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The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkDAN">
 <div class="chapter ch7" data-usfm="DAN.7">
 <div class="label">7</div><div class="s1">Daniel&#8217;s Dream of Four Beasts</div><div class="p"> 1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.</div><div class="p"> 2Daniel said: &#8220;In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.</div><div class="p"> 4&#8220;The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.</div><div class="p"> 5&#8220;And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, &#8216;Get up and eat your fill of flesh!&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 6&#8220;After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.</div><div class="p"> 7&#8220;After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast&#8212;terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.</div><div class="p"> 8&#8220;While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.</div><div class="p"> 9&#8220;As I looked,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;thrones were set in place,</div><div class="q2">and the Ancient of Days took his seat.</div><div class="q1">His clothing was as white as snow;</div><div class="q2">the hair of his head was white like wool.</div><div class="q1">His throne was flaming with fire,</div><div class="q2">and its wheels were all ablaze.</div><div class="q1"> 10A river of fire was flowing,</div><div class="q2">coming out from before him.</div><div class="q1">Thousands upon thousands attended him;</div><div class="q2">ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.</div><div class="q1">The court was seated,</div><div class="q2">and the books were opened.</div><div class="p"> 11&#8220;Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12(The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,#7:13 The Aramaic phrase bar enash means human being. The phrase son of man is retained here because of its use in the New Testament as a title of Jesus, probably based largely on this verse. coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.</div><div class="s1">The Interpretation of the Dream</div><div class="p"> 15&#8220;I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. 16I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this.</div><div class="p">&#8220;So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17&#8216;The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever&#8212;yes, for ever and ever.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 19&#8220;Then I wanted to know the meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws&#8212;the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. 20I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell&#8212;the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 21As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, 22until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.</div><div class="p"> 23&#8220;He gave me this explanation: &#8216;The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.#7:25 Or for a year, two years and half a year</div><div class="p"> 26&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 28&#8220;This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch9" data-usfm="EST.9">
 <div class="label">9</div><div class="p"> 1On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. 2The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. 3And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king&#8217;s administrators helped the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had seized them. 4Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.</div><div class="p"> 5The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. 6In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, 10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.</div><div class="p"> 11The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day. 12The king said to Queen Esther, &#8220;The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in the citadel of Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king&#8217;s provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? It will also be granted.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;If it pleases the king,&#8221; Esther answered, &#8220;give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day&#8217;s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman&#8217;s ten sons be impaled on poles.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they impaled the ten sons of Haman. 15The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.</div><div class="p"> 16Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king&#8217;s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder. 17This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.</div><div class="p"> 18The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.</div><div class="p"> 19That is why rural Jews&#8212;those living in villages&#8212;observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.</div><div class="s1">Purim Established</div><div class="p"> 20Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 21to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar 22as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.</div><div class="p"> 23So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. 24For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. 25But when the plot came to the king&#8217;s attention,#9:25 Or when Esther came before the king he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on poles. 26(Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, 27the Jews took it on themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. 28These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews&#8212;nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants.</div><div class="p"> 29So Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim. 30And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of Xerxes&#8217; kingdom&#8212;words of goodwill and assurance&#8212; 31to establish these days of Purim at their designated times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed for them, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and lamentation. 32Esther&#8217;s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch10" data-usfm="EST.10">
 <div class="label">10</div><div class="s1">The Greatness of Mordecai</div><div class="p"> 1King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. 2And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? 3Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkZEC">
 <div class="chapter ch7" data-usfm="ZEC.7">
 <div class="label">7</div><div class="s1">Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting</div><div class="p"> 1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord 3by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, &#8220;Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 5&#8220;Ask all the people of the land and the priests, &#8216;When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9&#8220;This is what the Lord Almighty said: &#8216;Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 11&#8220;But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,&#8217; says the Lord Almighty. 14&#8216;I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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