The Daily Audio Bible

2: Frogs

8 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “This is the message from the Lord: Let my people go so that they may worship me. ² If you refuse to let them go, I will send thousands of frogs to bring trouble to your whole country. ³ The Nile river will be full of frogs. The frogs will go into your house. They will jump into your bed. They will go into the houses of your servants. They will go into the houses of your people. They will jump into your ovens and into your dishes. ⁴ The frogs will jump all over you. They will jump on your people and on all your servants.” ’

⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Take your stick in your hand. Then raise your hand over the rivers, the streams and the pools. You will cause frogs to come up over the whole of Egypt.” ’

⁶ So Aaron lifted up his hand over the water of Egypt. Then the frogs came up and they covered the whole of Egypt.

⁷ But the magicians used their magic to do the same thing. They also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

⁸ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said, ‘Pray to the Lord. Ask him to remove the frogs from me and from my people. Then I will let your people go. They can offer sacrifices to the Lord.’

⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘I will let you choose the time when I should pray to God. Then I will ask God to do this for you, for your servants and for your people. I will ask God to remove the frogs from you and from all your houses. The frogs will remain only in the Nile river.’

¹⁰ Pharaoh said, ‘Do it tomorrow.’ Moses answered, ‘I will do what you have asked. Then you will know that there is nobody like the Lord our God. ¹¹ The frogs will go away from you and your houses. They will go away from your servants and your people. They will remain only in the river.’

¹² So Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh. Then Moses prayed to the Lord about the frogs that he had brought to punish Pharaoh. ¹³ And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs in the houses, in the yards and in the fields all died. ¹⁴ The people swept the frogs together to make big heaps. There was a very bad smell over the whole country. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that the trouble had gone, his mind became hard again. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. The Lord had said that this would happen, and it did!

3: Gnats

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Lift up your stick and hit the dirt on the ground. It will become gnats in the whole land of Egypt.” ’

¹⁷ Moses and Aaron obeyed God. Aaron lifted up his hand and he hit the dirt with his stick. The dirt became gnats that flew onto all the people and onto all the animals. The dirt on the ground became gnats all over Egypt. ¹⁸ Then the Egyptian magicians tried to use their magic to make gnats appear. But they could not do it. The gnats were on all the people and on all the animals.

¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the work of God.’ But there was no change in Pharaoh's thoughts. He would not listen to them. The Lord had said that this would happen, and it did!

4: Flies

²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning. Meet Pharaoh when he goes out to the river. Then say to him, “The Lord says: You must let my people go. Let them go to worship me. ²¹ If you do not let my people go, I will send thousands of flies on you. I will send them on your servants and on your people. I will send them into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies. The flies will cover all the ground where people live.

²² But it will be different in the region of Goshen, where my people live. I will not send flies there. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am doing my work here in this land. ²³ I will make a difference between my people and your people. This miracle will happen tomorrow.” ’

²⁴ That is what the Lord did. Great numbers of flies came into Pharaoh's house and into his servants' houses. The flies went all over Egypt and they destroyed the whole land.

²⁵ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said to them, ‘Go! You can offer sacrifices to your God here, in Egypt.’ ²⁶ But Moses said, ‘It would not be right to do that. The Egyptians do not like our sacrifices of animals. If we offer these sacrifices to the Lord our God, the Egyptians will be angry with us. They will throw stones at us to kill us. ²⁷ So we must go on a journey for three days into the desert. We will offer sacrifices to the Lord our God there, as he has told us to do.’

²⁸ So Pharaoh said, ‘I will let you go. You may go into the desert and offer sacrifices to the Lord your God there. But do not go very far away. And pray for me too.’

²⁹ Then Moses said, ‘I will leave you now, and I will pray to the Lord. Tomorrow, all the flies will go away from you, your officers and your people. But be careful! Do not deceive us, as you did before. You must really let the people go away to offer sacrifices to the Lord.’

³⁰ So Moses left Pharaoh and he prayed to the Lord. ³¹ The Lord did what Moses asked him. All the flies left Pharaoh, his officers and his people. Not one fly remained! ³² But again, Pharaoh's mind became hard. He refused to let the people go.

5: Death of animals

9 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “The Lord, the God of the Israelites says this: Let my people go so that they may worship me. ² If you refuse to let them go, you will have more trouble. If you still keep them in Egypt, ³ the Lord will punish you. He will send a very bad illness on all your animals. Your animals in the fields, your horses, donkeys, camels, cows, sheep and goats will all become very ill. ⁴ But the Lord will make a difference between the animals of the Israelites and the animals of the Egyptians. None of the animals of the Israelites will die.” ’

⁵ The Lord decided when this would happen. He said, ‘Tomorrow I will make this happen in the land of Egypt.’ ⁶ So on the next day, the Lord did it! All the animals of the Egyptians died. But not one of the animals of the Israelites died. ⁷ Pharaoh sent his men to see what had happened. They saw that not one of the animals of the Israelites was dead! But Pharaoh's mind was still hard. He did not let the people go.

6: Boils

⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Take in your hands some ashes from an oven. Throw them up in the air as Pharaoh watches. ⁹ They will become very small dust over the whole country of Egypt. The dust will cause boils to appear on the skin of people and animals. It will happen all over Egypt.’

¹⁰ So they took ashes from an oven and they stood in front of Pharaoh. Moses threw the ashes up in the air. Then bad boils appeared on both people and animals. ¹¹ All the Egyptians had boils, even the magicians. Because of the boils, the magicians could not stand in front of Moses. ¹² But Pharaoh refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. The Lord caused Pharaoh's mind to be hard. The Lord had told Moses that this would happen, and it did!

7: Hail

¹³ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning and go to Pharaoh. Say to him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Israelites says: Let my people go to worship me. ¹⁴ This time, I will send all my troubles to punish you. I will send them against you, your officers and your people. I want you to know that there is nobody as great as me in the whole earth. That is why I am doing this. ¹⁵ Already I could have used my power to destroy you and your people. With one very bad trouble, I could have removed you from the earth. ¹⁶ But I have let you live, to show you my power. Then people all over the world will know how great I am. ¹⁷ You are still too proud to let my people go.

¹⁸ Look! Tomorrow at this time, I will send a very great storm of hail. Nobody has ever seen hail fall like this in Egypt before now. From Egypt's first day as a country until today, nobody has seen a storm like this. ¹⁹ Now send your servants out to tell this message to your people. You must bring into your houses all your animals from the fields to be safe. The hail will fall on every person and on every animal that is still outside. They will all die.” ’

²⁰ Some of Pharaoh's officers were afraid of what the Lord said he would do. So they quickly brought their servants and animals inside their houses. ²¹ But others did not believe the Lord's message. They left their servants and animals outside in the fields.

²² Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Lift up your hand towards the sky. Then hail will fall over all the country of Egypt. It will fall on people and on animals. It will fall on all the plants that grow in the fields of Egypt.’

²³ When Moses lifted up his stick towards the sky, the Lord sent a great storm. He sent thunder, hail and lightning. ²⁴ The hail fell and there was lightning like fire. It was the worst storm anywhere in Egypt since Egypt had become a nation. ²⁵ Everywhere in Egypt, the hail knocked down everything that was in the fields. It knocked down both people and animals. It knocked down all the plants in the fields and it broke all the trees. ²⁶ But no hail fell in the region of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.

²⁷ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said to them, ‘This time, I have done a bad thing. The Lord is right. I and my people are guilty. ²⁸ The storms with the thunder and the hail are too much for us! Pray to the Lord to take them away. Then I will let you go! You do not need to stay any longer in Egypt.’

²⁹ Then Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘As soon as I leave the city, I will lift my hands to the Lord and I will pray to him. The storm will stop and there will be no more hail. Then you will know that the whole world belongs to the Lord. ³⁰ But I know you and your officers. You still do not respect the Lord God.’^[a]

³¹ At that time, the barley was ripe in the fields and the flax was nearly ripe. So the storm of hail destroyed the flax and the barley. ³² But the hail did not destroy the wheat and other grains. Those crops become ripe later in the year.^[b]

³³ Then Moses left Pharaoh and he went out of the city. He lifted up his hands to the Lord and he prayed. Then the storms and the hail stopped. The heavy rain stopped falling on the earth.

³⁴ Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the storms had stopped. So he did a bad thing again. His mind and his officers' minds became hard. ³⁵ Pharaoh still refused to obey God. He did not let the Israelites go. The Lord had told Moses that this would happen, and it did!

Jesus wants children to come to him

¹³ Then some people brought their little children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. They wanted him to pray for them. But the disciples told the people that they should not do that.

¹⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘Do not stop the children. Let them come to me. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of heaven is like.’ ¹⁵ So Jesus put his hands on each of the children's heads and he prayed for them. After that, he went away from that place.

Jesus meets a rich man

¹⁶ One day a man came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked. ‘What good thing must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’

¹⁷ Jesus replied, ‘Why do you ask me about a good thing? Only God is good. Nobody else. If you want to have real life, then you must obey God's laws.’

¹⁸ The man asked Jesus, ‘Which laws must I obey?’

So Jesus replied, ‘Do not kill anyone. Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife. Do not rob anyone. Do not say things that are not true about people. ¹⁹ Love your father and your mother and obey them. Love other people as much as you love yourself.’

²⁰ ‘I have always obeyed these laws,’ the young man replied. ‘What else must I do?’

²¹ Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be completely good, then you must do this: You must sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’

²² When the young man heard this, he went away. He was not happy. He was feeling sad because he was a very rich man.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘What I say is true. It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives. ²⁴ The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But I tell you, it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’

²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were even more surprised. They said, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’

²⁶ Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’

²⁷ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples. What will we receive because we have done this?’

²⁸ Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you this: One day God will cause all things to become new. I, the Son of Man, will sit on my great throne as King and I will rule that new world. You who are my disciples will also sit like kings on thrones. You will judge the people of the 12 tribes of Israel. ²⁹ Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their wife or their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! And after they die, they will live for ever with God. ³⁰ But many people who are very important now will become the least important. And many people who are not important now will become very important then.’

This is a song that David wrote.

The great King^[a]

Dangerous things

6 My child, be careful not to promise more than you can really do. You may have promised to pay the debts of a friend or of a stranger. ² Then what you have promised to do may become a trap that catches you.

³ Now you need to escape from your problem. Your friend has got power over you. So you must be humble. Go quickly to him and ask him to forgive the debt. ⁴ Do not let yourself sleep or even stop to rest until you have met with him. ⁵ You must make yourself free from the trap. Escape quickly, like a bird or a deer that runs away from a hunter.