DAB Readings – Page 98 – A Walk Through The Word

September 26, 2021

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

Isaiah 48:12-50:11

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

¹⁷This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,^(H) the Holy One of Israel^(I) says:

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

²⁰Leave Babylon,
flee from the Chaldeans!
Declare with a shout of joy,
proclaim this,
let it go out to the end of the earth;
announce,
“The Lord has redeemed his servant^(M) Jacob!”
²¹They did not thirst
when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow from the rock for them;^(N)
he split the rock, and water gushed out.
²²“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.^(O)

The Servant Brings Salvation

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

⁸This is what the Lord says:

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

¹³Shout for joy, you heavens!^(AH)
Earth, rejoice!
Mountains break into joyful shouts!
For the Lord has comforted his people,^(AI)
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.^(AJ)

Zion Remembered

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

²²This is what the Lord God says:

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

²⁴Can the prey be taken from a mighty man,
or the captives of a tyrant^[m] be delivered?
²⁵For this is what the Lord says:
“Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken,
and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered;
I will contend with the one who contends with you,
and I will save your children.
²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,^(AU)
and they will be drunk with their own blood
as with sweet wine.
Then all humanity will know
that I, the Lord, am your Savior,^(AV)
and your Redeemer,^(AW) the Mighty One of Jacob.”^(AX)

50 This is what the Lord says:

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

The Obedient Servant

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

⁷The Lord God will help me;
therefore I have not been humiliated;
therefore I have set my face like flint,^(BI)
and I know I will not be put to shame.
⁸The one who vindicates me is near;^(BJ)
who will contend with me?
Let us confront each other.^[n]
Who has a case against me?^[o]
Let him come near me!

⁹In truth, the Lord God will help me;
who will condemn me?^(BK)
Indeed, all of them will wear out like a garment;
a moth will devour them.^(BL)
¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord
and listens to his servant?^(BM)
Who among you walks in darkness,
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord;
let him lean on his God.
¹¹Look, all you who kindle a fire,
who encircle yourselves with^[p] torches;
walk in the light of your fire
and of the torches you have lit!
This is what you’ll get from my hand:
you will lie down in a place of torment.

Footnotes:

48:14 Lit among them
48:14 = Cyrus
49:1 Or Islands
49:7 Or by the nation
49:7 Lit princes and they
49:12 Lit sea
49:12 DSS read of the Syenites
49:12 Perhaps modern Aswan in southern Egypt
49:17 DSS, Aq, Theod, Vg; MT, Syr, Sym read sons
49:18 Lit all of them
49:21 Lit where are they
49:23 Lit princesses
49:24 DSS, Syr, Vg; MT reads a righteous man
50:8 Lit us stand
50:8 Lit Who is lord of my judgment
50:11 Syr reads who set ablaze

Cross references:

48:12 : Is 41:4; 43:10–13; 46:4; Rv 1:17
48:13 : Ps 102:25; Is 42:5; 45:12,18; Heb 1:10–12
48:14 : Is 13:4–5,17–19; 46:10–11
48:15 : Is 41:2; 45:1–2
48:15 : Is 53:10
48:16 : Is 45:19
48:16 : Nm 27:18; Ps 51:11; Is 61:1; 63:7,10; Zch 2:9,11
48:17 : Is 41:14; 43:14
48:17 : Is 1:4
48:18 : Is 32:16–18; 66:12
48:18 : Dt 5:29; 32:29; Ps 81:13–16; Am 5:24
48:19 : Gn 22:17; Is 10:22; 44:3–4; 54:3; Hs 1:10
48:20 : Is 41:8–9; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1–2,21; 45:4; 49:3; 54:17; Lk 1:54
48:21 : Ex 17:6; Ps 78:15–16
48:22 : Is 57:21
49:1 : Is 44:2,24; 46:3; Jr 1:5
49:1 : Lk 1:15
49:2 : Is 11:4; Heb 4:12; Rv 1:16; 2:12,16
49:2 : Is 51:16
49:3 : Is 41:8–9; 42:1; 49:5–7; 50:10; 52:13; 53:11; Ezk 34:23–24; Zch 3:8; Ac 3:13
49:6 : Is 42:6; 51:4; Lk 2:32; Ac 13:47; 26:23
49:6 : Ac 13:47
49:7 : Is 41:14; 43:14
49:7 : Ps 22:6–8; 69:7–9; Is 53:3
49:7 : Is 1:4
49:7 : Is 41:8–9; 42:1; 43:10,20; 44:1–2; 45:4; 65:9,15,22
49:8 : Ps 69:13; 2Co 6:2
49:8 : Is 42:6
49:9 : Is 42:7; 61:1; Lk 4:18
49:9 : Is 41:18
49:10 : Ps 23:2; Is 40:11; Jn 4:10; Rv 7:16–17
49:11 : Is 40:4
49:12 : Is 43:5–6
49:13 : Is 44:23
49:13 : Is 40:1
49:13 : Is 54:7–10; Mt 11:29
49:16 : Sg 8:6; Hg 2:23
49:18 : Is 60:4
49:19 : Is 54:1–2; Zch 10:10
49:20 : Is 54:1–3
49:22 : Is 11:10–12; 18:3; 62:10
49:22 : Is 14:2; 43:6; 60:4
49:23 : Is 60:3,10–11
49:23 : Is 14:1–2
49:23 : Is 41:20; 43:10; 60:16
49:23 : Ps 25:3; Is 45:17; Jl 2:27
49:26 : Is 9:20
49:26 : Is 43:3
49:26 : Is 41:14
49:26 : Gn 49:24; Ps 132:2,5; Is 60:16
50:1 : Dt 24:1–3; Jr 3:8
50:1 : Dt 32:30; 2Kg 4:1; Neh 5:5
50:1 : Is 13:11
50:2 : Gn 18:14; Nm 11:23; Is 59:1
50:2 : Ex 14:21; Is 43:16; 44:27
50:3 : Rv 6:12
50:4 : Is 8:16; 54:13
50:4 : Jn 4:34
50:5 : Jn 8:29; 14:31; 15:10; Php 2:8; Heb 5:8
50:6 : Mt 26:67; 27:26; Mk 14:65; 15:19; Lk 22:63; Jn 19:1–5
50:7 : Ezk 3:8–9
50:8 : Is 45:25
50:9 : Rm 8:33–34
50:9 : Jb 13:28; Is 51:8; Hs 5:12
50:10 : Is 42:1; 49:3–7; 52:13; 53:11; Ezk 34:23–24; Zch 3:8; Ac 3:13

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

Ephesians 4:17-32

Living the New Life

¹⁷Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because^[a] of the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity^(A) with a desire for more and more.^[b]

²⁰But that is not how you came to know Christ, ²¹assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth^(B) is in Jesus, ²²to take off^[c]^(C) your former way of life,^(D) the old self^(E) that is corrupted by deceitful desires, ²³to be renewed^[d] in the spirit^(F) of your minds, ²⁴and to put on^[e]^(G) the new self, the one created^(H) according to God’s likeness^(I) in righteousness and purity of the truth.

²⁵Therefore, putting away^(J) lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor,^[f]^(K) because we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry and do not sin.^[g]^(L) Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and don’t give the devil an opportunity. ²⁸Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share^(M) with anyone in need. ²⁹No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need,^[h] so that it gives grace to those who hear. ³⁰And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit.^(N) You were sealed by him^[i] for the day of redemption.^(O) ³¹Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. ³²And be kind^(P) and compassionate^(Q) to one another, forgiving^(R) one another, just as God also forgave you^[j] in Christ.

Footnotes:

4:18 Or in them because
4:19 Lit with greediness
4:21–22 Or Jesus. This means: take off (as a command)
4:22–23 Or desires; renew (as a command)
4:23–24 Or minds; and put on (as a command)
4:25 Zch 8:16
4:26 Ps 4:4
4:29 Lit for the building up of the need
4:30 Or Spirit, by whom you were sealed
4:32 Other mss read us

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Psalm 69:1-18

Psalm 69

A Plea for Rescue

For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.”^(A) Of David.

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

⁵God, you know my foolishness,
and my guilty acts are not hidden from you.^(G)
⁶Do not let those who put their hope in you
be disgraced because of me,
Lord God of Armies;
do not let those who seek you
be humiliated because of me,
God of Israel.^(H)
⁷For I have endured insults because of you,
and shame has covered my face.^(I)
⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons^(J)
⁹because zeal for your house has consumed me,^(K)
and the insults of those who insult you
have fallen on me.^(L)
¹⁰I mourned and fasted,
but it brought me insults.^(M)
¹¹I wore sackcloth as my clothing,
and I was a joke to them.
¹²Those who sit at the city gate talk about me,
and drunkards make up songs about me.^(N)

¹³But as for me, Lord,
my prayer to you is for a time of favor.
In your abundant, faithful love, God,
answer me with your sure salvation.^(O)
¹⁴Rescue me from the miry mud; don’t let me sink.
Let me be rescued from those who hate me
and from the deep water.^(P)
¹⁵Don’t let the floodwaters sweep over me
or the deep swallow me up;
don’t let the Pit close its mouth over me.^(Q)
¹⁶Answer me, Lord,
for your faithful love is good.
In keeping with your abundant compassion,
turn to me.^(R)
¹⁷Don’t hide your face from your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me quickly!^(S)
¹⁸Come near to me and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.^(T)

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Proverbs 24:5-6

⁵A wise warrior is better than a strong one,^[a]
and a man of knowledge than one of strength;^[b]^(A)
⁶for you should wage war with sound guidance—
victory comes with many counselors.^(B)

Footnotes:

24:5 LXX, Syr; MT reads is in strength
24:5 LXX, Syr, Tg; MT reads knowledge exerts strength

Cross references:

24:5 : Pr 21:22
24:6 : Pr 11:14; 15:22; 20:18

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

September 25, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday September 25, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 45:11-48

¹¹This is what the Lord says,
the Holy One of Israel, who formed Israel.
Do you wish to question me concerning things to come?
Will you give me orders about my children
and about the work of my hands?
¹²I myself made the earth,
and I created Adam^[a] upon it.
With my hands I stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their army.

Cyrus as the Lord’s Servant

¹³I myself will arouse him in righteousness,
and I will make all his roads level for him.
He himself will rebuild my city.
He will set my exiles free—
but not for a price and not for a gift,
says the Lord of Armies.
¹⁴This is what the Lord says.
The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush
and those tall Sabeans will cross over to you and become yours.
They will walk behind you and approach you in chains.
They will bow down to you and plead with you and say,
“Yes, God is with you, and there is no other.
There is no other God.”

The Hidden God Is Revealed

¹⁵Indeed, you are a God who hides himself.
You are the God of Israel, the Savior.
¹⁶They will be ashamed.
All of them will also be disgraced.
Together they will walk in humiliation—those experts at crafting images.
¹⁷Israel will be saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.
You will not be ashamed or disgraced for all eternity.

¹⁸This is what the Lord says.
He created the heavens,
He is God!
He formed the earth and made it.
Yes, he established it!
He did not create it to remain empty.^[b]
He formed it to be inhabited.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹I did not speak in secret,
or from someplace in a land of darkness.
I did not say to the descendants^[c] of Jacob,
“Seek me in the midst of chaos.”^[d]
I, the Lord, am speaking in righteousness.
I am declaring what is right.

