The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NRSVUE. Switch to the NRSVUE to read along with the audio.
3 I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath.
2 He has led me and brought me into darkness and not light.
3 Surely He has turned away from me; His hand is against me all the day.
4 My flesh and my skin has He worn out and made old; He has shattered my bones.
5 He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation, and anguish.
6 He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those long dead.
7 He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain.
8 Even when I cry and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, and like a lion [hiding] in secret places.
11 He has turned me off my ways and pulled me in pieces; He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires].
14 I have become a derision to all my people, and [the subject of] their singsong all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood [bitterness].
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes.
17 And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are.
18 And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord.
19 [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:
22 It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not.(A)
23 They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.(B)
24 The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.(C)
25 The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word].
26 It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit].(D)
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness]—there may yet be hope.(E)
30 Let him give his cheek to the One Who smites him [even through His human agents]; let him be filled [full] with [men’s] reproach [in meekness].
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever!(F)
32 But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness and tender mercy.
33 For He does not willingly and from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men.(G)
34 To trample and crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside and deprive a man of his rights before the face of the Most High or a superior [acting as God’s representative],
36 To subvert a man in his cause—[of these things] the Lord does not approve.
37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, if the Lord has not authorized and commanded it?
38 Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]?
39 Why does a living man sigh [one who is still in this life’s school of discipline]? [And why does] a man complain for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord!
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [and then with them mount up in prayer] to God in heaven:
42 We have transgressed and rebelled and You have not pardoned.
43 You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued and afflicted us; You have slain without pity.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us offscouring and refuse among the nations.
46 All our enemies have gaped at us and railed against us.
47 Fear and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.
48 My eyes overflow with streams of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes overflow continually and will not cease
50 Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem].
52 I have been hunted down like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause.
53 They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me.(H)
54 The waters ran down on my head; I said, I am gone.
55 I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the depths [of the mire] of the dungeon.(I)
56 You heard my voice [then]: [Oh] hide not Your ear [now] at my prayer for relief.
57 You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, Fear not.(J)
58 O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued and redeemed my life!
59 O Lord, You have seen my wrong [done to me]; judge and maintain my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.
61 You have heard their reproach and revilings, O Lord, and all their devices against me—
62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all day long.
63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment].(K)
64 Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness and blindness of heart; Your curse will be upon them.
66 You will pursue and afflict them in anger and destroy them from under Your heavens, O Lord.
1 In many separate revelations [[a]each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets,
2 [But] in [b]the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order].
3 He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the [c]out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,
4 [Taking a place and rank by which] He Himself became as much superior to angels as the glorious Name (title) which He has inherited is different from and more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did [God] ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You [established You in an official Sonship relation, with kingly dignity]? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son?(A)
6 Moreover, when He brings the firstborn Son [d]again into the habitable world, He says, Let all the angels of God worship Him.
7 Referring to the angels He says, [God] Who makes His angels winds and His ministering servants flames of fire;(B)
8 But as to the Son, He says to Him, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness (of justice and straightforwardness).
9 You have loved righteousness [You have delighted in integrity, virtue, and uprightness in purpose, thought, and action] and You have hated lawlessness (injustice and iniquity). Therefore God, [even] Your God ([e]Godhead), has anointed You with the oil of exultant joy and gladness above and beyond Your companions.(C)
10 And [further], You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.
11 They will perish, but You remain and continue permanently; they will all grow old and wear out like a garment.
12 Like a mantle [thrown about one’s self] You will roll them up, and they will be changed and replaced by others. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end nor come to failure.(D)
13 Besides, to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at My right hand [associated with Me in My royal dignity] till I make your enemies a stool for your feet?(E)
14 Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?
Psalm 102
A Prayer of the afflicted; when he is overwhelmed and faint and pours out his complaint to God.
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.
2 Hide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress! Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like a firebrand or like a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that [in absorption] I forget to eat my food.
5 By reason of my loud groaning [from suffering and trouble] my flesh cleaves to my bones.
6 I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the waste places.
7 I am sleepless and lie awake [mourning], like a bereaved sparrow alone on the housetop.
8 My adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who are angry with me use my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten the ashes [in which I sat] as if they were bread and have mingled my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines [with the sun]; and I am withered like grass.
12 But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name endures to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time to have pity and compassion for her; yes, the set time has come [the moment designated].(A)
14 For Your servants take [melancholy] pleasure in the stones [of her ruins] and show pity for her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.(B)
16 When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;
17 He will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for the generation yet unborn, that a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord.
19 For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth,
20 To hear the sighing and groaning of the prisoner, to loose those who are appointed to death,
21 So that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem
22 When peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to worship and serve the Lord.
23 He has afflicted and weakened my strength, humbling and bringing me low [with sorrow] in the way; He has shortened my days [aging me prematurely].
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, You Whose years continue throughout all generations.
25 At the beginning You existed and laid the foundations of the earth; the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 They shall perish, but You shall remain and endure; yes, all of them shall wear out and become old like a garment. Like clothing You shall change them, and they shall be changed and pass away.
27 But You remain the same, and Your years shall have no end.(C)
28 The children of Your servants shall dwell safely and continue, and their descendants shall be established before You.
21 As coals are to hot embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man to inflame strife.(A)
22 The words of a whisperer or slanderer are like dainty morsels or words of sport [to some, but to others are like deadly wounds]; and they go down into the innermost parts of the body [or of the victim’s nature].
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation