The Daily Audio Bible

The tower in Babel

11 At this time, everyone who lived on the earth spoke one language. They used the same words. ² People moved to the east. They reached a large flat piece of land called Shinar. They stayed there to live. ³ They said to each other, ‘We should make bricks and cook them until they are hard.’ These people used bricks instead of stones to build houses. They used tar to hold the bricks together, instead of cement.^[a]

⁴ They said, ‘Let us build a city to live in. We should also build a very tall tower. The tower will go up into the heavens. Then we will always be famous. If we do that, we will not have to separate and go to live in different places on the earth.’

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. He saw that the people had started to build them. ⁶ The Lord said, ‘Because they all speak the same language, they are able to do this. If they can do this together, they may decide to do whatever they want. ⁷ Now we must go down to them. We must make their language become confused. Then they will not be able to understand each other.’

⁸ So the Lord separated the people from one another. They went to live in different lands all over the earth. They stopped building the city for themselves. ⁹ That is why people called the city Babel.^[b] It was because the Lord confused all the people of the world and he gave them different languages to speak. From that time, the Lord separated the people from each other so that they lived in different places all over the earth.

Shem's family

¹⁰ This is the report about Shem and his family.

Two years after the deep water went away from the earth, Shem was 100 years old. He became the father of Arphaxad. ¹¹ After Arphaxad was born, Shem lived for 500 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³ After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived for 403 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ After Eber was born, Shelah lived for 403 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ After Peleg was born, Eber lived for 430 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ After Reu was born, Peleg lived for 209 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. ²¹ After Serug was born, Reu lived for 207 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. ²³ After Nahor was born, Serug lived for 200 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵ After Terah was born, Nahor lived for 119 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Terah's family

²⁷ This is the report about Terah and his family.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While Terah was still alive, his son, Haran, died. Haran died in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. That was where Haran had been born.

²⁹ Abram married Sarai. Nahor married Milcah. Milcah was Haran's daughter. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai could not give birth to children. She did not have any children.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot. (Lot was Haran's son.) Terah also took Abram's wife Sarai. They all left Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. They began to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they stayed there. ³² Terah lived for 205 years. Then he died in Haran.

Abram leaves Haran

12 The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country and the people of your father's family. Go to the land that I will show you.^[c]

² I will cause your descendants to become a great nation. I will bless you. Everyone will know your name. You will bring my blessing to other people. ³ I will bless those people who bless you. But I will curse anyone who insults you. Through you, I will bless all the families of people on the earth.’^[d]

⁴ Abram did what the Lord had told him. He left Haran. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. Lot went with him. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. He took everything that belonged to them. He also took the people that worked for them in Haran. They all left to go to the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Canaan, ⁶ Abram walked through the land. He went as far as Shechem, to the special oak tree of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites lived in this land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram there. He said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ So Abram built an altar in that place to worship the Lord.^[e] He did that because the Lord had appeared to him.

⁸ Then Abram left Shechem. He went to the hills that are on the east of Bethel. He put up his tent in that place. Bethel was towards the west, and Ai was towards the east. Abram also built an altar there to worship the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram took his tent and he left that place. He continued to travel towards the Negev.^[f]

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰ There was a famine in the land of Canaan. So Abram went to live in Egypt for some time, because the famine was very bad.^[g]

¹¹ When Abram came near to Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘Listen to me. I know that you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you they will say, “This is Abram's wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.^{[h] 13} So tell them that you are my sister. Then they will do good things to me, because they want to please you. They will not kill me because they will think that you are my sister.’

¹⁴ When Abram arrived in Egypt, the people saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ The king's officers saw her. They told Pharaoh that she was very beautiful. They took her to the king's palace.^[i]

¹⁶ Pharaoh did good things to help Abram because of Sarai. He gave Abram sheep, cows, donkeys and camels. He also gave Abram male servants and female servants.

¹⁷ But the Lord made Pharaoh and the people in his palace very ill. The Lord did this because the king had taken Abram's wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh called Abram to come to him. Pharaoh said, ‘You have done this bad thing to me! You did not tell me that Sarai is your wife! Why not? ¹⁹ You told me “She is my sister”. As a result, I took her to be my wife. Now, here is your wife. Take her and go away!’

²⁰ Pharaoh told his officers what to do with Abram. They sent Abram away, with his wife and everything that belonged to them.

Abram and Lot go different ways

13 Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. ² Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.

³ Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.

Jesus teaches his disciples

5 Jesus saw that crowds of people were following him. So he went up a hill and he sat down there to teach them. His disciples came near to listen to him. ² He began to teach them. This is what he said:

¹¹ Yes, happy are you when people say bad things against you because you believe in me. Or they may hurt you. Or they may say things about you that are not true. ¹² God is preparing many good things for you in heaven. So you should be very happy when people do these bad things to any of you. People did these same things to God's prophets who lived long ago.’

Jesus' disciples are like salt and light

¹³ Jesus said, ‘You are like salt for all people to taste and use. Salt is good. But if it is not salty any more, you cannot make it salty again. People can no longer use it for anything. They just throw it away and they walk on it.

¹⁴ You are like a light for everybody in this world. If people build a city on a hill, then other people can see it easily. ¹⁵ Nobody lights a lamp and then puts it under a pot. He will put the lamp in a high place.^[c] Everybody who is in the house can then see the light from the lamp. ¹⁶ You must be sure that your light shines well. Then you will give light to other people. They will see all the good things that you do.^[d] Then they will praise God, who is your Father in heaven.’

Jesus talks about the Laws that Moses gave to the Jews

¹⁷ Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets wrote down. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true. ¹⁸ I tell you this: One day, even the earth and the sky will finish. But while they remain, God's Law will also remain. Nobody can remove even the smallest thing from it. The Law will remain until everything in it has happened.

¹⁹ A person may choose not to obey a rule in God's Law. He may think it is the least important rule. He may also teach other people to think like that. Then God will call him the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But a person may choose to obey all the rules in God's Law. And he may teach other people to obey them too. Then God will call that person great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ I tell you this: You must always do what is right. You must live in a way that is better than the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees.^[e] You will never come into the kingdom of heaven if you do not do better than them.’

Jesus teaches about angry people

²¹ Jesus then said, ‘You know the rule that God gave to your ancestors: “You must not kill anyone. Any person who does kill someone will stand in front of a judge.^[f] The judge will punish him because he has done a wrong thing.” ²² But what I now say to you is this: Anybody who is angry with his brother will have to stand in front of a judge. Or someone might call his brother by a bad name. Then he will have to stand in front of the Jewish leaders. They will judge him. But someone may say to his brother, “You are a fool.”^[g] God will judge that person. God may punish him in the fires of hell.

²³ Maybe you go to the temple to give your gift to God. You take it to the altar. But then you remember that your brother is angry with you. ²⁴ You must leave your gift there in front of God's altar. First you must go and find your brother. Tell him that you are sorry. Then you can both become friends with each other again. After that, you can return to the altar and give your gift to God.

²⁵ Also, somebody may say that you have done something wrong against him. He may take you to stand in front of the judge.^[h] You should quickly try to agree with this person. Decide with him how to make things right again. Do this even while you are going with him to the judge. If you do not do that, the judge may agree that you have done a wrong thing. Then he will give you to his officer. His officer will put you in prison. ²⁶ I tell you this: You will remain in prison until you have paid all the money, even the last small coin.’

Tell the music leader to use flutes.

This is a song that David wrote.

Pray about your enemies^[a]