’t seem to be a way out and we feel threatened in an unsafe God often becomes the last ditch effort rather than the first move we make and this may invariably lead us to have experiences that are very very difficult that could have been avoided. Jehoshaphat called his people together to come before the Lord to worship God to declare his faithfulness and his power, and to be honest and acknowledge the situation and I quote the King here, King Jehoshaphat’s our God, will you not judge them for we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do when our eyes are on you and what is being declared. Here is the is the lesson that the children of Israel had been learning all the way since their deliverance from slavery under dependence on God and this is what Jehoshaphat is acknowledging we don’t know what to do. There’s nothing in our power we can do. We are utterly dependent on you as the story goes, God responds and he speaks through a Levite named Jossey L and the messages, but let me just quote it. Listen King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says to you, do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours but God’s. You will not have to fight this battle, take up your position, stand firm, and see the deliverance the Lord will give you Judah and Jerusalem, do not be afraid to not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow and the Lord will be with you and they obeyed and they went out in obedience to the instructions. Lord had given them, and their role in the story ended up being that of a spectator. The armies of the three Allied nations turned on one another and destroyed themselves so entering into this story helps us to see that one when were were walking with God were moving along in our lives and were surprised by something that invades us that we didn’t see coming that were not prepared for the we don’t have time to get prepared for we don’t have resources to prepare for the story reminds us that moving into panic and anxiety and thrashing around trying to save ourselves in our own strength probably won’t work and is is unnecessary life for each of us and I mean I guess there are people that go through life with an no problems there are no challenges but I don’t know any of them in the circumstances of life sometimes do feel like were surrounded and there is no way out and we just need to remember that the move is that we will have to surrender, we will not be surrendering to the enemy we surrender to God. Our hope and utter dependence is in the God and we get to watch what he will do.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for that and encouragement from second Chronicles today that really orients us yet again to the fact that we have to remind ourselves every day were not the ones in control here. And sometimes we have the illusion that we are but life has a way of continually reminding us that were not we are reminded that we are utterly dependent on you. Our hope is in the EU and the outcomes are in your hands so we once again declare our allegiance and loyalty to you. Our hope is in you, Holy Spirit, calm and comfort us. Our confidence is in you and you alone so we surrender circumstances, and they twist us in a knot and we don’t even know what we’re seeing anymore. We can make ourselves crazy inside. Or, we can surrender and we surrender to you. You are the Lord of Heaven’s armies. There is none other than you. There is no force or power above or beside you. We are your children, so we hope in you father we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

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7/26/2023 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34, Romans 9:25-10:13, Psalm 20:1-9, Proverbs 20:2-3

Today is the 26th day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is great to be here with you today, another day around the Global Campfire. Another step forward, as we continue this journey through the Scriptures, and our journey through the season of summer. At least here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. I realize that some of you are experiencing the season of winter, which is cool too. We move through the seasons, regardless of what season we’re in, we move through them together. So, let’s keep moving, our next step forward leads us back into the book of Second Chronicles, and today we will read chapters 17 and 18.

Commentary:

Alright, so, as we continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the Romans, a letter written in a Hebrew context, to Hebrew audience, we’ve seen that Paul’s being very careful. He’s being very forthright and very direct in what he’s saying, but he’s being very careful about what he’s saying. And we can see that he’s not attempting, as he has been accused of, of trying to basically throw Judaism, his religion, under the bus, in favor of a new religion, based upon Jesus Christ. Rather, he’s meticulously trying to explain that it’s the same story, that Jesus is a continuation of the same story that came through the children of Abraham. So that this chosen people, they were chosen for a reason, to reveal God to everyone in the world. And from Paul’s own mouth, from his own testimony, we know that he was a well-educated, deeply devoted Pharisee. Like, trying to live into this, completely devoting himself to God and into obey and adhere to the Mosaic law, so that he could become righteous before God, only to discover what everyone discovered. Becoming perfect on your own, like with no missteps at all, is an impossibility. Obeying these commands with no slip-ups perfectly for all times, so that one could declare themselves righteous before God, is an impossibility. And so, Paul says in his letter, and I quote, “the people of Israel who pursued the law as the dull way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it, not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.” Right, that’s a way of saying like they’ve lost the plot. The law was supposed to be a continual reminder of what God had brought them out of and to lead them into complete dependence on God. Because the law reveals our sin, our inability to be righteous on our own. Instead, it had become a source of power to control. Paul says, I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. So, for Paul, Jesus reveals what it looks like, what a person who is righteous, what that looks like. And Jesus didn’t achieve this through adherence to a law. In fact, Jesus would get, was getting in trouble for that all the time, especially over the Sabbath day. Jesus modeled utter dependence, true intimacy with God and complete obedience, complete faith in God. So, for Paul, it’s faith and not works. It’s a gift, not something that can be earned, and trying to earn it is a feeble attempt at the impossible. Nobody can obey the law perfectly. But for Paul, that’s the point. The law was to lead us to the end of our own attempts to be righteous and make us face the fact that it cannot happen in our own strength. All have fallen short of the glory of God. And so, that leaves us only one thing, a leap of faith, trusting that God is merciful, believing in the one that he sent to restore us. So, we can look at all this and if we’re like, you know, theology buffs, then we like to get into the nuances of all this. We could also read this and go it’s just so tedious and so technical that I don’t really understand the implications. Well, here’s a practical implication, if you, if we have lived our lives under a dark cloud, believing fully in God’s udder displeasure in us and with us in our actions and words and thoughts, and we think somehow in the back of our mind we think subtly it’s just a matter of time. It’s just a matter of time until that mighty hammer falls on me. Then take heart because that’s not what’s happening. According to Paul, the faith that we put the belief in Jesus, this is the bridge and when we cross that bridge believe, it’s done. We have been made perfect in the sight of God. And so, the baggage and wounds from our upbringing, they can’t, they can’t stop that, our ethnicity can’t stop that. Our sin can’t stop that because as Paul said, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord is invited. Let me just read this out of the Bible and put it back in Paul’s words, “if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you’ve never crossed that bridge of faith and then this is your time, like this is the moment, believe because it’s the truth. God loves you, God is for you. It’s time to come home. And if you are a believer who just walks under the cloud of God’s displeasure, then this is your time. Walk in freedom. That’s not true. It’s not a reality. God loves you, God is for you. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Prayer:

And so, Father, that is such good news, we thank You for this good news. We believe in it. And it shifts things inside of us, every time we focus upon it. It’s transformational. You love us so much that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in us, You are within us. When we think about these spiritual realities and then we look at the way that we’re navigating our lives as if we don’t even know what’s going on, it's…it’s almost comical. The God of the universe is here with us, and we are so often unaware of it, or so often believing something different than that. Forgive us Lord, thank You for your patience. Thank You for Your love for us. Come, Holy Spirit, and continue to transform us, that we may continue to collaborate with You in the work of redeeming this world and revealing You. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base and that is where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app will give you that and a lot more and you can download it free from the App Store that works with your device. So, check that out. Check out the different sections like the Community Section. This is where to get connected on social media. This is where the Prayer Wall lives. Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop, there are resources for this journey through the Bible in a year to take it deeper and wider. Check out the resources that are there, including this brand-new T-shirt that we just released for Daily Audio Bible Kids with Ezekiel on the front. You can find that in the Lifestyle Section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you, humbly, thank you for your partnership. We couldn’t be here if we weren’t here together. And so, thank you as we move through the summer months for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, DAB Family, it’s Liza calling from the East Coast. I also go by Philippians 4:6 on the Prayer Wall. I just wanted to thank you all so much for all your prayers. I just feel so special and loved. And just knowing that this community is keeping in your prayers and hasn’t forgotten about me, it just means so much. My cancer journey has been pretty tough. I had another kind of tough month. I have more fluid in my lungs and so, there’s now more of a danger of me, of my lungs collapsing potentially. So, I really appreciate your prayers over that. So far, I feel like I’ve defied the odds and I’ve been okay. And I also really appreciate your prayers over a bucket list trip. I just, I don’t’ know, I feel like God has always just given me a spirit of adventure. And I have so much joy in travel. And so, it’s been really hard to you know, not be able to be go a lot of new places. And so, I’m just praying that this trip is possible, and that God protects me before the trip it is very clear that my health is good. And I’m pretty optimistic so, I could just use your prayers about just clarity from God and also, just God providing for the type of adventure He knows I need. And then finally, my family has been really just toxic and hurtful recently. And just not respecting my boundaries. And so, if you could also just continue to pray that I just get a sense of relief from that. I just feel like the enemy has been using my family to really hurt me and I just, I don’t have a lot of energy. So, having to use that on drama instead of focusing on healing is just a lot. Anyways, thank you so much. I love you all. And I’ve been praying for all of you as well.

Good morning, Daily Audio Bible. I want to post a prayer for Derick. Derick called and asked for prayer for him. He said that his wife had left him and filed for divorce. Derick, I just want you to know that you’re not alone. God is with you. God knows where she is and what she’s doing. But during this time period, focus on Derick. Focus on Christ. And do all that you can to grow closer to Him. Because the closer you get to Him, the closer you get to healing, the closer you get to peace. Pray for her but chase God. Fill your life and your heart with His word, because there’s healing in there. There’s wisdom and understanding, there’s strength and there’s life. Part of you has died, replace it with the life of Christ. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for loving us and understanding us and being with us. I ask that You be with Derick to give him the strength that he needs. Give him the courage that he needs to go forward. Lord, I ask that You would fill his life and his heart and his mind with Your word and Your presence. Let him know that he’s not alone. He’s not by himself. You are with him, always. That You would never leave him. Wrap him, wrap Your arms around him and give him comfort. And wherever his wife is, bring her back. Fight their battle against the enemy. And give them unity and restoration. In Jesus name. Amen.

I recently learned the lesson of the bamboo tree
And all the parallel analogies between that tree and me
That tree can grow so tall, so fast that it mystifies the mind
90 feet or more in the first five years, much faster than most trees you’ll find
But for the first four and half years, you’ll only see a sprout
just a tiny shoot above the ground is all that’ll be sticking out
But in the last 6 months of the 5th year, it grows 90 feet or more
Only the most loyal, faithful cultivators would stick it out to see what’s in store
But God is like that in our lives, He’s faithful and He’s true
And even when we show little or no growth, He’s still gives grace and mercy too
Most will say just let it die, it looks like it’s dead already
But He never loses hope for us, his hands are true and steady
Great is His faithfulness, great is His faithfulness,
Morning by morning, new mercies we see
God changes not His compassions they fail not
And as He has __ forever we’ll be
And when all our worldly hope is gone and no more friends are left around
That little sprout that we had left for dead becomes a tree high above the ground
With roots so deep that the fiercest of storms could never erode his grip
They bend, they sway, some branches may break but mostly the tree will just dip
While we see nothing above the ground, there’s continual growth below
Only God can make a tree and there’s a lot of things we just don’t know
But I also know that sometimes it looks like there’s little or no growth in me
So, I’m thankful for His loving hands and I’m sure in time all will see
That growth was present all the time and God was present too
Carefully nurturing day-by-day, so my roots would hold fast too
Don’t be so quick to judge that shoot that’s barely sticking out of the ground
God has the power to make it as strong as any tree

Hello, DAB family, this is Diana from Florida. And I want to wage war on the enemy right now. Because almost every call that I am hearing has to do with a marriage being disintegrated in some particular fashion. Dear Jesus, I cry out to you right now, oh Lord of hosts. The one who fights are battles on our behalf, Lord God. The one who is the redeemer and the restorer of all things, Jesus. I cry out to You for all of the marriages in our community, oh Lord God. For every single couple, oh Lord, that has been brought together by You, Holy Spirit of God. Father God, Your word says that what You have joined, no man can separate. And Lord God, I pray, in the name of Jesus, that not the enemy and not even themselves can separate each other, oh Lord oh God, in Jesus name. I pray that there would be a renewed conviction of the importance of marriage, oh Lord, oh God, and why it matters to remain together for life. I pray that the Scriptures that talk about the fact that when you try to divorce and move on, to another marriage or another person, that it is indeed committing adultery, oh Lord God. I pray that You would put the fear of God in all of the couples, oh Lord, to see about working through the marriage, about doing everything that it takes to get help, to get assistance. Whether that be counseling, accountability, support, all of the things but to wage war against the sins that so easily ensnare them and cause their egos to completely guide the decision making in their relationships. Oh Father God, I pray right now for humility. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would penetrate and do a transformation in these marriages. In Jesus name. Amen.