The Daily Audio Bible
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1 Jerusalem’s streets, once thronged with people, are silent now. Like a widow broken with grief, she sits alone in her mourning. She, once queen of nations, is now a slave.
2 She sobs through the night; tears run down her cheeks. Among all her lovers,[a] there is none to help her. All her friends are now her enemies.
3 Why is Judah led away, a slave? Because of all the wrong she did to others, making them her slaves. Now she sits in exile far away. There is no rest, for those she persecuted have turned and conquered her.
4 The roads to Zion mourn, no longer filled with joyous throngs who come to celebrate the Temple feasts; the city gates are silent, her priests groan, her virgins have been dragged away. Bitterly she weeps.
5 Her enemies prosper, for the Lord has punished Jerusalem for all her many sins; her young children are captured and taken far away as slaves.
6 All her beauty and her majesty are gone; her princes are like starving deer that search for pasture—helpless game too weak to keep on running from their foes.
7 And now in the midst of all Jerusalem’s sadness she remembers happy bygone days. She thinks of all the precious joys she had before her mocking enemy struck her down—and there was no one to give her aid.
8 For Jerusalem sinned so horribly; therefore, she is tossed away like dirty rags. All who honored her despise her now, for they have seen her stripped naked and humiliated. She groans and hides her face.
9 She indulged herself in immorality and refused to face the fact that punishment was sure to come. Now she lies in the gutter with no one left to lift her out. “O Lord,” she cries, “see my plight. The enemy has triumphed.”
10 Her enemies have plundered her completely, taking everything precious she owns. She has seen foreign nations violate her sacred Temple—foreigners you had forbidden even to enter.
11 Her people groan and cry for bread; they have sold all they have for food to give a little strength. “Look, O Lord,” she prays, “and see how I’m despised.”
12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow because of all the Lord has done to me in the day of his fierce wrath.
13 He has sent fire from heaven that burns within my bones; he has placed a pitfall in my path and turned me back. He has left me sick and desolate the whole day through.
14 He wove my sins into ropes to hitch me to a yoke of slavery. He sapped my strength and gave me to my enemies; I am helpless in their hands.
15 The Lord has trampled all my mighty men. A great army has come at his command to crush the noblest youth. The Lord has trampled his beloved city as grapes in a winepress.
16 For all these things I weep; tears flow down my cheeks. My Comforter is far away—he who alone could help me. My children have no future; we are a conquered land.
17 Jerusalem pleads for help, but no one comforts her. For the Lord has spoken: “Let her neighbors be her foes! Let her be thrown out like filthy rags!”
18 And the Lord is right, for we rebelled. And yet, O people everywhere, behold and see my anguish and despair, for my sons and daughters are taken far away as slaves to distant lands.
19 I begged my allies[b] for their help. False hope—they could not help at all. Nor could my priests and elders—they were starving in the streets while searching through the garbage dumps for bread.
20 See, O Lord, my anguish; my heart is broken and my soul despairs, for I have terribly rebelled. In the streets the sword awaits me; at home, disease and death.
21 Hear my groans! And there is no one anywhere to help. All my enemies have heard my troubles, and they are glad to see what you have done. And yet, O Lord, the time will surely come—for you have promised it—when you will do to them as you have done to me.
22 Look also on their sins, O Lord, and punish them as you have punished me, for my sighs are many and my heart is faint.
2 A cloud of anger from the Lord has overcast Jerusalem; the fairest city of Israel lies in the dust of the earth, cast from the heights of heaven at his command. In his day of awesome fury he has shown no mercy even to his Temple.[c]
2 The Lord without mercy has destroyed every home in Israel. In his wrath he has broken every fortress, every wall. He has brought the kingdom to dust, with all its rulers.
3 All the strength of Israel vanishes beneath his wrath. He has withdrawn his protection as the enemy attacks. God burns across the land of Israel like a raging fire.
4 He bends his bow against his people as though he were an enemy. His strength is used against them to kill their finest youth. His fury is poured out like fire upon them.
5 Yes, the Lord has vanquished Israel like an enemy. He has destroyed her forts and palaces. Sorrows and tears are his portion for Jerusalem.
6 He has violently broken down his Temple as though it were a booth of leaves and branches in a garden! No longer can the people celebrate their holy feasts and Sabbaths. Kings and priests together fall before his wrath.
7 The Lord has rejected his own altar, for he despises the false “worship” of his people; he has given their palaces to their enemies, who carouse in the Temple as Israel used to do on days of holy feasts!
8 The Lord determined to destroy Jerusalem. He laid out an unalterable line of destruction. Therefore the ramparts and walls fell down before him.
9 Jerusalem’s gates are useless. All their locks and bars are broken, for he has crushed them. Her kings and princes are enslaved in far-off lands, without a temple, without a divine law to govern them or prophetic vision to guide them.