²⁰Gather! Come! Draw near together,
you survivors from the nations.
They have no knowledge—
those who are lifting up their idols of wood
and praying to a god that cannot save.
²¹Make an announcement and come close.
Let them consult together.
Who made this known ahead of time?
From time past who announced it?
Was it not I, the Lord?
There is no god except me,
a righteous God and Savior.
There is no one except me.
²²Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth,
because I am God,
and there is no other.
²³I have sworn by myself.
From my mouth a righteous word has gone out,
and it will not return unfulfilled.
Indeed, to me every knee will bow,
and every tongue will swear allegiance.
²⁴“Only in the Lord,” they will say of me,
“Only in the Lord is there true righteousness and strength.”
To him they will come and be ashamed—
all those who are angry at him.
²⁵In the Lord, all the descendants^[e] of Israel will be justified.
They will be praised by him.^[f]

Judgment Against the Idols of Babylon

Bel bows down. Nebo stoops.
Babylon’s idols are a heavy load, carried by animals and cattle.
They are dead weight for the tired animals that carry them.
²The animals stoop. They bow down together.
They are not able to save their burdensome load.
They go into captivity.

³Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all of you who are left from the house of Israel,
you who have been carried from birth,
you who have been lifted up from before you were born.
⁴Until your old age, I am he,
and until you have gray hair, I myself will hold you up.
I myself made you, and I myself will lift you up.
I myself will hold you up, and I will rescue you.

⁵Whom can you set beside me as if we were equal?
Whom can you compare to me as if we were alike?
⁶People pour out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on a scale.
They hire a smith,
and he makes the metal into a god.
They bow down to it. They even worship it.
⁷They lift it up. They carry it on their shoulders.
They set it up in its place, but it just stands there.
It cannot move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not answer.
It cannot save him from his distress.
⁸Remember this, and stand firm.
You rebels, take this to heart!

⁹Remember the former^[g] things that took place long ago,
for I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is no one like me.
¹⁰I am the one who announces the final outcome already in the beginning.
I announce ahead of time things that have not yet been done.
I am the one who says, “My plan will stand,
and I will do everything I want to do.”
¹¹I am the one who calls a bird of prey from the east.
I call the man who fulfills my plan from a faraway land.
Yes, I have spoken. I will certainly bring it to pass.
I have formed a plan, and I will certainly carry it out.
¹²Listen to me, you who have stubborn hearts,
you who are far from righteousness.
¹³I will bring my righteousness near. It will not be far away.
I will bring my salvation near. It will not be delayed.
I will set up salvation in Zion,
and I will show my splendor to Israel.

Babylon’s Fall

Go down and sit in the dust, you virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans,
for you will never again be called delicate and pampered.
²Take millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil. Strip off your skirt.
Expose your thighs. Wade through rivers.
³Let your nakedness be exposed.
Let your shame be seen!
I will take vengeance.
I will not spare anyone.

⁴Our Redeemer—the Lord of Armies is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Daughter of the Chaldeans, sit silently, and enter into the darkness,
for you will never again be called queen of the kingdoms.
⁶I was angry with my people.
I defiled my heritage.
I gave them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged you made your yoke very heavy.
⁷You said, “I will be a lady forever.”
You did not take these things to heart.
You did not remember how this will turn out.
⁸But now hear this, you wanton lover of pleasure,
who sits securely,
who says in her heart,
“I am the one, and there is no one except me.
I will not live as a widow.
I will not experience the loss of children.”
⁹But these two things will come upon you in an instant, in one day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come to you in full measure
in spite of your many magic spells,
in spite of the great power of your magic charms.

¹⁰You felt secure in your wickedness.
You said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray.
So you said in your heart, “I am the one,
and there is not another one beside me.”
¹¹But disaster will come upon you.
You do not know when it will come.
Calamity will fall upon you.
You will not be able to atone for it.
A devastating blow that you did not expect will come
upon you suddenly.
¹²Go ahead, stand secure in your magic charms
and in your many magic spells,
with which you have been laboring since your youth.
Perhaps you will be able to profit.
Perhaps you will be able to inspire terror.
¹³You are worn out by all the advice you receive.
Let them stand up and save you—
those who make charts of the skies to practice astrology,
those who gaze at the stars to obtain omens,
those who predict what will happen to you on each new moon.
¹⁴Look, they are nothing but stubble.
Fire consumes them.
They are not able to save themselves from the power of the flame.
There are no burning coals to warm their food.^[h]
There is no firelight to sit in front of.
¹⁵They can do nothing more for you—
those who have worn you out with all their dealings with you
from your youth.
Each one wanders in his own direction.
There is no one left to save you.

Judgment Is Coming on Stubborn Israel

Hear this, you house of Jacob,
you who call yourselves by the name of Israel,
who came forth from the waters of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in true righteousness.
²Yes, they name themselves after the Holy City,
and they lean on the God of Israel—
the Lord of Armies is his name.
³Things that took place long ago,
I announced before they happened.
From my mouth the announcement went out.
I made these things known.
Then suddenly I acted, and they came about.
⁴I did this because I know that you are stubborn.
Your neck is as stiff as iron,
and your forehead is as hard as bronze.
⁵I declared this to you long ago.
Before it came about, I announced it to you,
to prevent you from saying, “My false god did it.
My wooden idol and my metal image commanded it.”
⁶You heard all this.
Now look at the facts.
Won’t you admit that I am right?

From now on I will also announce new things to you,
hidden things that you never knew.
⁷These things are being created right now, not long ago.
You have not heard of them before today,
so you cannot say, “Oh, I already knew that!”
⁸No, you have never heard them.
You certainly never knew them.
Your ear was not open, even back then.
Yes, I knew that you would be extremely unfaithful.
You were called a rebel before you were born.

⁹For my name’s sake, I am slow to express my anger.
So that I will be praised, I will hold it back from you.
As a result, you are not cut off.

¹⁰You see, I refined you, but not in the same way silver is refined.
I tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act.
Why should my name be defiled?
My glory I will not give to another.

Footnotes:

Isaiah 45:12 Or mankind
Isaiah 45:18 The same Hebrew word translated empty describes the first stage of creation in Genesis 1.
Isaiah 45:19 Literally the seed
Isaiah 45:19 The same Hebrew translated chaos describes the first stage of creation in Genesis 1.
Isaiah 45:25 Or all the seed
Isaiah 45:25 Or be confident in him or shine in glory
Isaiah 46:9 Or first
Isaiah 47:14 The translation follows the standard Hebrew reading. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and some ancient versions read to warm them up.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Ephesians 4:1-16

Members of Christ’s Body

4 As a prisoner in the Lord, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. ²Live with all humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love.

³Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in the one hope of your calling. ⁵There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us^[a] all.

⁷But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of the gift from Christ. ⁸That is why it says, “When he ascended on high, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to his people.”^[b] ⁹Now what does it mean when it says “he ascended,” other than that he also had descended^[c] to the lower parts, namely, the earth?^[d] ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. ¹¹He himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, ¹²for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving,^[e] in order to build up the body of Christ. ¹³This is to continue until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, resulting in a mature man with a stature reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, when people use tricks and invent clever ways to lead us astray. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we would in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. ¹⁶From him the whole body, being joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows in accordance with Christ’s activity when he measured out each individual part. He causes the growth of the body so that it builds itself up in love.

Footnotes:

Ephesians 4:6 Some witnesses to the text omit us.
Ephesians 4:8 Psalm 68:18
Ephesians 4:9 Some witnesses to the text add first.
Ephesians 4:9 Or to the lower parts of the earth
Ephesians 4:12 Or ministry

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 68:19-35

God’s Daily Care

¹⁹Blessed be the Lord.
Day by day he bears our burdens.
He is the God who saves us. Interlude

God’s Future Victories

²⁰Our God is a God who saves.
From God the Lord comes escape from death.
²¹Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
the scalps of those who walk around in their guilt.
²²The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan.
I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
²³so that you may stomp your foot in blood.
The tongues of your dogs get their share of the enemies’ blood.”

God’s Procession Into the Temple

²⁴They see your processions, O God,
the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
²⁵The singers lead the way.
After them come the musicians.
In the middle are virgins playing hand drums.
²⁶In the assemblies bless God, the Lord,
who is the Fountain of Israel.^[a]
²⁷There is little Benjamin, leading them.
The officers of Judah are their noisy crowd.
There are the officers of Zebulun and the officers of Naphtali.

Prayer for Future Victory

²⁸Your God commands your strength.
Show strength, O God, as you have done for us before.

God Rules the Nations

²⁹Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring tribute to you.
³⁰Threaten the beast among the reeds,
the herd of strong bulls among the calves (that is, the peoples),
until they submit with bars of silver.^[b]
He scatters the peoples who delight in battles.
³¹Envoys^[c] will come from Egypt.
Cush^[d] will run to stretch out its hands to God.
³²Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth. Interlude
Make music to the Lord,
³³to him who rides in the highest heavens,
in the ancient heavens.
Yes, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.
³⁴Proclaim God’s strength.
His majesty is over Israel,
and his power is in the skies.

Closing Praise

³⁵You are awesome, O God, from your sanctuary.
The God of Israel, he is the one
who gives power and strength to the people.
Blessed be God!

Footnotes:

Psalm 68:26 The grammar and syntax of the sentence are difficult.
Psalm 68:30 Verse 30 is cryptic. It seems to describe a threatening nation as a beast, a frequent picture in Scripture. The translation attempts to be literal.
Psalm 68:31 The meaning of this word is uncertain. It may refer to colored cloth or to metal vessels.
Psalm 68:31 The territory south of Egypt

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 24:3-4

³With wisdom a house is built.
With understanding it is established.
⁴With knowledge its rooms are filled with every kind of riches,
both valuable and appealing.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 24, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday September 24, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

¹⁴This is what the Lord says,
the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
For your sake I am taking action against Babylon,
and I will bring down all the Chaldeans as refugees,
in the ships over which they rejoiced.
¹⁵I am the Lord, your Holy One,
Israel’s Creator, your King.
¹⁶This is what the Lord says,
who makes a road through the sea
and a path through mighty waters,
¹⁷who brings out the chariot and the horses,
the army and the strong warrior.
They will all lie down together.
They will not get up.
They are extinguished.
Like a wick they go out.

¹⁸Do not remember the former^[a] things.
Do not keep thinking about ancient things.
¹⁹Watch, I am about to do a new thing.
Now it will spring up. Don’t you know about it?
Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness.
In the wasteland I will make rivers.
²⁰The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,
because I am providing water in the wilderness,
rivers in a parched wasteland,
water for my chosen people to drink.
²¹This people that I formed for myself will declare my praise.

²²But you have not called on me, O Jacob.
Instead, you have become weary of me, O Israel.
²³You have not brought me sheep as your whole burnt offerings.
You did not glorify me with your sacrifices.
I did not make you serve me with a grain offering.
I did not make you weary with demands for incense.
²⁴You did not purchase fragrant cane for me with silver
or satisfy me with the fat from your sacrifices.
Instead you have made me serve because of your sins.
You have made me weary because of your guilt.
²⁵I, yes I, am he.
I blot out your rebellious deeds for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.
²⁶Refresh my memory.
Let us review your case together.
Present your defense so that you may be acquitted.
²⁷Your first father sinned,
and your mediators rebelled against me.
²⁸Therefore I am repudiating the officials of the sanctuary,
and I am giving Jacob over to complete destruction
and Israel to insults.^[b]

The Lord Comforts His People

But now listen, O Jacob my servant,
O Israel, whom I have chosen.
²This is what the Lord, your Maker, says,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, who will help you.
Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob,

Jeshurun,^[c] whom I have chosen,
³because I will pour out water upon a thirsty land,
and streams of water upon dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴They will spring up like a tree in a grassy meadow,^[d]
like willows beside flowing streams.

⁵One person will say, “I belong to the Lord.”
Another will be called by the name of Jacob.
Another will write on his hand, “Belonging to the Lord,”
and he will take the name of Israel.

The Lord Confronts Idols

⁶This is what the Lord, the King of Israel,
Israel’s Redeemer, the Lord of Armies, says.
I am the first, and I am the last.
Except for me, there is no god.
⁷For who is like me? Let him declare it.
Let him recite in order for me the things that took place
since the time I established an ancient people.
Or let them declare what is yet to come,
and what is going to take place.

⁸Do not tremble, and do not be frightened.
Did I not announce this to you,
and declare it already long ago?
You are my witnesses.
Is there any god except me?
There is no other Rock. I am not aware of any other.
⁹All those who form an idol are good for nothing.
All the things which delight them provide no benefit.
As for their witnesses—they do not see.
They know nothing, so they will be ashamed.

¹⁰Who is this who forms a god or casts a metal image that can provide no profit? ¹¹Look at him! All his associates will be ashamed. The craftsmen are merely men. Let them all gather themselves and take a stand. They will be terrified and ashamed together.

¹²A blacksmith uses a cutting tool and makes an idol over hot coals. With hammers he shapes it. He makes it with his strong arm, but he becomes hungry and has no strength left. He does not drink water, and so he grows faint.

¹³A woodworker stretches out a measuring line. He marks the lines with a stylus. He shapes the idol with chisels. He marks it with a compass. Then he carves it till it is shaped like a person, like a splendid man to inhabit a shrine.

¹⁴He goes to cut down cedars for himself, or he chooses a holm tree^[e] or an oak, and he lets it grow strong among the trees of a forest. Or he plants a cedar, and rain causes it to grow tall, ¹⁵but it becomes fuel for a man to burn. He takes part of it to warm himself. He lights a fire to bake bread, and then from the rest he makes a god and worships it. He carves an idol and bows down to it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in a fire—over that half he eats meat. He roasts meat and is satisfied. So he is warm and says, “Ah! I am warm. I see the light of the fire.” ¹⁷Then from what is left he makes a god to serve as his idol. He bows down to it. He worships it, and he prays to it, “Save me, because you are my god.”

¹⁸They are ignorant. They do not understand, because their eyes are plastered shut,^[f] and they cannot see. Their hearts are unable to gain insight. ¹⁹A person does not take this to heart, so he has no knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I burn in the fire, and I bake bread on its coals. I roast meat, and I eat. Should I make the rest of it into a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to a piece of wood?” ²⁰He is like a sheep grazing on ashes. A deceived mind leads him astray. He will not save his life, nor will he say, “Isn’t what I am holding in my right hand a fraud?”

Israel Will Be Restored

²¹Remember these things, O Jacob, because you are my servant, Israel. I am forming you to be my servant. You, Israel, you will never be forgotten by me.^[g] ²²I am blowing away your rebellious deeds like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to me, because I am redeeming you.

²³Shout for joy, you heavens, because of what the Lord is doing.
Make a joyful shout, you depths of the earth.
Burst forth with shouts of joy, you mountains,
you forest and every tree in it,
because the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and in Israel he will display his beauty.

²⁴This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, says.
I am the Lord, the one who does all things,
who stretched out the heavens by myself,
who hammered out the earth.
(Who was with me then?)
²⁵I frustrate the signs of the deceivers
and make fools of the fortune tellers.^[h]
I overturn the wisdom of the wise
and turn their knowledge into foolishness.

²⁶He is the one who fulfills the word of his servants,
who completes the plan announced by his messengers,
who says about Jerusalem, “It will be inhabited,”
and about the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,
and I will raise up their ruins.”
²⁷He is the one who says to the deep ocean, “Dry up,”
the one who says, “I will dry up your rivers.”
²⁸He is the one who says about Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he will complete everything I desire.”
He is the one who says about Jerusalem, “It will be rebuilt,”
and who says to the temple, “Your foundations will be laid.”

Cyrus the Lord’s Anointed Shepherd

This is what the Lord says to his anointed one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
by stripping kings of their weapons,
to open doors before him
so that the gates cannot be shut.

²I myself will go before you,
and I will level high mountains.^[i]
I will break bronze doors into pieces,
and I will cut through iron bars.
³I will give you treasures hidden in darkness
and riches concealed in secret places,
so that you will acknowledge that I am the Lord,
the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
⁴For the sake of my servant Jacob,
for the sake of Israel my chosen one,
I will call you by your name.
I will give you an honored name, though you do not know me.
⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Except for me, there is no god.
I will equip you even though you do not know me,
⁶so that people will know from the rising of the sun
to the place where it sets
that there is no one except me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷I am the one who forms light and creates darkness,
the one who makes peace and creates disaster.
I am the Lord, the one who does all these things.

Coming Blessings

⁸Shower down, you heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness.
Let the earth open up,
so that salvation will produce fruit.
Let righteousness sprout up along with it.
I, the Lord, am creating this.

Arguing With the Lord

⁹Woe to anyone who argues against the potter who formed him.
He is just a potsherd among the broken pieces of pottery on the ground.
Does clay say to its potter, “What are you making?
Your work looks like something made by a potter with no hands”?
¹⁰Woe to anyone who says to his father, “What have you fathered?”
or to a woman, “What are you giving birth to?”

Footnotes:

Isaiah 43:18 Or first
Isaiah 43:28 Or condemnation
Isaiah 44:2 Jeshurun is another name for Israel. It means the upright one.
Isaiah 44:4 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and some other manuscripts. The standard Hebrew text reads spring up between the grass.
Isaiah 44:14 Also called an evergreen oak
Isaiah 44:18 Or he has blinded their eyes
Isaiah 44:21 Or you must not forget me
Isaiah 44:25 Or omen readers
Isaiah 45:2 The translation mountains follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and the Greek Old Testament. The word in the standard Hebrew text occurs only here. It may mean rough places or walls.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Ephesians 3

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

3 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—^[a]

²Surely you have heard of the administration of God’s grace given to me for you, ³namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation (as I have already written briefly). ⁴When you read this, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. ⁵This mystery was not made known to people in past generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶This mystery is that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and people who also share in the promise through the gospel.

⁷I became a servant of this gospel, in keeping with the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. ⁸To me—even though I am the very least of all the saints—was given this grace: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ⁹and to enlighten everyone about the administration of this mystery. In past ages this mystery remained hidden in God, who created all things. ¹⁰He did this so that, through the church, the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. ¹¹This was done according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²In him we can freely approach God with confidence through faith in him. ¹³So I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, because it is your glory.

Paul’s Prayer and Praise

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,^[b] ¹⁵from whom the entire family in heaven and on earth receives its name. ¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he would strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner self, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸I pray that you would be able to comprehend, along with all the saints, how wide and long and high and deep his love is, ¹⁹and that you would be able to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

Footnotes:

Ephesians 3:1 Paul breaks off his thought here and resumes it in verse 14.
Ephesians 3:14 A few witnesses to the text omit of our Lord Jesus Christ. (“Witnesses to the text” mentioned in footnotes may include Greek manuscripts, lectionaries, translations, and quotations in the church fathers.)

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 68:1-18

Psalm 68

The Procession of God

Heading
For the choir director. By David. A psalm. A song.

Judgment on God’s Enemies

¹May God arise. May his enemies scatter.
May those who hate him flee from his presence.
²As smoke is blown away, may you blow them away.
As wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.

Blessing on God’s People

³But the righteous rejoice and celebrate in the presence of God.
They will be happy and joyful.
⁴Sing to God. Make music to his name.
Lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts.^[a]
His name is the Lord.^[b] Celebrate before him.

⁵In his holy dwelling, God is a father for the fatherless
and a judge who defends widows.
⁶God causes the lonely to dwell together as a household.
He leads out the prisoners with music,
but the rebellious dwell in a scorched land.

God Brings His People Into His Land

⁷God, when you went out in front of your people,
when you marched through the wasteland, Interlude
⁸the earth shook.
Yes, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, this one from Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
⁹You dispersed plentiful showers, O God.
You strengthened your inheritance when it was weary.^[c]
¹⁰Your people settled in it.
In your goodness you provided for the oppressed, O God.

The Lord Defeats the Kings of the Land

¹¹The Lord provided the message.
The women who proclaimed it were a great army:^[d]
¹²“Kings with armies flee—they flee!”
The woman who stays home shares in the plunder.
¹³Even while you lie among the campfires,
the wings of a dove are sheathed with silver,
and its feathers with yellow gold.^[e]
¹⁴When the Almighty scattered the kings there,
it snowed on Zalmon.

The Lord Makes His Dwelling in Zion

¹⁵The mountain of Bashan is a mountain of God.
The mountain of Bashan is a mountain with many peaks.^[f]
¹⁶O mountains with many peaks, why do you look jealously
at the mountain God desires for his home?
Indeed, the Lord will dwell there forever.
¹⁷The chariots of God are twice ten thousand,
thousands upon thousands.
Among them the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.^[g]
¹⁸You ascended on high. You led captivity captive.
You received gifts among men,
so that even among the rebellious the Lord^[h] God might dwell.

Footnotes:

Psalm 68:4 A variant in the Targum is rides on the clouds.
Psalm 68:4 The Hebrew uses the short form Yah rather than the full form of the divine name, Yahweh, which is translated Lord.
Psalm 68:9 Or when they were weary. The land may be described as weary because of lack of rain, or it may be the people of the land who are weary.
Psalm 68:11 This seems to refer to the custom of women singing to greet victors returning from battle, as they did at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20) or when David returned from victory over Goliath (1 Samuel 18:6).
Psalm 68:13 The meaning is cryptic. The verses seem to refer to the division of plunder. The translation is relatively literal.
Psalm 68:15 The meaning of several words in these verses is uncertain.
Psalm 68:17 The Hebrew reads the Lord [is] among them, Sinai, in holiness. The translation follows the parallel in Deuteronomy 33:2 and the sense of the psalm.
Psalm 68:18 The Hebrew uses the short form Yah rather than Yahweh, the full form of the divine name.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 24:1-2

24 Do not envy evil people,
and do not wish to be with them,
²because their hearts plan violence,
and their lips speak trouble.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 23, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday September 23, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 41:17-43:13

¹⁷The afflicted and the poor seek water, but there is none.
Their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, I myself will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them.
¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights.
In the middle of valleys there will be springs.
I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water,
and the dry land will pour out water.
¹⁹In the wilderness I will place cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees.
In the wasteland I will plant fir, maple, and pines together,
²⁰so that they may see and know,
and pay attention and perceive this all together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Idols Are Placed on Trial

²¹“Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Set forth your strongest points,” says the King of Jacob.
²²Let them present and declare to us what is going to occur.
What were the first things you predicted?
Tell us, so that we can ponder them,
so that we can know their outcome.
Or, announce to us the coming things.
²³Declare to us the things that are still coming in the distant future.
Then we will know that you are gods.
In fact, just do something, do anything—good or evil,
so that we may be overwhelmed and terrified together.
²⁴Look, you are less than nothing,
and your work is less than zero.
Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

The Man From the North

²⁵I have stirred up someone from the north,
and he is coming from the rising of the sun.
He will call upon my name.
He will walk over rulers as if they were mud,
the way a potter tramples clay.

²⁶Who declared this from the beginning so that we could know it,
and ahead of time so that we could say, “He is right”?
In fact, not one of them declares this.
In fact, not one of them makes this known.
In fact, no one hears you say anything.
²⁷I was first to announce to Zion, “Look, here they are,”
and I sent a herald of good news to Jerusalem.
²⁸When I looked, there was no one.
None of them could give advice,
even when I kept asking them to respond.
²⁹Look, all of them are useless.
Their works are nothing.
Their images are empty wind.

The First Servant Song^[a]
The Servant Is Called to Bring Justice

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight.
I am placing my Spirit on him.
He will announce a just verdict^[b] for the nations.

²He will not cry out.
He will not raise his voice.
He will not make his voice heard in the street.
³A bent reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out.
He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict.
⁴He will not burn out, and he will not be broken
until he establishes justice on the earth.
The coastlands will wait for his law.^[c]
⁵This is what the true God says,
the Lord who creates the heavens and stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth
and everything that it produces,
who gives breath to the people on it
and life to those who walk on it.
⁶I am the Lord.
I have called you in righteousness.
I will hold on to your hand,
and I will guard you.
I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people,
to be a light for the nations,
⁷to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon,
and to bring those who sit in darkness out of prison.

