The Daily Audio Bible

66 Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool: What Temple can you build for me as good as that? ² My hand has made both earth and skies, and they are mine. Yet I will look with pity on the man who has a humble and a contrite heart, who trembles at my word.

³ But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. God will not accept their offerings. When such men sacrifice an ox on the altar of God, it is no more acceptable to him than human sacrifice. If they sacrifice a lamb or bring an offering of grain, it is as loathsome to God as putting a dog or the blood of a swine on his altar! When they burn incense to him, he counts it the same as though they blessed an idol. ⁴ I will send great troubles upon them—all the things they feared, for when I called them, they refused to answer, and when I spoke to them, they would not hear. Instead, they did wrong before my eyes and chose what they knew I despised.

⁵ Hear the words of God, all you who fear him, and tremble at his words: Your brethren hate you and cast you out for being loyal to my name. “Glory to God,” they scoff. “Be happy in the Lord!” But they shall be put to shame.

⁶ What is all the commotion in the city? What is that terrible noise from the Temple? It is the voice of the Lord taking vengeance upon his enemies.

^7-8 Who has heard or seen anything as strange as this? For in one day, suddenly, a nation, Israel, shall be born, even before the birth pains come. In a moment, just as Israel’s anguish starts, the baby is born; the nation begins. ⁹ Shall I bring to the point of birth and then not deliver? asks the Lord your God. No! Never!

¹⁰ Rejoice with Jerusalem; be glad with her, all you who love her, you who mourned for her. ¹¹ Delight in Jerusalem; drink deep of her glory even as an infant at a mother’s generous breasts. ¹² Prosperity shall overflow Jerusalem like a river, says the Lord, for I will send it; the riches of the Gentiles will flow to her. Her children shall be nursed at her breasts, carried on her hips and dandled on her knees. ¹³ I will comfort you there as a little one is comforted by its mother.

¹⁴ When you see Jerusalem, your heart will rejoice; vigorous health will be yours. All the world will see the good hand of God upon his people and his wrath upon his enemies. ¹⁵ For see, the Lord will come with fire and with swift chariots of doom to pour out the fury of his anger and his hot rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶ For the Lord will punish the world by fire and by his sword, and the slain of the Lord shall be many!

¹⁷ Those who worship idols that are hidden behind a tree in the garden, feasting there on pork and mouse and all forbidden meat—they will come to an evil end, says Jehovah. ¹⁸ I see full well what they are doing; I know what they are thinking, so I will gather together all nations and people against Jerusalem, where they shall see my glory. ¹⁹ I will perform a mighty miracle against them, and I will send those who escape,^[a] as missionaries to the nations—to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Rosh, Tubal, Javan, and to the lands beyond the sea that have not heard my fame nor seen my glory. There they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles. ²⁰ And they shall bring back all your brethren from every nation as a gift to the Lord, transporting them gently^[b] on horses and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules and camels, to my holy mountain, to Jerusalem, says the Lord. It will be like offerings flowing into the Temple of the Lord at harvesttime, carried in vessels consecrated to the Lord. ²¹ And I will appoint some of those returning to be my priests and Levites, says the Lord.

²² As surely as my new heavens and earth shall remain, so surely shall you always be my people, with a name that shall never disappear. ²³ All mankind shall come to worship me from week to week and month to month. ²⁴ And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall never die; their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be a disgusting sight to all mankind.

⁴ Yet if anyone ever had reason to hope that he could save himself, it would be I. If others could be saved by what they are, certainly I could! ⁵ For I went through the Jewish initiation ceremony when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish home that was a branch of the old original Benjamin family. So I was a real Jew if there ever was one! What’s more, I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to every Jewish law and custom. ⁶ And sincere? Yes, so much so that I greatly persecuted the Church; and I tried to obey every Jewish rule and regulation right down to the very last point.

⁷ But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile—now I’ve thrown them all away so that I can put my trust and hope in Christ alone. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have Christ, ⁹ and become one with him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting Christ to save me; for God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith—counting on Christ alone. ¹⁰ Now I have given up everything else—I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. ¹¹ So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.

¹² I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be.

¹³ No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.

¹⁵ I hope all of you who are mature Christians will see eye-to-eye with me on these things, and if you disagree on some point, I believe that God will make it plain to you— ¹⁶ if you fully obey the truth you have.

¹⁷ Dear brothers, pattern your lives after mine, and notice who else lives up to my example. ¹⁸ For I have told you often before, and I say it again now with tears in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who are really enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their future is eternal loss, for their god is their appetite: they are proud of what they should be ashamed of; and all they think about is this life here on earth. ²⁰ But our homeland is in heaven, where our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is; and we are looking forward to his return from there. ²¹ When he comes back, he will take these dying bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer all else everywhere.

74 O God, why have you cast us away forever? Why is your anger hot against us—the sheep of your own pasture? ² Remember that we are your people—the ones you chose in ancient times from slavery and made the choicest of your possessions. You chose Jerusalem^[a] as your home on earth!

³ Walk through the awful ruins of the city and see what the enemy has done to your sanctuary. ⁴ There they shouted their battle cry and erected their idols to flaunt their victory. ^5-6 Everything lies in shambles like a forest chopped to the ground. They came with their axes and sledgehammers and smashed and chopped the carved paneling; ⁷ they set the sanctuary on fire, and razed it to the ground—your sanctuary, Lord. ⁸ “Let’s wipe out every trace of God,” they said, and went through the entire country burning down the assembly places where we worshiped you.

^9-10 There is nothing left to show that we are your people. The prophets are gone, and who can say when it all will end? How long, O God, will you allow our enemies to dishonor your name? Will you let them get away with this forever? ¹¹ Why do you delay? Why hold back your power? Unleash your fist and give them a final blow.

¹² God is my King from ages past; you have been actively helping me everywhere throughout the land. ^13-14 You divided the Red Sea with your strength; you crushed the sea god’s heads! You gave him to the desert tribes to eat! ¹⁵ At your command the springs burst forth to give your people water; and then you dried a path for them across the ever-flowing Jordan. ¹⁶ Day and night alike belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun. ¹⁷ All nature is within your hands; you make the summer and the winter too. ¹⁸ Lord, see how these enemies scoff at you. O Jehovah, an arrogant nation has blasphemed your name.

¹⁹ O Lord, save me! Protect your turtledove from the hawks.^[b] Save your beloved people from these beasts. ²⁰ Remember your promise! For the land is full of darkness and cruel men. ²¹ O Lord, don’t let your downtrodden people be constantly insulted. Give cause for these poor and needy ones to praise your name! ²² Arise, O God, and state your case against our enemies. Remember the insults these rebels have hurled against you all day long. ²³ Don’t overlook the cursing of these enemies of yours; it grows louder and louder.

^15-16 O evil man, leave the upright man alone and quit trying to cheat him out of his rights. Don’t you know that this good man, though you trip him up seven times, will each time rise again? But one calamity is enough to lay you low.