The Daily Audio Bible

²¹ And I proclaim there a fast, by the river Ahava, to afflict ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a right way for us, and for our infants, and for all our substance,

²² for I was ashamed to ask from the king a force and horsemen to help us because of the enemy in the way, for we spake to the king, saying, `The hand of our God [is] upon all seeking Him for good, and His strength and His wrath [is] upon all forsaking Him.'

²³ And we fast, and seek from our God for this, and He is entreated of us.

²⁴ And I separate from the heads of the priests, twelve, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and with them of their brethren ten,

²⁵ and I weigh to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, a heave-offering of the house of our God, that the king, and his counsellors, and his heads, and all Israel -- those present -- lifted up;

²⁶ and I weigh to their hand, of silver, talents six hundred and fifty, and of vessels of silver a hundred talents, of gold a hundred talents,

²⁷ and basins of gold twenty, of a thousand drams, and two vessels of good shining brass, desirable as gold.

²⁸ And I say unto them, `Ye [are] holy to Jehovah, and the vessels [are] holy, and the silver and the gold [are] a willing-offering to Jehovah, God of your fathers;

²⁹ watch, and keep, till ye weigh before the heads of the priests, and of the Levites, and the heads of the fathers of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Jehovah.'

³⁰ And the priests and the Levites took the weight of the silver, and of the gold, and of the vessels, to bring to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

³¹ And we journey from the river Ahava, on the twelfth of the first month, to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God hath been upon us, and He delivereth us from the hand of the enemy and the lier in wait by the way;

³² and we come in to Jerusalem, and dwell there three days.

³³ And on the fourth day hath been weighed the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, in the house of our God, unto the hand of Meremoth son of Uriah the priest, and with him Eleazar son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad son of Jeshua, and Noadiah son of Binnui, the Levites:

³⁴ by number, by weight of every one, and all the weight is written at that time.

³⁵ Those coming in of the captives -- sons of the removal -- have brought near burnt-offerings to the God of Israel, bullocks twelve, for all Israel, rams ninety and six, lambs seventy and seven, young he-goats for a sin-offering twelve -- the whole a burnt-offering to Jehovah;

³⁶ and they give the laws of the king to the lieutenants of the king and the governors beyond the river, and they have lifted up the people and the house of God.

9 And at the completion of these things, drawn nigh unto me have the heads, saying, `The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not been separated from the peoples of the lands, as to their abominations, even the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian, and the Amorite,

² for they have taken of their daughters to them, and to their sons, and the holy seed have mingled themselves among the peoples of the lands, and the hand of the heads and of the seconds have been first in this trespass.'

³ And at my hearing this word, I have rent my garment and my upper robe, and pluck out of the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sit astonished,

⁴ and unto me are gathered every one trembling at the words of the God of Israel, because of the trespass of the removal, and I am sitting astonished till the present of the evening.

⁵ And at the present of the evening I have risen from mine affliction, and at my rending my garment and my upper robe, then I bow down on my knees, and spread out my hands unto Jehovah my God,

⁶ and say, `O my God, I have been ashamed, and have blushed to lift up, O my God, my face unto Thee, for our iniquities have increased over the head, and our guilt hath become great unto the heavens.

⁷ `From the days of our fathers we [are] in great guilt unto this day, and in our iniquities we have been given -- we, our kings, our priests -- into the hand of the kings of the lands, with sword, with captivity, and with spoiling, and with shame of face, as [at] this day.

⁸ `And now, as a small moment hath grace been from Jehovah our God, to leave to us an escape, and to give to us a nail in His holy place, by our God's enlightening our eyes, and by giving us a little quickening in our servitude;

⁹ for servants we [are], and in our servitude our God hath not forsaken us, and stretcheth out unto us kindness before the kings of Persia, to give to us a quickening to lift up the house of our God, and to cause its wastes to cease, and to give to us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹⁰ `And now, what do we say, O our God, after this? for we have forsaken Thy commands,

¹¹ that Thou hast commanded by the hands of thy servants the prophets, saying, The land into which ye are going to possess it, [is] a land of impurity, by the impurity of the people of the lands, by their abominations with which they have filled it -- from mouth unto mouth -- by their uncleanness;

¹² and now, your daughters ye do not give to their sons, and their daughters ye do not take to your sons, and ye do not seek their peace, and their good -- unto the age, so that ye are strong, and have eaten the good of the land, and given possession to your sons unto the age.

¹³ `And after all that hath come upon us for our evil works, and for our great guilt (for Thou, O our God, hast kept back of the rod from our iniquities, and hast given to us an escape like this),

¹⁴ do we turn back to break Thy commands, and to join ourselves in marriage with the people of these abominations? art not Thou angry against us -- even to consumption -- till there is no remnant and escaped part?

¹⁵ `O Jehovah, God of Israel, righteous [art] Thou, for we have been left an escape, as [it is] this day; lo, we [are] before Thee in our guilt, for there is none to stand before Thee concerning this.'

5 Whoredom is actually heard of among you, and such whoredom as is not even named among the nations -- as that one hath the wife of the father! --

² and ye are having been puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he may be removed out of the midst of you who did this work,

³ for I indeed, as being absent as to the body, and present as to the spirit, have already judged, as being present, him who so wrought this thing:

⁴ in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ -- ye being gathered together, also my spirit -- with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁵ to deliver up such a one to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ Not good [is] your glorying; have ye not known that a little leaven the whole lump doth leaven?

⁷ cleanse out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened, for also our passover for us was sacrificed -- Christ,

⁸ so that we may keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with unleavened food of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I did write to you in the epistle, not to keep company with whoremongers --

¹⁰ and not certainly with the whoremongers of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, seeing ye ought then to go forth out of the world --

¹¹ and now, I did write to you not to keep company with [him], if any one, being named a brother, may be a whoremonger, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -- with such a one not even to eat together;

¹² for what have I also those without to judge? those within do ye not judge?

¹³ and those without God doth judge; and put ye away the evil from among yourselves.

31 To the Overseer. -- A Psalm of David. In Thee, O Jehovah, I have trusted, Let me not be ashamed to the age, In Thy righteousness deliver me.

² Incline unto me Thine ear hastily, deliver me, Be to me for a strong rock, For a house of bulwarks to save me.

³ For my rock and my bulwark [art] Thou, For Thy name's sake lead me and tend me.

⁴ Bring me out from the net that they hid for me, For Thou [art] my strength.

⁵ Into Thy hand I commit my spirit, Thou hast redeemed me, Jehovah God of truth.

⁶ I have hated the observers of lying vanities, And I toward Jehovah have been confident.

⁷ I rejoice, and am glad in Thy kindness, In that Thou hast seen mine affliction, Thou hast known in adversities my soul.

⁸ And Thou hast not shut me up, Into the hand of an enemy, Thou hast caused my feet to stand in a broad place.

21 Rivulets of waters [is] the heart of a king in the hand of Jehovah, Wherever He pleaseth He inclineth it.

² Every way of a man [is] right in his own eyes, And Jehovah is pondering hearts.