The Daily Audio Bible

8 And the seventh month came: and the children of Israel were in their cities. And all the people were gathered together as one man to the street which is before the water gate, and they spoke to Esdras the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.

² Then Esdras the priest brought the law before the multitude of men and women, and all those that could understand, in the first day of the seventh month.

³ And he read it plainly in the street that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday, before the men, and the women, and all those that could understand: and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book.

⁴ And Esdras the scribe stood upon a step of wood, which he had made to speak upon, and there stood by him Mathathias, and Semeia, and Ania, and Uria, and Helcia, and Maasia, on his right hand: and on the left, Phadaia, Misael, and Melchia, and Hasum, and Hasbadana, Zacharia and Mosollam.

⁵ And Esdras opened the book before all the people: for he was above all the people: and when he had opened it, all the people stood.

⁶ And Esdras blessed the Lord the great God: and all the people answered, Amen, amen: lifting up their hands: and they bowed down, and adored God with their faces to the ground.

⁷ Now Josue, and Bani, and Serebia, Jamin, Accub, Sephtai, Odia, Maasia, Celtia, Azarias, Jozabed, Hanan, Phalaia, the Levites, made silence among the people to hear the law: and the people stood in their place.

⁸ And they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and plainly to be understood: and they understood when it was read.

⁹ And Nehemias (he is Athersatha) and Esdras the priest and scribe, and the Levites who interpreted to all the people, said: This is a holy day to the Lord our God: do not mourn, nor weep: for all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

¹⁰ And he said to them: Go, eat fat meats, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to them that have not prepared for themselves: because it is the holy day of the Lord, and be not sad: for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

¹¹ And the Levites stilled all the people, saying: Hold your peace, for the day is holy, and be not sorrowful.

¹² So all the people went to eat and drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth: because they understood the words that he had taught them.

¹³ And on the second day the chiefs of the families of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered together to Esdras the scribe, that he should interpret to them the words of the law.

¹⁴ And they found written in the law, that the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in tabernacles, on the feast, in the seventh month:

¹⁵ And that they should proclaim and publish the word in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying: Go forth to the mount, and fetch branches of olive, and branches of beautiful wood, branches of myrtle, and branches of palm, and branches of thick trees, to make tabernacles, as it is written.

¹⁶ And the people went forth, and brought. And they made themselves tabernacles every man on the top of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.

¹⁷ And all the assembly of them that were returned from the captivity, made tabernacles, and dwelt in tabernacles: for since the days of Josue the son of Nun the children of Israel had not done so, until that day: and there was exceeding great joy.

¹⁸ And he read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day till the last, and they kept the solemnity seven days, and in the eighth day a solemn assembly according to the manner.

9 And in the four and twentieth day of the month the children of Israel came together with fasting and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.

² And the seed of the children of Israel separated themselves from every stranger: and they stood, and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

³ And they rose up to stand: and they read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the day, and four times they confessed, and adored the Lord their God.

⁴ And there stood up upon the seep of the Levites, Josue, and Bani, and Cedmihel, Sabania, Bonni, Sarebias, Bani, and Chanani: and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

⁵ And the Levites Josue and Cedmihel, Bonni, Hasebnia, Serebia, Oduia, Sebnia, and Phathahia, said: Arise, bless the Lord your God from eternity to eternity: and blessed be the high name of thy glory with all blessing and praise.

⁶ Thou thyself, O Lord alone, thou hast made heaven, and the heaven of heavens, and all the host thereof: the earth and all things that are in it: the seas and all that are therein: and thou givest life to all these things, and the host of heaven adoreth thee.

⁷ Thou, O Lord God, art he who chosest Abram, and broughtest him forth out of the fire of the Chaldeans, and gavest him the name of Abraham.

⁸ And thou didst find his heart faithful before thee: and thou madest a covenant with him, to give him the land of the Chanaanite, of the Hethite, and of the Amorrhite, and of the Pherezite, and of the Jebusite, and of the Gergezite, to give it to his seed: and thou hast fulfilled thy words, because thou art just.

