The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NLT. Switch to the NLT to read along with the audio.
21 And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before the Lord our God, and might ask of him a right way for us and for our children, and for all our substance.
22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for aid and for horsemen, to defend us from the enemy in the way: because we had said to the king: The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him in goodness: and his power and strength, and wrath upon all them that forsake him.
23 And we fasted, and besought our God for this: and it fell out prosperously unto us.
24 And I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sarabias, and Hasabias, and with them ten of their brethren,
25 And I weighed unto them the silver and gold, and the vessels consecrated for the house of our God, which the king and his counsellors, and his princes, and all Israel, that were found had offered.
26 And I weighed to their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and a hundred vessels of silver, and a hundred talents of gold,
27 And twenty cups of gold, of a thousand solids, and two vessels of the best shining brass, beautiful as gold.
28 And I said to them: You are the holy ones of the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and gold, that is freely offered to the Lord the God of our fathers.
29 Watch ye and keep them, till you deliver them by weight before the chief of the priests, and of the Levites, and the heads of the families of Israel in Jerusalem, into the treasure of the house of the Lord.
30 And the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and gold, and the vessels, to carry them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.
31 Then we set forward from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way.
32 And we came to Jerusalem, and we stayed there three days.
33 And on the fourth day the silver and the gold, and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Urias the priest, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinees, and with them Jozabad the son of Josue, and Noadaia the son of Benoi, Levites.
34 According to the number and weight of every thing: and all the weight was written at that time.
35 Moreover the children of them that had been carried away that were come out of the captivity, offered holocausts to the God of Israel, twelve calves for all the people of Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve he goats for sin: all for a holocaust to the Lord.
36 And they gave the king's edicts to the lords that were from the king's court, and the governors beyond the river, and they furthered the people and the house of God.
9 And after these things were accomplished, the princes came to me, saying: The people of Israel, and the priests and Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, and from their abominations, namely, of the Chanaanites, and the Hethites, and the Pherezites, and the Jebusites, and the Ammonites, and the Moabites, and the Egyptians, and the Amorrhites.
2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and they have mingled the holy seed with the people of the lands. And the hand of the princes and magistrates hath been first in this transgression.
3 And when I had heard this word, I rent my mantle and my coat, and plucked off the hairs of my head and my beard, and I sat down mourning.
4 And there were assembled to me all that feared the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that were come from the captivity, and I sat sorrowful, until the evening sacrifice.
5 And at the evening sacrifice I rose up from my affliction, and having rent my mantle and my garment, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands to the Lord my God,
6 And said: My God I am confounded and ashamed to lift up my face to thee: for our iniquities are multiplied over our heads, and our sins are grown up even unto heaven,
7 From the days of our fathers: and we ourselves also have sinned grievously unto this day, and for our iniquities we and our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the lands, and to the sword, and to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is at this day.
8 And now as a little, and for a moment has our prayer been made before the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant, and give us a pin in his holy place, and that our God would enlighten our eyes, and would give us a little life in our bondage.
9 For we are bondmen, and in our bondage our God hath not forsaken us, but hath extended mercy upon us before the king of the Persians, to give us life, and to set up the house of our God, and rebuild the desolations thereof, and to give us a fence in Juda and Jerusalem.
10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
11 Which thou hast commanded by the hand of thy servants the prophets, saying: The land which you go to possess, is an unclean land, according to the uncleanness of the people, and of other lands, with their abominations, who have filled it from mouth to mouth with their filth.
12 Now therefore give not your daughters to their sons, and take not their daughters for your sons, and seek not their peace, nor their prosperity forever: that you may be strengthened, and may eat the good things of the land, and may have your children your heirs for ever.
13 And after all that is come upon us, for our most wicked deeds, and our great sin, seeing that thou our God hast saved us from our iniquity, and hast given us a deliverance as at this day,
14 That we should not turn away, nor break thy commandments, nor join in marriage with the people of these abominations. Art thou angry with us unto utter destruction, not to leave us a remnant to be saved?
15 O Lord God of Israel, thou art just: for we remain yet to be saved as at this day. Behold we are before thee in our sin, for there can be no standing before thee in this matter.
5 It is absolutely heard, that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as the like is not among the heathens; that one should have his father's wife.
2 And you are puffed up; and have not rather mourned, that he might be taken away from among you, that hath done this deed.
3 I indeed, absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him that hath so done,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus;
5 To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump?
7 Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators.
10 I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world.
11 But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within?
13 For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves.
31 To David himself, understanding. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
3 Because I was silent my bones grew old; whilst I cried out all the day long.
4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: I am turned in my anguish, whilst the thorn is fastened.
5 I have acknowledged my sin to thee, and my injustice I have not concealed. I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord: and thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin.
6 For this shall every one that is holy pray to thee in a seasonable time. And yet in a flood of many waters, they shall not come nigh unto him.
7 Thou art my refuge from the trouble which hath encompassed me: my joy, deliver me from them that surround me.
8 I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go: I will fix my eyes upon thee.
21 As the divisions of waters, so the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: whithersoever he will he shall turn it.
2 Every way of a man seemeth right to himself: but the Lord weigheth the hearts.
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)