The Daily Audio Bible

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, [in a vision] I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the skirts of His train filled the [most holy part of the] temple.^(A)

² Above Him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two [each] covered his [own] face, and with two [each] covered his feet, and with two [each] flew.

³ And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone and ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

⁶ Then flew one of the seraphim [heavenly beings] to me, having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from off the altar;

⁷ And with it he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity and guilt are taken away, and your sin is completely atoned for and forgiven.

⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

⁹ And He said, Go and tell this people, Hear and hear continually, but understand not; and see and see continually, but do not apprehend with your mind.

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people fat; and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn again and be healed.

¹¹ Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without man, and the land is utterly desolate,

¹² And the Lord removes [His] people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

¹³ And though a tenth [of the people] remain in the land, it will be for their destruction [eaten up and burned] like a terebinth tree or like an oak whose stump and substance remain when they are felled or have cast their leaves. The holy seed [the elect remnant] is the stump and substance [of Israel].

7 In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.

² And the house of David [Judah] was told, Syria is allied with Ephraim [Israel]. And the heart [of Ahaz] and the hearts of his people trembled and shook, as the trees of the forest tremble and shake with the wind.

³ Then said the Lord to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Judah’s King Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub [a remnant shall return], at the end of the aqueduct or canal of the Upper Pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field;

⁴ And say to him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted because of these two stumps of smoking firebrands—at the fierce anger of [the Syrian King] Rezin and Syria and of the son of Remaliah [Pekah, usurper of the throne of Israel].

⁵ Because Syria, Ephraim [Israel], and the son of Remaliah have purposed evil against you [Judah], saying,

⁶ Let us go up against Judah and harass and terrify it; and let us cleave it asunder [each of us taking a portion], and set a [vassal] king in the midst of it, namely the son of Tabeel,

⁷ Thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

⁸ For the head [the capital] of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is [King] Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.

⁹ And the head (the capital) of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son [Pekah]. If you will not believe and trust and rely [on God and on the words of God’s prophet instead of Assyria], surely you will not be established nor will you remain.

¹⁰ Moreover, the Lord spoke again to King Ahaz, saying,

¹¹ Ask for yourself a sign (a token or proof) of the Lord your God [one that will convince you that God has spoken and will keep His word]; ask it either in the depth below or in the height above [let it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven].

¹² But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

¹³ And [Isaiah] said, Hear then, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary and try the patience of men, but will you weary and try the patience of my God also?

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us].^(B)

¹⁵ Butter and curds and wild honey shall he eat when he knows [enough] to refuse the evil and choose the good.

¹⁶ For before the child shall know [enough] to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land [Canaan] whose two kings you abhor and of whom you are in sickening dread shall be forsaken [both Ephraim and Syria].^(C)

¹⁷ The Lord shall bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim [the ten northern tribes] departed from Judah—even the king of ^[a]Assyria.

¹⁸ And in that day the Lord shall whistle for the fly [the numerous and troublesome foe] that is in the whole extent of the canal country of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹ And these [enemies like flies and bees] shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate and rugged valleys and deep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes and on all the pastures.

²⁰ In the same day [will the people of Judah be utterly stripped of belongings], the Lord will shave with the razor that is hired from the parts beyond the River [Euphrates]—even with the king of Assyria—[that razor will shave] the head and the hair of the legs, and it shall also consume the beard [leaving Judah with open shame and scorn].^(D)

²¹ And [because of the desolation brought on by the invaders] in that day, a man will [be so poor that he will] keep alive only a young milk cow and two sheep.

²² And because of the abundance of milk that they will give, he will eat butter and curds, for [only] butter and curds and [wild] honey [no vegetables] shall everyone eat who is left in the land [these products provided from the extensive pastures and the plentiful wild flowers upon which the bees depend].

²³ And in that day, in every place where there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be briers and thorns.

²⁴ With arrows and with bows shall a man come [to hunt] there, because all the land will be briers and thorns.

²⁵ And as for all the hills that were formerly cultivated with mattock and hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where oxen are let loose to pasture and where sheep tread.

¹⁶ I repeat then, let no one think I have lost my wits; but even if you do, then bear with a witless man, so that I too may boast a little.

¹⁷ What I say by way of this confident boasting, I say not with the Lord’s authority [by inspiration] but, as it were, in pure witlessness.

¹⁸ [For] since many boast of worldly things and according to the flesh, I will glory (boast) also.

¹⁹ For you readily and gladly bear with the foolish, since you are so smart and wise yourselves!

²⁰ For you endure it if a man assumes control of your souls and makes slaves of you, or devours [your substance, spends your money] and preys upon you, or deceives and takes advantage of you, or is arrogant and puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.

²¹ To my discredit, I must say, we have shown ourselves too weak [for you to show such tolerance of us and for us to do strong, courageous things like that to you]! But in whatever any person is bold and dares [to boast]—mind you, I am speaking in this foolish (witless) way—I also am bold and dare [to boast].

²² They are Hebrews? So am I! They are Israelites? So am I! They are descendants of Abraham? So am I!

²³ Are they [ministering] servants of Christ (the Messiah)? I am talking like one beside himself, [but] I am more, with far more extensive and abundant labors, with far more imprisonments, [beaten] with countless stripes, and frequently [at the point of] death.

²⁴ Five times I received from [the hands of] the Jews forty [lashes all] but one;^(A)

²⁵ Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been aboard a ship wrecked at sea; a [whole] night and a day I have spent [adrift] on the deep;

²⁶ Many times on journeys, [exposed to] perils from rivers, perils from bandits, perils from [my own] nation, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the desert places, perils in the sea, perils from those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety];

²⁷ In toil and hardship, watching often [through sleepless nights], in hunger and thirst, frequently driven to fasting by want, in cold and exposure and lack of clothing.

²⁸ And besides those things that are without, there is the daily [inescapable pressure] of my care and anxiety for all the churches!

²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to stumble and fall and have his faith hurt, and I am not on fire [with sorrow or indignation]?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that [show] my infirmity [of the things by which I am made weak and contemptible in the eyes of my opponents].

³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ knows, He Who is blessed and to be praised forevermore, that I do not lie.

³² In Damascus, the city governor acting under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus [on purpose] to arrest me,

³³ And I was [actually] let down in a [rope] basket or hamper through a window (a small door) in the wall, and I escaped through his fingers.

Psalm 54

To the Chief Musician; with stringed instruments. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, David is hiding among us.

¹ Save me, O God, by Your name; judge and vindicate me by Your mighty strength and power.

² Hear my pleading and my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

³ For strangers and insolent men are rising up against me, and violent men and ruthless ones seek and demand my life; they do not set God before them. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁴ Behold, God is my helper and ally; the Lord is my upholder and is with them who uphold my life.

⁵ He will pay back evil to my enemies; in Your faithfulness [Lord] put an end to them.

⁶ With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks and praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.

⁷ For He has delivered me out of every trouble, and my eye has looked [in triumph] on my enemies.

23 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider who and what are before you;

² For you will put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to desire.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties, for it is deceitful food [offered with questionable motives].