⁹ And thou sawest the affliction of our fathers in Egypt: and thou didst hear their cry by the Red Sea.

¹⁰ And thou shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharao, and upon all his servants, and upon the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them: and thou madest thyself a name, as it is at this day.

¹¹ And thou didst divide the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land: but their persecutors thou threwest into the depth, as a stone into mighty waters.

¹² And in a pillar of a cloud thou wast their leader by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, that they might see the way by which they went.

¹³ Thou camest down also to mount Sinai, and didst speak with them from heaven, and thou gavest them right judgments, and the law of truth, ceremonies, and good precepts.

¹⁴ Thou madest known to them thy holy sabbath, and didst prescribe to them commandments, and ceremonies, and the law by the hand of Moses thy servant.

¹⁵ And thou gavest them bread from heaven in their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst, and thou saidst to them that they should go in, and possess the land, upon which thou hadst lifted up thy hand to give it them.

¹⁶ But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments.

¹⁷ And they would not hear, and they remembered not thy wonders which thou hadst done for them. And they hardened their necks, and gave the head to return to their bondage, as it were by contention. But thou, a forgiving God, gracious, and merciful, longsuffering, and full of compassion, didst not forsake them.

¹⁸ Yea when they had made also to themselves a molten calf, and had said: This is thy God, that brought thee out of Egypt: and hail committed great blasphemies:

¹⁹ Yet thou, in thy many mercies, didst not leave them in the desert: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way, and the pillar of fire by night to shew them the way by which they should go.

²⁰ And thou gavest them thy good Spirit to teach them, and thy manna thou didst not withhold from their mouth, and thou gavest them water for their thirst.

²¹ Forty years didst thou feed them in the desert, and nothing was wanting to them: their garments did not grow old, and their feet were not worn.

9 Am not I free? Am not I an apostle? Have not I seen Christ Jesus our Lord? Are not you my work in the Lord?

² And if unto others I be not an apostle, but yet to you I am. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³ My defence with them that do examine me is this.

⁴ Have not we power to eat and to drink?

⁵ Have we not power to carry about a woman, a sister, as well as the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

⁶ Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to do this?

⁷ Who serveth as a soldier at any time, at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Who feedeth the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

⁸ Speak I these things according to man? Or doth not the law also say these things?

⁹ For it is written in the law of Moses: Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

¹⁰ Or doth he say this indeed for our sakes? For these things are written for our sakes: that he that plougheth, should plough in hope; and he that thrasheth, in hope to receive fruit.

¹¹ If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things?

¹² If others be partakers of this power over you, why not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power: but we bear all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

¹³ Know you not, that they who work in the holy place, eat the things that are of the holy place; and they that serve the altar, partake with the altar?

¹⁴ So also the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel, should live by the gospel.

¹⁵ But I have used none of these things. Neither have I written these things, that they should be so done unto me: for it is good for me to die, rather than that any man should make my glory void.

¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me, for a necessity lieth upon me: for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.

¹⁷ For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation is committed to me:

¹⁸ What is my reward then? That preaching the gospel, I may deliver the gospel without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

¹² Come, children, hearken to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

¹³ Who is the man that desireth life: who loveth to see good days?

¹⁴ Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

¹⁵ Turn away from evil and do good: seek after peace and pursue it.

¹⁶ The eyes of the Lord are upon the just: and his ears unto their prayers.

¹⁷ But the countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil things: to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

¹⁸ The just cried, and the Lord heard them: and delivered them out of all their troubles.

¹⁹ The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart: and he will save the humble of spirit.

²⁰ Many are the afflictions of the just; but out of them all will the Lord deliver them.

²¹ The Lord keepeth all their bones, not one of them shall be broken.

²² The death of the wicked is very evil: and they that hate the just shall be guilty.

¹¹ When a pestilent man is punished, the little one will be wiser: and if he follow the wise, he will receive knowledge.

¹² The just considereth seriously the house of the wicked, that he may withdraw the wicked from evil.