⁸I am the Lord; that is my name.
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to idols.
⁹Look, the former things have taken place,
and I am declaring new things.
I am making them known to you before they spring forth.

Creation Rejoices

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing his praise from the end of the earth,
you people who go down to the sea
and everything that fills it,
you coastlands and those who inhabit them.
¹¹Let the wilderness and its towns lift up their voice,
along with the settlements where Kedar lives.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy.
Let them shout from the mountain tops.
¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,
and let them declare his praise among the coastlands.
¹³The Lord will set out like a hero.
Like a warrior, he will work himself into a frenzy.
He will shout. Yes, he will raise a war cry.
He will be heroic against his enemies.

The Lord Shouts

¹⁴I have been silent for a long time.
I have kept still. I have restrained myself.
But now, like a woman giving birth, I will scream.
I will gasp and pant.
¹⁵I will dry up mountains and hills.
I will make all their grass wither.
I will turn rivers into islands.
I will dry up pools.
¹⁶I will lead the blind on a way they do not know.
Along paths they do not know I will direct them.
Ahead of them I will turn darkness into light
and rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will accomplish for them.
I will not abandon them.

¹⁷They will be turned back and completely disgraced—
those who trust in an idol,
those who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”

But Israel Does Not Notice

¹⁸You deaf ones, listen!
You blind ones, watch carefully so that you can see!
¹⁹Who is as blind as my servant?
Who is as deaf as my messenger whom I sent?
Who is as blind as my associate,^[d]
as blind as the servant of the Lord?
²⁰You, Israel, see many things, but you do not observe.
Israel opens his ears, but he does not hear.
²¹Because of his own righteousness,
the Lord was pleased to make his law^[e] great and glorious.
²²But this is a people plundered and looted.
All of them are trapped in holes,
and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become plunder, and there is no rescuer.
They have become loot and no one says, “Give it back!”
²³Who among you will turn his ear toward this?
Who will pay attention and listen for the future?
²⁴Who gave up Jacob to looters
and Israel to plunderers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?
But they were not willing to walk in his ways,
and they did not listen to his law.
²⁵So he poured out wrath on them,
his anger, and the violence of battle.
It set them on fire all around, but they did not understand.
It burned in them, but they did not take it to heart.

The Lord’s New Act of Salvation

But now this is what the Lord says,
the Lord who created you, O Jacob,
the Lord who formed you, O Israel.
Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name. You are mine.
²When you cross through the waters, I will be with you.
When you cross the rivers, they will not sweep you away.
When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,
and the flame will not set you on fire.

³Because I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior,
I gave Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
⁴Because you are precious and honored in my eyes,
and I myself love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
and peoples in exchange for your life.
⁵Do not be afraid, because I am with you.
From the east I will bring your offspring,
and from the west I will gather you.
⁶I will say to the north, “Give them back!”
and to the south, “Do not hold them.”
Bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
⁷everyone who is called by my name,
everyone I created for my glory,
everyone I formed,
yes, everyone I have made.

⁸Bring out the people who are blind, though they have eyes,
and the people who are deaf, though they have ears.
⁹Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let peoples be assembled.
Who among them has declared this?
Who has made known to us the former things?
Let them produce their witnesses to show that they were right,
so that people can hear and say, “This is truth.”

¹⁰You are my witnesses, declares the Lord.
You are my servant, whom I have chosen,
so that you may know me and believe in me,
so that you will understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
and after me there will not be another.
¹¹I, yes I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
¹²I myself declared it.
I brought salvation, and I announced it.
It was not some strange god among you.
You are my witnesses, declares the Lord,
and I am God.
¹³Indeed, from the first day, I am he.
There is no one who can deliver anyone from my hand.
I act, and who can reverse it?

Footnotes:

Isaiah 42:1 The Lord has many servants. Among his servants in Isaiah are Israel and Cyrus. In this collection of songs his Servant par excellance is Jesus the Messiah.
Isaiah 42:1 Or bring forth justice
Isaiah 42:4 Or teaching. Law here refers to the whole Word of God.
Isaiah 42:19 Or my dedicated one or the one at peace with me. The meaning of this word is uncertain.
Isaiah 42:21 Or teaching

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Ephesians 2

Made Alive in Christ by Grace

2 You were dead in your trespasses and sins, ²in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey.

³Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.

⁴But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. ⁷He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.

United in Christ

¹¹Therefore, remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh—the ones who are called “uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised” (which is performed physically by human hands)— ¹²remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise. You were without hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he himself is our peace. He made the two groups one by destroying the wall of hostility that divided them ¹⁵when he abolished the law of commandments and regulations in his flesh. He did this to create in himself one new person out of the two, in this way making peace. ¹⁶And he did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it.^[a] ¹⁷He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.^[b]

¹⁹So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. ²⁰You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²²In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Footnotes:

Ephesians 2:16 Or putting the hostility to death in him
Ephesians 2:18 Or in one spirit to the Father

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 67

Your Kingdom Come

Heading
For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.

The Prayer

¹May God be gracious to us and bless us. Interlude
May his face shine on us—
²so that your way may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
³May the peoples praise you, O God.
May the peoples praise you—all of them.
⁴May the countries be glad and sing for joy,
because you rule the peoples with fairness, Interlude
and you guide the countries of the earth.
⁵May the peoples praise you, O God.
May the peoples praise you—all of them.
⁶The earth will yield its harvest.
God, our God, will bless us.
⁷God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 23:29-35

²⁹Who has trouble? Who has misery?
Who has quarrels? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds for no reason? Who has glazed eyes?
³⁰Those who linger over wine,
those who go to search for mixed wine.
³¹Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup,
when it goes down smoothly.
³²Later it bites like a snake,
and it strikes like a venomous viper.
³³Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind will say senseless things.
³⁴You will be like someone who tries to sleep in the middle of the sea,
like someone who tries to sleep at the top of a ship’s mast.
³⁵“They struck me, but I felt no pain.
They beat me, but I was not aware of it.
When will I wake up, so that I can try it again?”

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 22, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday September 22, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 39:1-41:16

Hezekiah Receives Envoys From Babylon

39 At that time, Merodak^[a] Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. ²Hezekiah was happy to receive the envoys, and he showed them his palace treasury—the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious oil, his whole armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his domain that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men say? Where did they come from?”

Hezekiah replied, “They have come from a faraway country, from Babylon.”

⁴The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my palace. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord of Armies. ⁶Listen carefully. The days are coming when whatever is in your house—everything that your fathers have stored up until today—will be carried away to Babylon. Not a thing will be left, says the Lord. ⁷They will take away some of the sons who were born to you, your own children, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For Hezekiah also said, “There will be peace and stability during my days.”

Overview of the Lord’s Plan

40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
²Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her.
Her warfare^[b] really is over.
Her guilt is fully paid for.
Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
³A voice is calling out:
In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.
In the wasteland make a level^[c] highway for our God.
⁴Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be made low.
The rugged ground will become level,
and the rough places will become a plain.
⁵Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all flesh together will see it.
Yes, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
⁶A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry out?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty^[d] is like a wildflower in the countryside.
⁷Grass withers, flowers fade,
when the breath^[e] of the Lord blows on them.
Yes, the people are grass.
⁸Grass withers, flowers fade,
but the Word of our God endures forever.

⁹Get up on a high mountain,
O Zion, you herald of good news.
Lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, you herald of good news.
Lift it up! Do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
¹⁰Look, God the Lord will come with strength,
and his arm is ruling for him.
Look, his reward is with him.
The result of his work is in front of him.
¹¹Like a shepherd he will care for his flock.
With his arm he will gather the lambs.
He will lift them up on his lap.
He will gently lead the nursing mothers.

The Lord Is Beyond Compare

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
Who marked off the heavens with the width of his hand?
Who scooped up the dust of the earth with a measuring cup?
Who weighed the mountains with a balance
and the hills with scales?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
Who can teach him anything or serve as his advisor?
¹⁴Who was his advisor to give him insight?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge?
Who showed him the way to complete understanding?

¹⁵Indeed, nations are like a drop in a bucket,
and they are treated like powder on a scale.
Look, he lifts up islands like dust!
¹⁶Not even the forests of Lebanon could provide enough wood to burn,
and its animals are not enough for a whole burnt offering.
¹⁷All the nations are nothing to him.
By him they are regarded as worthless,
as less than nothing.

¹⁸So to whom will you compare God?
What image can you compare to him?
¹⁹A craftsman casts the idol,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold.
He forges silver chains for it.
²⁰He chooses mulberry wood as an offering,^[f]
wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skillful craftsman
to erect an idol that will not fall over.

²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood it from the founding of the earth?
²²He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth.
To him its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and he spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³He is the one who reduces dignitaries to nothing.
He makes the judges of the world useless.
²⁴They have hardly been planted.
They have hardly been sown.
Their stem has hardly taken root in the earth.
Then he blows on them, and they dry up.
A driving storm carries them away like chaff.

²⁵To whom can you compare me as if we were equals?
says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and see who created these things.
See who brings out their army in great number
and calls them all by name.
Because of his great strength and mighty power,
not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you speak, O Jacob?
O Israel, why do you say,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and justice for me is ignored by my God”?
²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God.
He is the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired, and he will not become weary.
No one can find a limit to his understanding.
²⁹He is the one who gives strength to the weak,
and he increases the strength of those who lack power.
³⁰Young men grow tired and become weary.
Even strong men stumble and fall.
³¹But those who wait for the Lord will receive new strength.
They will lift up their wings and soar like eagles.
They will run and not become weary.
They will walk and not become tired.

A Summons to Judgment

Prepare to present your case to me,^[g] you coastlands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near. Yes, let them say,
“We will gather together for the verdict.”

A Mystery Man Is Summoned From the East

²Who has aroused this one from the east?
In righteousness he summons him to his feet.
He gives nations to him
and causes him to rule over kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like wind-driven stubble with his bow.
³He pursues them and passes by safely.
His feet do not touch the ground.^[h]
⁴Who accomplished this and carried it out
by summoning generations from the beginning?

The Lord Controls History

I, the Lord, am the first,
and at the very end I will still be the one.
⁵The coastlands see and fear.
The ends of the earth tremble.
They draw near. They come.

The Idol Makers Appear

⁶Each one assists his neighbor,
and to his brother he says, “Be strong.”
⁷The craftsman strengthens the refiner.
The one who flattens with the hammer
strengthens the one who strikes the anvil.
Concerning the soldering he says, “It is good.”
He fastens it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

The Lord Is Your Defender

⁸But you, O Israel, my servant,
O Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring^[i] of Abraham, whom I love,
⁹whom I have snatched from the ends of the earth,
whom I have called from its corners—
I have said to you, “You are my servant.”
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not be overwhelmed,^[j] for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
¹¹Just watch, they will be ashamed and humiliated—
all those who are angry with you.
They will become nothing and perish—
those men who oppose you.
¹²You will look for them, but you will not find them—
those men who contend against you.
They will become absolutely nothing, less than nothing—
those men who battle against you.
¹³For I am the Lord your God.
I am the one who is holding on to your right hand.
I am the one who says to you, “Do not fear. I myself am helping you.”
¹⁴Do not fear, you worm, Jacob, you few men of Israel.^[k]
I myself am helping you, declares the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵Look, I am making you into a sharp, new threshing sledge
with double-edged blades.
You will thresh mountains and crush them.
You will turn hills into chaff.
¹⁶You will winnow them,
and a wind will lift them up.
A strong wind will scatter them.
But you, you will rejoice in the Lord.
In the Holy One of Israel you will be confident.