10 The elders of Jerusalem sit upon the ground in silence, clothed in sackcloth; they throw dust upon their heads in sorrow and despair. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads in shame.
11 I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken, my spirit poured out, as I see what has happened to my people; little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the streets.
12 “Mama, Mama, we want food,” they cry, and then collapse upon their mothers’ shrunken breasts. Their lives ebb away like those wounded in battle.
13 In all the world has there ever been such sorrow? O Jerusalem, what can I compare your anguish to? How can I comfort you? For your wound is deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
14 Your “prophets” have said so many foolish things, false to the core. They have not tried to hold you back from slavery by pointing out your sins. They lied and said that all was well.
15 All who pass by scoff and shake their heads and say, “Is this the city called ‘Most Beautiful in All the World,’ and ‘Joy of All the Earth’?”
16 All your enemies deride you. They hiss and grind their teeth and say, “We have destroyed her at last! Long have we waited for this hour, and it is finally here! With our own eyes we’ve seen her fall.”
17 But it is the Lord who did it, just as he had warned. He has fulfilled the promises of doom he made so long ago. He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy and caused her enemies to rejoice over her and boast of their power.
18 Then the people wept before the Lord. O walls of Jerusalem, let tears fall down upon you like a river; give yourselves no rest from weeping day or night.
19 Rise in the night and cry to your God. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord; lift up your hands to him; plead for your children as they faint with hunger in the streets.
20 O Lord, think! These are your own people to whom you are doing this. Shall mothers eat their little children, those they bounced upon their knees? Shall priests and prophets die within the Temple of the Lord?
21 See them lying in the streets—old and young, boys and girls, killed by the enemies’ swords. You have killed them, Lord, in your anger; you have killed them without mercy.
22 You have deliberately called for this destruction; in the day of your anger none escaped or remained. All my little children lie dead upon the streets before the enemy.
1-2 From: Paul, in jail for preaching the Good News about Jesus Christ, and from Brother Timothy.
To: Philemon, our much-loved fellow worker, and to the church that meets in your home, and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus who, like myself, is a soldier of the cross.
3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you his blessings and his peace.
4 I always thank God when I am praying for you, dear Philemon, 5 because I keep hearing of your love and trust in the Lord Jesus and in his people. 6 And I pray that as you share your faith with others it will grip their lives too, as they see the wealth of good things in you that come from Christ Jesus. 7 I myself have gained much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because your kindness has so often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.
8-9 Now I want to ask a favor of you. I could demand it of you in the name of Christ because it is the right thing for you to do, but I love you and prefer just to ask you—I, Paul, an old man now, here in jail for the sake of Jesus Christ. 10 My plea is that you show kindness to my child Onesimus, whom I won to the Lord while here in my chains. 11 Onesimus (whose name means “Useful”) hasn’t been of much use to you in the past, but now he is going to be of real use to both of us. 12 I am sending him back to you, and with him comes my own heart.
13 I really wanted to keep him here with me while I am in these chains for preaching the Good News, and you would have been helping me through him, 14 but I didn’t want to do it without your consent. I didn’t want you to be kind because you had to but because you wanted to. 15 Perhaps you could think of it this way: that he ran away from you for a little while so that now he can be yours forever, 16 no longer only a slave, but something much better—a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you too, because he is not only a servant but also your brother in Christ.
17 If I am really your friend, give him the same welcome you would give to me if I were the one who was coming. 18 If he has harmed you in any way or stolen anything from you, charge me for it. 19 I will pay it back (I, Paul, personally guarantee this by writing it here with my own hand) but I won’t mention how much you owe me! The fact is, you even owe me your very soul! 20 Yes, dear brother, give me joy with this loving act and my weary heart will praise the Lord.
21 I’ve written you this letter because I am positive that you will do what I ask and even more!
22 Please keep a guest room ready for me, for I am hoping that God will answer your prayers and let me come to you soon.
23 Epaphras my fellow prisoner, who is also here for preaching Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. 24 So do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon your spirit.
Paul
101 I will sing about your loving-kindness and your justice, Lord. I will sing your praises!
2 I will try to walk a blameless path, but how I need your help, especially in my own home, where I long to act as I should.
3 Help me to refuse the low and vulgar things; help me to abhor all crooked deals of every kind, to have no part in them. 4 I will reject all selfishness and stay away from every evil. 5 I will not tolerate anyone who secretly slanders his neighbors; I will not permit conceit and pride. 6 I will make the godly of the land my heroes and invite them to my home. Only those who are truly good shall be my servants. 7 But I will not allow those who deceive and lie to stay in my house. 8 My daily task will be to ferret out criminals and free the city of God from their grip.
20 Fire goes out for lack of fuel, and tensions disappear when gossip stops.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.