Footnotes:

Isaiah 39:1 Merodak is probably a derogatory form of the name Marduk, the chief god of Babylon.
Isaiah 40:2 Or hard labor
Isaiah 40:3 Or straight
Isaiah 40:6 The Hebrew literally reads mercy or faithfulness.
Isaiah 40:7 The word also means wind and Spirit.
Isaiah 40:20 Or the poor person chooses wood as an offering
Isaiah 41:1 Or be silent before me. The Hebrew root used here does often mean be silent, but the context seems to require a preparation for legal action. There is a Hebrew homonym that means fabricate. This meaning fits the context. The Greek Old Testament and the parallelism also support this meaning.
Isaiah 41:3 Literally he does not enter a path with his feet. This seems to mean that he moves so fast that his feet don’t touch the ground, or that he goes in new paths where he has never gone before, or that he quickly gains new territory.
Isaiah 41:8 Literally the seed
Isaiah 41:10 Or dismayed
Isaiah 41:14 Or you insect, Israel. The Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll reads dead ones.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Ephesians 1

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, who are believers in Christ Jesus:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

⁴He did this when he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. He did this in accordance with the good purpose of his will, ⁶and for the praise of his glorious grace, which he has graciously given us in the one he loves.

⁷In him we also have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in keeping with the riches of his grace, ⁸which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. ⁹He made known to us the mystery of his will in keeping with his good purpose, which he planned in Christ. ¹⁰This was to be carried out when the time had fully come, in order to bring all things together in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.

¹¹In him we have also obtained an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in keeping with the purpose of his will. ¹²He did this so that his glory would be praised as a result of us, who were the first to hope in Christ.

¹³In him, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and in him, when you also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. ¹⁴He is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own possession, so that his glory would be praised.

A Prayer for Knowledge and Strength

¹⁵This is why, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶I never stop giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷I keep praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you the Spirit^[a] of wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ fully. ¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, ¹⁹and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe. ²⁰It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²²God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church. ²³The church is his body, the fullness of him^[b] who fills everything in every way.

Footnotes:

Ephesians 1:17 Or spirit
Ephesians 1:23 Or which makes him full

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 66

How Awesome Are Your Deeds!

Heading
For the choir director. A song. A psalm.

Introduction: The Praise of the World

¹Shout praise to God, all the earth!
²Make music to the glory of his name!
Make his praise glorious!
³Say to God, “How awesome^[a] are your deeds!”
Because of your great power your enemies must cower before you.
⁴All the earth bows down to you.
They make music to you.
They make music to your name. Interlude

God’s Awesome Deeds Deliver His People

⁵Come and see the works of God.
How awesome his deeds for all people!
⁶He turned the sea into dry land.
They crossed through the river on foot.
Let us rejoice in him there.
⁷He rules by his power forever.
His eyes watch the nations. Interlude
Do not let the rebellious rise up against him.
⁸Bless our God, you peoples.
Let the sound of his praise be heard.
⁹He is the one who has preserved our lives.
He did not let our feet slip.
¹⁰Indeed, you tested us, God.
You refined us as silver is refined.
¹¹You led us into a trap.
You laid a burden on our backs.
¹²You let men ride over our heads.
We went through fire and through water,
but you brought us out to a well-watered place.

His People’s Praise

¹³I will come to your house with whole burnt offerings.
I will fulfill my vows to you,
¹⁴which my lips uttered,
which my mouth spoke during my trouble.
¹⁵I will offer fat animals to you as whole burnt offerings,
along with the smoke from rams. Interlude
I will offer cattle with goats.
¹⁶Come, listen, all you who fear God,
and let me tell what he has done to save my life.
¹⁷To him I cried out with my mouth.
High praise was on my tongue.
¹⁸If I had contemplated evil in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened,
¹⁹but God has surely listened.
He has paid attention to the sound of my prayer.
²⁰Blessed be God, who has not turned aside my prayer
or turned aside his mercy from me!

Footnotes:

Psalm 66:3 Or astonishing

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 23:25-28

²⁵Your father and your mother will find joy,
and she who gave birth to you will celebrate.

²⁶My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes be pleased with my ways,
²⁷because a prostitute is a deep pit,
and an immoral woman is a narrow well.
²⁸She is also like a robber waiting to ambush someone,
and she multiplies unfaithful men among the people.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 22, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday September 22, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 39:1-41:16

Hezekiah Receives Envoys From Babylon

³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men say? Where did they come from?”

Hezekiah replied, “They have come from a faraway country, from Babylon.”

⁴The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my palace. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For Hezekiah also said, “There will be peace and stability during my days.”

Overview of the Lord’s Plan

The Lord Is Beyond Compare

A Summons to Judgment

Prepare to present your case to me,^[g] you coastlands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near. Yes, let them say,
“We will gather together for the verdict.”

A Mystery Man Is Summoned From the East

The Lord Controls History

I, the Lord, am the first,
and at the very end I will still be the one.
⁵The coastlands see and fear.
The ends of the earth tremble.
They draw near. They come.

The Idol Makers Appear

The Lord Is Your Defender

Footnotes:

Isaiah 39:1 Merodak is probably a derogatory form of the name Marduk, the chief god of Babylon.
Isaiah 40:2 Or hard labor
Isaiah 40:3 Or straight
Isaiah 40:6 The Hebrew literally reads mercy or faithfulness.
Isaiah 40:7 The word also means wind and Spirit.
Isaiah 40:20 Or the poor person chooses wood as an offering
Isaiah 41:1 Or be silent before me. The Hebrew root used here does often mean be silent, but the context seems to require a preparation for legal action. There is a Hebrew homonym that means fabricate. This meaning fits the context. The Greek Old Testament and the parallelism also support this meaning.
Isaiah 41:3 Literally he does not enter a path with his feet. This seems to mean that he moves so fast that his feet don’t touch the ground, or that he goes in new paths where he has never gone before, or that he quickly gains new territory.
Isaiah 41:8 Literally the seed
Isaiah 41:10 Or dismayed
Isaiah 41:14 Or you insect, Israel. The Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll reads dead ones.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Ephesians 1

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, who are believers in Christ Jesus:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

A Prayer for Knowledge and Strength

Footnotes:

Ephesians 1:17 Or spirit
Ephesians 1:23 Or which makes him full

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 66

How Awesome Are Your Deeds!

Heading
For the choir director. A song. A psalm.

Introduction: The Praise of the World

God’s Awesome Deeds Deliver His People

His People’s Praise

Footnotes:

Psalm 66:3 Or astonishing

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 23:25-28

²⁵Your father and your mother will find joy,
and she who gave birth to you will celebrate.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 21, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday September 21, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 37-38

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Advice

37 When King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. ²He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

³They told him what Hezekiah said: “This is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation, because children are about to be born, but there is no strength left to give birth. ⁴Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of the words of this herald, who was sent by his lord, the king of Assyria, in defiance of the living God, and perhaps the Lord your God will rebuke him for what he has heard. So please, pray for the small group that is left here.”

⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶he said to them, “Tell your master that this is what the Lord says. Do not be afraid of what you have heard. The lackeys^[a] of the king of Assyria have blasphemed against me. ⁷Watch! I will put a spirit in him, so that when he hears certain news, he will return to his own land. There I will cause him to be killed.”

⁸Then the herald went back. He heard that the king of Assyria had already left Lachish and was fighting against Libnah.

⁹When Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush^[b] had set out to fight against him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah ¹⁰to say this to Hezekiah king of Judah:

Do not let the God you trust deceive you, saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. ¹¹Listen, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands, destroying them completely. And you expect to be saved? ¹²Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel Assar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. He went up to the House of the Lord and placed it there before the Lord. ¹⁵Then he prayed to the Lord.

¹⁶O Lord of Armies, God of Israel, seated above the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to all of the words of Sennacherib, who has defied the living God. ¹⁸It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these lands and their territory. ¹⁹They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods at all, but the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ²⁰Now, Lord our God, save us from his power, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you are the Lord, and you alone.

The Lord Replies to Hezekiah Through Isaiah

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah.

The Lord, the God of Israel, says that because you have prayed to him about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²the Lord sends you this reply about him.

The virgin daughter of Zion^[c] despises you and jeers at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you in scorn.
²³Who is it whom you have mocked and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted up your proud eyes?
It is against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴You have used your servants to mock the Lord.
You have boasted, “I have driven my many chariots
up the high mountains, to the most remote parts of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars and its best fir trees.
I have reached its highest peak, its most lush forest.
²⁵I dug wells and drank their water,
and I dried up all the rivers of Egypt with the soles of my feet.”

²⁶Have you not heard?
I did all this long ago.
I formed all this in ancient times.
Now I caused it all to take place.
I enabled you to destroy fortified cities,
reducing them to heaps of ruins.
²⁷Their inhabitants were powerless.
Overwhelmed and ashamed,
they were like plants in the field,
like fresh green grass, like grass on a housetop,
and like a field before it has grown.^[d]
²⁸But I know when you stand and when you sit,^[e]
when you go out and when you come in,
and how you rage wildly against me.
²⁹Because you rage against me,
and because your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you go back by the same way that you came.

³⁰This will be a sign for you:

This year you will eat what grows by itself.
Next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year, you will sow crops and harvest them.
You will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
³¹The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again put down roots below and bear fruit above.
³²For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out,
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

³³This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

He will not enter this city.
He will not shoot an arrow there.
He will not advance against it with a shield,
and he will not build a siege ramp against it.
³⁴He will go back by the same route that he came,
and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.
³⁵For I will defend this city to save it,
for my own sake,
and for the sake of my servant David.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

³⁶Then an angel of the Lord went and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early in the morning, there they were—all the dead bodies. ³⁷Then Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned to Nineveh and remained there. ³⁸One day when Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They fled to the land of Ararat,^[f] and his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

38 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says. Give instructions to your household, because you are going to die. You will not survive.”

²So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. ³He said, “Please remember, Lord, how I have walked before you in truth and with my whole heart. I have done what is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.

⁵Go back and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:

I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Now then, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

⁷This will be the sign from the Lord to you. The Lord will do what he has promised. ⁸Watch! I will make the shadow of the setting sun that has moved down the stairway of Ahaz move back, ten steps higher on the staircase.

Then the sun’s shadow moved backwards, ten steps higher on the stairway that it had just descended.

⁹A poem written by Hezekiah king of Judah, after his illness and recovery.^[g]

¹⁰I thought that, only halfway through my life,
I was entering into the gates of death,^[h]
deprived of the remaining years of my life.
¹¹I thought, I will not see the Lord—
the Lord^[i] in the land of the living.
I will no longer see anyone among the inhabitants of the world.^[j]
¹²My dwelling place is being pulled down.
It is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He is cutting me off from the loom.
From day until night, you make an end of me.^[k]
¹³I pondered this until the morning.
He will break all my bones like a lion!
From day until night, you make an end of me.
¹⁴I chirp weakly like a swift or a swallow.
I mourn like a dove.
My eyes are tired from looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.

¹⁵What can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he is the one to act.
I will march slowly throughout all my years,
because my heart is bitter.^[l]
¹⁶Lord, people live because you give them life.
My spirit lives through this.^[m]
Restore me, and let me live.^[n]
¹⁷The bitter things I experienced were for my benefit.
Your love has preserved my life from the pit of destruction,
for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
¹⁸The grave^[o] cannot thank you.
Death cannot praise you.
Those who go down into the pit cannot trust your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living one, the living one, he praises you, as I do today.
A father tells his children about your faithfulness.
²⁰The Lord will save me,
so we will sing songs with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord.

²¹Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs, apply it as a poultice on the inflamed spot, and he will recover.”

²²Hezekiah had also asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the House of the Lord?”

Footnotes:

Isaiah 37:6 Or junior officers, an insulting term to use for such high-ranking officers
Isaiah 37:9 Cush is the ancient name for the territory south of the First Cataract of the Nile River. Called Ethiopia in Roman times, it included most of present-day Sudan and some of present-day Ethiopia. The Cushite or Nubian kings were the pharaohs of Egypt at this time.
Isaiah 37:22 Daughter of Zion is a personification of Jerusalem and the people of Judah.
Isaiah 37:27 The translation follows the main Hebrew reading of this verse. The parallel text in 2 Kings 19:26 reads scorched before it becomes a full-grown stalk. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah reads scorched by the east wind.
Isaiah 37:28 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah. The Hebrew does not have when you stand and.
Isaiah 37:38 The region of present-day Armenia
Isaiah 38:9 This poem is not included in 2 Kings.
Isaiah 38:10 Hebrew sheol
Isaiah 38:11 The Hebrew text here has two occurrences of Yah, the short form of the divine name. Some Hebrew manuscripts have a single occurrence of Yahweh.
Isaiah 38:11 Hebrew variant this passing world
Isaiah 38:12 Or day, and then night! So quickly you have made an end of me. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Isaiah 38:15 The translation follows the Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and the Syriac read What can I say? I will say to him that he is the one to act. I cannot sleep, because my heart is bitter.
Isaiah 38:16 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Isaiah 38:16 Or you restore me, and you let me live!
Isaiah 38:18 Hebrew sheol

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Galatians 6

Bear One Another’s Burdens

6 Brothers, if a person is caught in some trespass, you who are spiritual should restore such a person in a spirit of humility, carefully watching yourself so that you are not also tempted. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way fulfill^[a] the law of Christ. ³For if someone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴Let each person test his own work, and then he will take pride in regard to himself and not his neighbor. ⁵For each man will bear his own burden.

⁶Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with his teacher.

⁷Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. To be sure, whatever a man sows, he will also reap. ⁸Indeed, the one who sows for his own sinful flesh will reap destruction from the sinful flesh. But the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. ⁹Let us not become weary of doing good, because at the appointed time we will reap, if we do not give up.^[b] ¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the household of faith.

What Matters: A New Creation, Not Circumcision

¹¹See what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. ¹²Those who want to look good in the flesh are the ones who are trying to compel you to be circumcised. Their only reason is so that they are not persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³As a matter of fact, those who are circumcised do not keep the law themselves. But they want to have you circumcised, so that they can boast about your flesh.

¹⁴But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. ¹⁵In fact, in Christ Jesus^[c] circumcision or uncircumcision does not matter. What matters is being a new creation. ¹⁶Peace and mercy on those who follow this rule, namely, on the Israel of God.

¹⁷Finally, let no one cause me any trouble, because I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus on my body.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Footnotes:

Galatians 6:2 Some witnesses to the text read in this way you will fulfill.
Galatians 6:9 Or reap without ever getting tired, or reap without ceasing
Galatians 6:15 Some witnesses to the text omit in Christ Jesus.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 65

A Thanksgiving Psalm: You Crown the Year With Goodness

Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David. A song.

Introduction

¹Praise waits for you,^[a] O God, in Zion.
To you vows will be fulfilled.
²You who hear prayer, to you all mortals^[b] will come.

Spiritual Blessings

³The record of my guilt overpowered me.
You atone for our rebellious acts.
⁴How blessed is the one you choose and bring near!
He will dwell in your courtyards.
We will be satisfied by the goodness of your house,
by the holiness of your temple.

Blessings on the Nations

⁵In righteousness you answer us with awesome deeds,
O God who saves us.
He is trusted by all the farthest ends of the earth and the sea.
⁶He establishes the mountains by his power.
He has wrapped himself with strength.
⁷He stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the peoples.

⁸Those living at the ends of the earth fear your signs.
From sunrise to sunset you let them shout for joy.

Blessings of the Harvest

⁹You visit the earth and water it.
You make it very rich.
God’s stream is filled with water.
You provide grain for them, just as you planned.
¹⁰You drench the land’s furrows. You flatten its plowed ground.
You soften it with showers. You bless its crops.
¹¹You crown the year with your goodness.
The tracks made by your carts overflow with riches.^[c]
¹²The pastures of the wilderness drip.
The hills are wrapped with joy.
¹³The meadows are clothed with flocks.
The valleys are dressed with grain.
They shout for joy. Yes! They sing.

Footnotes:

Psalm 65:1 Or praise is fitting for you or silence is before you
Psalm 65:2 Literally flesh
Psalm 65:11 Literally drip fatness

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 23:24

²⁴The father of a righteous child will celebrate greatly.
One who fathers a wise son will find joy in him.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 20, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday September 20, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 33:10-36:22

¹⁰Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
¹¹You will conceive chaff
and give birth to stubble.
Like fire, your own breath will consume you.
¹²People will be burned to lime,^[a]
like thorns that are cut and burned in the fire.
¹³You who are far away, recognize what I have done.
You who are close by, acknowledge my mighty acts.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the ungodly.
Who of us can live with a consuming fire?
Who of us can live in a place that burns without end?
¹⁵Those who walk righteously and speak blamelessly,
those who despise dishonest gain,
whose hands refuse a bribe,
whose ears will not listen to violent plans,
whose eyes reject evil—
¹⁶they will dwell on high.
Their defense will be a fortress on the cliffs.
Their bread will be provided.
Their water supply will be reliable.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King^[b] in his splendor.
They will see a land that stretches far and wide.
¹⁸Your heart will think about the past terrors.
You will think, “Where is the one who took the inventory?^[c]
Where is the one who weighed the silver?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
¹⁹You will no longer see a barbaric people,
a people with unintelligible speech, which you cannot understand,
a people who babble in a language that makes no sense.
²⁰Look at Zion, the city where we hold our festivals.
You will see Jerusalem as a peaceful place,
as a tent that cannot be removed.
Its stakes will never be pulled up.
Its ropes will never be broken.
²¹There the Lord will be with us in majesty,
as in a place with wide rivers and streams,
where no enemy warship can row,
where no sailing ship can slip past.
²²Because the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
and the Lord is our king,
he is the one who will save us.

²³Your rigging hangs loose.
The mast is not steady.
The sail is not set.^[d]

When they divide all the plunder,
there will be so much that even the crippled will take part.
²⁴No one who lives there will say, “I am sick.”
The guilt of the people who live there will be forgiven.

Judgment Against the Nations

Come near, you nations, and hear!
Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it hear,
the world and everything that it produces.

²The Lord is angry with all the nations,
and he is furious with all their armies.
He has condemned them to destruction.
He has handed them over for slaughter.
³Their fallen bodies will lie unburied,
and the stench of their corpses will linger.
The mountains will flow with their blood.
⁴The whole army of the heavens will fall apart.
The sky will be rolled up like a scroll,
and its whole army will waste away and fall,
like leaves withering on a vine,
like fruit that falls from a fig tree.

⁵Yes, my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
Now it will fall on Edom,
on the people I have sentenced to judgment.
⁶The sword of the Lord is covered with blood.
It is coated with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat from the kidneys of rams,
for the Lord has made a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a massive slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷Wild oxen will fall along with them,
bull calves and powerful bulls.
Their land will be soaked with blood,
and their dust will be saturated with fat.
⁸It will be a day of vengeance for the Lord,
a year of retribution for Zion’s sake.^[e]
⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch,
¹⁰which will not be extinguished night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
Generation after generation, it will lie in ruins.
No one will ever pass through it. Never again!
¹¹But the desert owl and the porcupine will live there.^[f]
The screech owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch a measuring line for chaos over Edom,
and a plumb line for uninhabited ruins.^[g]
¹²There will be nothing left for its nobles to call a kingdom.
All its officials will be gone.
¹³Thorns will cover its citadels.
Thistles and briers will overgrow its fortresses.
It will be a den of jackals,
a haunt for ostriches.
¹⁴Desert animals and hyenas will gather,
and wild goats^[h] will bleat to each other.
Creatures of the night^[i] will settle there
and find a resting place.
¹⁵An owl^[j] will nest there.
She will lay eggs, hatch them,
and gather her young under her shade.
Falcons will gather there too,
each with its mate.

¹⁶Search through the book of the Lord, and read.
Not one of them will be missing.
Not one will lack her mate.
For his mouth has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
¹⁷He has allotted this land for these creatures.
His hand has divided it up for them with a surveying line.
They will possess it forever.
They will live there generation after generation.

The Joyful Return

The wilderness and the desert will be glad.
The wasteland of the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like a crocus.
²It will bloom lavishly,
and there will be great joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it.
It will be excellent like Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the shaky knees steady.
⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart:
Be strong.
Do not be afraid.
Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
⁶The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
⁷The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.
There will be grass, reeds, and rushes where the haunts
of jackals once lay.
⁸A highway will be there,
a road that will be called the holy way.
The impure will not walk there.
It will be reserved for those who walk in that holy way.
Wicked fools will not wander onto it.
⁹No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious animal go up on it.
They will not be found there,
but only the redeemed will walk there.
¹⁰Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Assyria Threatens Jerusalem

36 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ²The king of Assyria sent his herald^[k] from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. A large army was with him. He stood by the water channel from the upper pool on the road to the launderer’s^[l] field. ³Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, came out to meet him.

⁴The herald told them this.

Tell Hezekiah this is what the Great King, the king of Assyria, says.

What makes you so confident? ⁵Your wisdom and military strength are based on empty promises. Who do you trust, so that you now have rebelled against me? ⁶Tell me! Are you really trusting in Egypt to be your staff, that splintered reed that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it? That is what happens to anyone who relies on Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁷If you say to me that you trust in the Lord your God, isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? Didn’t Hezekiah tell Judah and Jerusalem to worship at this altar?

⁸Now then, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you can find enough riders for them. ⁹How can you resist even one officer from among the least of my lord’s servants? How can you put your trust in Egypt for chariots and charioteers?

¹⁰What’s more, have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s orders? The Lord is the one who said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the herald, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew, because there are people on the city wall who are listening.”

¹²But the herald replied, “Has my lord sent me only to you and to your lord to speak these words, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”^[m]

¹³Then the herald stood up and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew. He said:

Listen to the words of the Great King, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says.

Do not let Hezekiah deceive you! He will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord, when he says that the Lord will save you, and that this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says. Make a peace treaty with me and surrender to me. Each one of you will eat from his own vine, from his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and sweet wine, a land with bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah make you think that the Lord will deliver you!

Have any of the gods of the nations kept them from being handed over to the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Which of the gods of these countries have delivered their country from my hand? Will the Lord really deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

²¹But the officials remained silent, saying nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their clothing torn and told him everything the herald had said.

Footnotes:

Isaiah 33:12 Or to ashes
Isaiah 33:17 Or the king
Isaiah 33:18 The verse apparently refers to the actions of the enemy officers as they plundered Jerusalem.
Isaiah 33:23 Or Your ropes are loose. Their flagpole is not firmly set, and the flag will not fly. But see verse 21.
Isaiah 34:8 Or a time of retribution for the Defender of Zion
Isaiah 34:11 The precise identification of these animals and other animals in this section is uncertain. The word translated porcupine may be another type of owl.
Isaiah 34:11 The words translated chaos and uninhabited ruins are the same words that describe the undeveloped, empty world on the first day of creation.
Isaiah 34:14 The term translated wild goats later became associated with satyrs and demons, but here it seems to refer to regular animals.
Isaiah 34:14 Hebrew lilith. In later Jewish writing this term became the name of a female demon.
Isaiah 34:15 Or the arrow snake. The meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain.
Isaiah 36:2 Or chief spokesman. The Hebrew/Assyrian term rab shakeh refers to a high-ranking military officer.
Isaiah 36:2 Or washerman’s or wool-cleaner’s
Isaiah 36:12 The Hebrew terms for excrement and urine are apparently coarse, because the scribal notes substitute euphemisms for them.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Galatians 5:13-26

¹³After all, brothers, you were called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as a starting point for your sinful flesh. Rather, serve one another through love. ¹⁴In fact, the whole law is summed up in this one statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^[a] ¹⁵But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Flesh Opposes Spirit

¹⁶What I am saying is this: Walk by the spirit,^[b] and you will not carry out what the sinful flesh desires. ¹⁷For the sinful flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful flesh. In fact, these two continually oppose one another, so that you do not continue to do these things you want to do. ¹⁸But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the control of the law.

¹⁹Now the works of the sinful flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, complete lack of restraint, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders,^[c] drunkenness, orgies, and things similar to these. I warn you, just as I also warned you before, that those who continue to do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the spirit^[d] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the spirit, let us also walk in step with it. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.

Footnotes:

Galatians 5:14 Leviticus 19:18
Galatians 5:16 In this section, the spirit refers to the new nature in contrast with the sinful flesh.
Galatians 5:21 A few witnesses to the text omit murders.
Galatians 5:22 Or Spirit

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 64

Hide Me From the Conspiracy

Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David.

Opening Plea

¹Hear my voice, O God, when I complain.
Protect my life from the terror caused by the enemy.
²Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from the noisy mob of evildoers.

The Enemies’ Wickedness

³They sharpen their tongues like a sword.
They shoot poison words like arrows.
⁴They shoot at the innocent from hiding places.
Suddenly they shoot at him. They have no fear.
⁵They strengthen each other in an evil plot.
They discuss where to hide snares.
They say, “Who will see them?”
⁶They plot evil deeds and they say,
“We have come up with a perfect plot!”
The mind and heart of man are devious!

God’s Judgment

⁷But God will shoot them.
Suddenly they are wounded with an arrow.
⁸Their own tongues cause their downfall.^[a]
Everyone who sees them will shake his head.

The Joy of the Godly

⁹Then all people will be afraid.
They will proclaim the work of God.
They will consider what he has done.
¹⁰Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord
and take refuge in him.
Let all the upright in heart be confident!

Footnotes:

Psalm 64:8 Because of a mixture of singular and plural number, the translation is uncertain. Literally the Hebrew reads and they caused him/it to stumble, upon them, their tongue.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 23:23

²³Buy truth and do not sell it.
Buy wisdom, discipline, and knowledge.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 19, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday September 19, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 30:12-33:9

¹²This is what the Holy One of Israel says:
Since you have rejected my word,
and you trust in oppression and deceit,
and you rely on them,
¹³your guilt will be like a crack in a wall,
bulging out and about to collapse.
It will suddenly fall without warning.
¹⁴It will crash like a broken clay pot,
smashed to pieces so violently that not one useful piece will be left,
not even a piece good enough to pick up a coal from the hearth
or to ladle water from a cistern.
¹⁵This is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says:
If you repent and wait quietly, you will be saved.
Your strength will depend on quietness and trust.
But you refused.
¹⁶You said, “No, we will flee on horseback!”
Yes indeed, you will flee.
You said, “We will ride away swiftly!”
Yes indeed, you will be pursued swiftly.
¹⁷A thousand will flee when just one threatens.
When five threaten, you will flee,
until you are like a single flag, fluttering on a mountaintop,
like a lonely banner on a hill.
¹⁸But the Lord is eager to be gracious to you.
He waits on high to have mercy on you,
for the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all those who long for him.

¹⁹So people will live in Zion. In Jerusalem you will weep no more. The Lord will be very gracious to you when he hears your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. ²⁰Though the Lord has given you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, he is your teacher.^[a] He will not be hidden any longer. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. ²¹Whenever you are tempted to turn to the right or to the left, you will hear his voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” ²²You will defile your idols that are plated with silver and your images overlaid with gold. You will throw them away like a filthy cloth,^[b] saying, “Get away from me!”

²³Then he will give you rain so that you can sow seed in the ground. The bread from your land’s harvest will be excellent and plentiful. On that day your livestock will graze in wide pastures. ²⁴The oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat the best feed^[c]—winnowed with a shovel and a winnowing fork. ²⁵On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams flowing with water.

It will be a day of terrible slaughter, when towers fall. ²⁶The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day when the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people and heal the injuries he inflicted.

God Will Punish Assyria

²⁷Look! The name of the Lord is coming from far away,
burning with anger, in a column of thick smoke.
His lips are full of anger,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.
²⁸His breath is a stream at flood stage,
surging all the way up to your neck.
He shakes the nations in a sieve to destroy them,
and he puts a bridle in their mouths to lead them to destruction.
²⁹You will sing as you do on the night of a holy festival,
with glad hearts,
as when they go up with flutes to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
³⁰The Lord will cause the majestic splendor of his voice to be heard.
He will make them see his arm come crashing down in fierce anger,
like the flames of a consuming fire,
like driving rain, a furious storm with hailstones.
³¹The voice of the Lord will terrify Assyria.
He will strike it with his rod.
³²Every stroke of the punishing rod^[d] which the Lord will lay on them
will be accompanied by the music of drums and lyres.
He himself will fight, battling them, swinging weapons.
³³Topheth has long been made ready.
It is prepared for the king,
a flaming funeral pyre, deep and wide, with plenty of wood.
The breath of the Lord, like a river of liquid fire, sets it ablaze.

Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who put their faith in horses,
who trust in chariots because there are many of them,
who trust in charioteers^[e] because they are very powerful.
They do not trust in the Holy One of Israel.
They do not seek the Lord.
²The Lord is wise, and he will bring disaster.
He will not go back on his word,
but he will deal with those who do evil,
and with those who help the wicked.
³The Egyptians are merely men, not gods.
Their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand to punish,
both the helper and the one seeking help will fall.
Together they will perish.

⁴This is what the Lord said to me:
When a lion or a young lion snarls over its prey,
and a band of shepherds is called out to drive it away,
it is not afraid of their shouts,
and it is not bothered by the noise they make.
In the same way, the Lord of Armies will fearlessly come down
to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
⁵Like a hovering^[f] bird,
the Lord of Armies will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect it and deliver it.
He will pass over it and preserve it.
⁶O people of Israel, return to the one you have so completely betrayed. ⁷In that day every one of you will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—things you made, which caused you to sin.

⁸Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword.
A sword will devour him, but not one wielded by men.
He will flee from the sword,
but his young men will be forced into slavery.
⁹His rocky stronghold will pass away because of fear,
and his officials will abandon their banner in panic,
declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
whose blast furnace is in Jerusalem.

The Righteous Kingdom

See, a king will reign in righteousness,
and officials will govern with justice.
²Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water for a dry place,
like the shade of a massive cliff in a parched land.
³The eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Hasty hearts^[g] will gain understanding,
and stammering tongues will speak clearly.

⁵The fool will no longer be called noble,
nor will rogues be treated like respectable people.^[h]
⁶The fool speaks folly,
and his heart plots evil:
to do what is ungodly,
to tell lies about the Lord,
to deny food to the hungry,
and to refuse even one drink for the thirsty.
⁷The rogue’s ways are evil.
He plots evil to ruin the humble with lies,
even when the poor speak with justice.

⁸But the noble man plans noble deeds,
and by noble deeds he stands.

Judgment and Restoration

⁹Get up, you complacent women, and listen!
You carefree girls, hear what I have to say!
¹⁰In a little more than a year, you carefree women will be worried,
because the grape harvest will fail,
and the fruit harvest will not arrive.
¹¹Tremble, you complacent women!
Be worried, you carefree girls!
Strip yourselves naked,
and put sackcloth around your waist.
¹²Beat your breasts in mourning
for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vines,
¹³because my people’s land will yield only thorns and briers.
Weep for all the houses where you partied,
in the city where you celebrated.
¹⁴Then the fortress will be abandoned.
The crowded city will be deserted.
The citadel and the watchtower will become
rugged ruins^[i] for a long time,
enjoyed by wild donkeys,
and a pasture for flocks,
¹⁵until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.
¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness will live in the fertile field.
¹⁷The result of righteousness will be peace,
and righteousness will bring lasting tranquility and security.
¹⁸My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure dwellings,
and in quiet resting places.
¹⁹Even if hail destroys the forest,
or if the city is totally leveled,
²⁰how blessed you will be,
as you sow seed beside streams,
and let your cattle and donkeys run free.

Rise Up, O Lord!

Woe to you who destroy, even though you have not been destroyed,
you who betray, though you have not been betrayed!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed,
and when you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

²O Lord, be gracious to us. We wait hopefully for you.
Be our strength every morning.
Be our salvation in times of trouble.
³At the thunder of your voice, people flee.
When you stir up your great power, nations scatter.
⁴Your plunder will be taken away
the way a caterpillar^[j] eats things up.
People will swarm on it like a locust swarm.
⁵The Lord is exalted, because he dwells on high.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶There will be stability in your time,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
Your treasure will be the fear of the Lord.
⁷Listen! Their elite troops^[k] are crying in the streets.
The peace envoys weep bitterly.
⁸The highways are deserted.
All travel has stopped.
The treaty has been broken.
Witnesses^[l] are despised,
and no one is respected.
⁹The land mourns and becomes weak.
Lebanon is ashamed and withers away.
The Plain of Sharon is like the Arabah,
and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

Footnotes:

Isaiah 30:20 The Hebrew reads teachers, perhaps referring to the prophets, but the singular he occurs throughout verses 20-26.
Isaiah 30:22 The Hebrew words refer to a cloth stained with menstrual blood. Blood made a person who contacted it ceremonially unclean.
Isaiah 30:24 Or seasoned feed
Isaiah 30:32 Or the appointed rod
Isaiah 31:1 Or horsemen
Isaiah 31:5 Or swooping
Isaiah 32:4 Or rash minds
Isaiah 32:5 Or celebrities
Isaiah 32:14 Or animals’ dens
Isaiah 33:4 The term refers to a life stage or a type of locust.
Isaiah 33:7 Or the people of Ariel
Isaiah 33:8 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah. The standard Hebrew text reads cities.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Galatians 5:1-12

Christ Set Us Free

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again. ²Look, I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. ³I testify again to every man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obligated to do the whole law. ⁴You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law are completely separated from Christ. You have fallen from grace.

⁵Indeed, through the Spirit, we by faith are eagerly waiting for the sure hope of righteousness. ⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, it is faith working through love that matters. ⁷You were running well! Who cut in on you, so that you are no longer persuaded by the truth? ⁸This persuasion is not from the one who calls you. ⁹A little yeast works through the whole batch. ¹⁰I am confident in the Lord that you will have no other opinion than this. But the one who is trying to disturb you will pay the penalty, whoever he is.

¹¹Brothers,^[a] if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? Then the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹²If only those who are upsetting you would also cut themselves off!^[b]

Footnotes:

Galatians 5:11 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.
Galatians 5:12 Using sarcasm, Paul sharply implies that if the Judaizers were so interested in circumcision, castration might be even better for them. See what Jesus said about false teachers in Matthew 18:6.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Psalm 63

My Soul Thirsts for You

Heading

A psalm by David. When he was in the wilderness of Judah.^[a]

Thirsting for God

¹God, you are my God. Eagerly I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you,
in a dry and dreary land without water.
²Yes, in the sanctuary I have watched you
to see your power and your glory.

Joy Even in Adversity

³Because your mercy is better than life,
my lips will worship you.
⁴Yes, I will bless you as long as I live.
In your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵My soul will be satisfied with rich food.^[b]
My mouth will praise you with lips filled with songs.
⁶Whenever I remember you on my bed,
throughout the watches of the night I meditate on you.
⁷Because you are a help for me,
I sing for joy under the shade of your wings.
⁸My soul clings to you.
Your right hand upholds me.

Destruction for the Defiant

⁹But those who seek my life will go to destruction.
They will go into the depths of the earth.
¹⁰They will be given over to the power of the sword.
They will become food for foxes.^[c]
¹¹But the king will rejoice in God.
All who swear by him will praise him,
but the mouths of those speaking lies will be shut.

Footnotes:

Psalm 63:1 This location could apply to several periods during his long flight from Saul.
Psalm 63:5 Literally with fat
Psalm 63:10 Or jackals

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

Proverbs 23:22

²²Listen to your father, who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

September 18, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday September 18, 2021 (NIV)

Isaiah 28:14-30:11

A Cornerstone in Zion

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you ^(A)scoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem!
¹⁵Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the ^(B)overwhelming whip passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made ^(C)lies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord God,
^(D)“Behold, I am the one who has laid^[a] as a foundation ^(E)in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
¹⁷And I will make justice ^(F)the line,
and righteousness ^(G)the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
¹⁸Then ^(H)your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.
¹⁹As often as it passes through it will take you;
^(I)for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be ^(J)sheer terror to understand the message.
²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
²¹For the Lord will rise up ^(K)as on Mount Perazim;
^(L)as in the Valley of ^(M)Gibeon he will be roused;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
and to work his work—alien is his work!
²²Now therefore do not ^(N)scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard ^(O)a decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
²⁴Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
²⁵^(P)When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer^[b] as the border?
²⁶^(Q)For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.

²⁷Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
²⁸Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;^[c]
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
²⁹This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
he is ^(R)wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.

The Siege of Jerusalem

29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city ^(S)where David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the feasts run their round.
²Yet I will distress Ariel,
and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
and she shall be to me like an Ariel.^[d]
³^(T)And I will encamp against you all around,
and will besiege you ^(U)with towers
and I will raise siegeworks against you.
⁴^(V)And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,
and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;
your voice shall come from the ground like ^(W)the voice of a ghost,
and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

⁵But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like ^(X)small dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
^(Y)And in an instant, suddenly,
⁶^(Z)you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
⁷And ^(AA)the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be ^(AB)like a dream, a vision of the night.
⁸^(AC)As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Astonish yourselves^[e] and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk,^[f] but not with wine;
^(AD)stagger,^[g] but not with strong drink!
¹⁰^(AE)For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is ^(AF)sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ¹²And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

¹³And the Lord said:
“Because ^(AG)this people ^(AH)draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
¹⁴therefore, behold, ^(AI)I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and ^(AJ)the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

¹⁵Ah, ^(AK)you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are ^(AL)in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
¹⁶^(AM)You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while
^(AN)until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
¹⁸In that day ^(AO)the deaf shall hear
^(AP)the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
^(AQ)the eyes of the blind shall see.
¹⁹^(AR)The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰For the ruthless shall come to nothing
and ^(AS)the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
²¹who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and ^(AT)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea ^(AU)turn aside him who is in the right.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, ^(AV)who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
²³For when he sees his children,
^(AW)the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
^(AX)they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
²⁴And those ^(AY)who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Do Not Go Down to Egypt

30 “Ah, ^(AZ)stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
^(BA)“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make ^(BB)an alliance,^[h] but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
²^(BC)who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
³^(BD)Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
⁴For though his officials are at ^(BE)Zoan
and ^(BF)his envoys reach ^(BG)Hanes,
⁵everyone comes to shame
through ^(BH)a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”

⁶An ^(BI)oracle on ^(BJ)the beasts of ^(BK)the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the adder and the ^(BL)flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
⁷Egypt's ^(BM)help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her
^(BN)“Rahab who sits still.”

A Rebellious People

⁸And now, go, ^(BO)write it before them on a tablet
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.^[i]
⁹^(BP)For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord;
¹⁰^(BQ)who say to ^(BR)the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us ^(BS)smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
¹¹leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

Footnotes:

Isaiah 28:16 Dead Sea Scroll I am laying
Isaiah 28:25 A type of wheat
Isaiah 28:28 Or Grain is crushed for bread; he will surely thresh it, but not forever
Isaiah 29:2 Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15–16)
Isaiah 29:9 Or Linger awhile
Isaiah 29:9 Or They are drunk
Isaiah 29:9 Or they stagger
Isaiah 30:1 Hebrew who weave a web
Isaiah 30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever

Cross references:

English Standard Version (ESV)

Galatians 3:23-4:31

²³Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, ^(A)imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. ²⁴So then, ^(B)the law was our ^(C)guardian until Christ came, ^(D)in order that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus ^(E)you are all sons of God, through faith. ²⁷For as many of you as ^(F)were baptized ^(G)into Christ have ^(H)put on Christ. ²⁸^(I)There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave^[a] nor free, ^(J)there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And ^(K)if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, ^(L)heirs according to promise.

Sons and Heirs

4 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,^[b] though he is the owner of everything, ²but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. ³In the same way we also, when we were children, ^(M)were enslaved to the elementary principles^[c] of the world. ⁴But ^(N)when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, ^(O)born ^(P)of woman, born ^(Q)under the law, ⁵^(R)to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive ^(S)adoption as sons. ⁶And because you are sons, God has sent ^(T)the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then ^(U)an heir through God.

Paul's Concern for the Galatians

⁸Formerly, when you ^(V)did not know God, you ^(W)were enslaved to those that by nature ^(X)are not gods. ⁹But now that you have come to know God, or rather ^(Y)to be known by God, ^(Z)how can you turn back again to ^(AA)the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? ¹⁰^(AB)You observe days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹I am afraid ^(AC)I may have labored over you in vain.

¹²Brothers,^[d] ^(AD)I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. ^(AE)You did me no wrong. ¹³You know it was ^(AF)because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you ^(AG)at first, ¹⁴and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me ^(AH)as an angel of God, ^(AI)as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶Have I then become your enemy by ^(AJ)telling you the truth?^[e] ¹⁷They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. ¹⁸It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and ^(AK)not only when I am present with you, ¹⁹^(AL)my little children, ^(AM)for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ ^(AN)is formed in you! ²⁰I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Example of Hagar and Sarah

²¹Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, ^(AO)one by a slave woman and ^(AP)one by a free woman. ²³But ^(AQ)the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while ^(AR)the son of the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two ^(AS)covenants. ^(AT)One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. ²⁵Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;^[f] she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But ^(AU)the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷For it is written,

^(AV)“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”

²⁸Now you,^[g] brothers, ^(AW)like Isaac, ^(AX)are children of promise. ²⁹But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh ^(AY)persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, ^(AZ)so also it is now. ³⁰But what does the Scripture say? ^(BA)“Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” ³¹So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but ^(BB)of the free woman.

Footnotes:

Galatians 3:28 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface
Galatians 4:1 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; also verse 7
Galatians 4:3 Or elemental spirits; also verse 9
Galatians 4:12 Or Brothers and sisters; also verses 28, 31
Galatians 4:16 Or by dealing truthfully with you
Galatians 4:25 Some manuscripts For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia
Galatians 4:28 Some manuscripts we

Cross references:

English Standard Version (ESV)

Psalm 62

My Soul Waits for God Alone

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

62 For God alone ^(B)my soul ^(C)waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
²^(D)He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my ^(E)fortress; ^(F)I shall not be greatly shaken.

³How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like ^(G)a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴They only plan to thrust him down from his ^(H)high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
^(I)They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah

⁵For God alone, O ^(J)my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
⁶^(K)He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷On God rests my ^(L)salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, ^(M)my refuge is God.

⁸^(N)Trust in him at all times, O people;
^(O)pour out your heart before him;
God is ^(P)a refuge for us. Selah

⁹^(Q)Those of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate ^(R)are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
^(S)they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰Put no trust in extortion;
^(T)set no vain hopes on robbery;
^(U)if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

¹¹^(V)Once God has spoken;
^(W)twice have I heard this:
that ^(X)power belongs to God,
¹²and that to you, O Lord, ^(Y)belongs steadfast love.
For you will ^(Z)render to a man
according to his work.

Cross references:

Psalm 62:1 : See Ps. 39, title
Psalm 62:1 : See Ps. 33:20
Psalm 62:1 : [Ps. 37:7]
Psalm 62:2 : Ps. 18:2
Psalm 62:2 : See Ps. 9:9
Psalm 62:2 : See Ps. 10:6
Psalm 62:3 : [Isa. 30:13]
Psalm 62:4 : Job 13:11
Psalm 62:4 : See Ps. 28:3
Psalm 62:5 : [See ver. 1 above]; See Ps. 33:20
Psalm 62:6 : [See ver. 2 above]; Ps. 18:2
Psalm 62:7 : See Ps. 3:8
Psalm 62:7 : See Ps. 14:6
Psalm 62:8 : See Ps. 37:3
Psalm 62:8 : See Ps. 42:4
Psalm 62:8 : [See ver. 7 above]; See Ps. 14:6
Psalm 62:9 : Ps. 39:5; [Isa. 40:17]
Psalm 62:9 : [Ps. 116:11]
Psalm 62:9 : Ps. 39:5; [Isa. 40:17]
Psalm 62:10 : See Prov. 1:10-19
Psalm 62:10 : Luke 12:15; See Ps. 49:6
Psalm 62:11 : Job 33:14; 40:5
Psalm 62:11 : Job 33:14; 40:5
Psalm 62:11 : Rev. 19:1; [Ps. 59:9, 17]
Psalm 62:12 : Ps. 86:5, 15; 103:8; Dan. 9:9
Psalm 62:12 : See Job 34:11

English Standard Version (ESV)

Proverbs 23:19-21

¹⁹Hear, my son, and ^(A)be wise,
and ^(B)direct your heart in the way.
²⁰Be not among ^(C)drunkards^[a]
or among ^(D)gluttonous eaters of meat,
²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and ^(E)slumber will clothe them with rags.

Footnotes:

Proverbs 23:20 Hebrew those who drink too much wine

Cross references:

English Standard Version (ESV)

Isaiah 48:12-50:11

The Servant Brings Salvation

Zion Remembered

The Obedient Servant

Footnotes:

Cross references:

Ephesians 4:17-32

Living the New Life

Footnotes:

Cross references:

Psalm 69:1-18

Psalm 69

A Plea for Rescue

For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.”(A) Of David.

Cross references:

Proverbs 24:5-6

Footnotes:

Cross references:

Isaiah 45:11-48

Cyrus as the Lord’s Servant

The Hidden God Is Revealed

Judgment Against the Idols of Babylon

Babylon’s Fall

Judgment Is Coming on Stubborn Israel

Footnotes:

Ephesians 4:1-16

Members of Christ’s Body

Footnotes:

Psalm 68:19-35

God’s Daily Care

God’s Future Victories

God’s Procession Into the Temple

Prayer for Future Victory

God Rules the Nations

Closing Praise

Footnotes:

Proverbs 24:3-4

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

The Lord Comforts His People

The Lord Confronts Idols

Israel Will Be Restored

Cyrus the Lord’s Anointed Shepherd

Coming Blessings

Arguing With the Lord

Footnotes:

Ephesians 3

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed

Paul’s Prayer and Praise

Footnotes:

Psalm 68:1-18

Psalm 68

The Procession of God

HeadingFor the choir director. By David. A psalm. A song.

Judgment on God’s Enemies

Blessing on God’s People

God Brings His People Into His Land

The Lord Defeats the Kings of the Land

The Lord Makes His Dwelling in Zion

Footnotes:

Proverbs 24:1-2

Isaiah 41:17-43:13

The Idols Are Placed on Trial

The Man From the North

The First Servant Song[a]The Servant Is Called to Bring Justice

Creation Rejoices

The Lord Shouts

But Israel Does Not Notice

The Lord’s New Act of Salvation

Footnotes:

Ephesians 2

Made Alive in Christ by Grace

United in Christ

Footnotes:

Psalm 67

Psalm 67

Your Kingdom Come

HeadingFor the choir director. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.

The Prayer

Proverbs 23:29-35

Isaiah 39:1-41:16

For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.”^(A) Of David.

Heading
For the choir director. By David. A psalm. A song.

The First Servant Song^[a]
The Servant Is Called to Bring Justice

Heading
For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.

Heading
For the choir director. A song. A psalm.

Heading
For the choir director. A song. A psalm.

Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David. A song.