The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NLT. Switch to the NLT to read along with the audio.
A pot that breaks
19 The Lord said to me, ‘Go to a potter. Buy from him a pot that he has made from clay. Take with you some leaders of the people and some leaders of the priests. 2 Go out into Ben-Hinnom Valley, which is near to the “Broken Pots” gate. There you must speak the words that I will tell you.
3 Say, “Hear the Lord's message, you kings of Judah and people who live in Jerusalem. The Lord Almighty, Israel's God says this: Listen to me! I will bring very great trouble to this place. It will be very bad. Everyone who hears about it will be very surprised. 4 That will happen because Judah's people have turned away from me. They worship foreign gods in this place. They have offered sacrifices to those gods. They are gods that their ancestors did not know about. The kings of Judah never knew about them either. In this place, Judah's people have killed people who did not deserve to die. 5 They have built altars here to give honour to Baal. They light fires to give their children to Baal as burnt offerings. I never even thought about it. I never commanded my people to offer those kinds of sacrifices. I never even thought about it. 6 So I tell you this: A time will soon come when people do not call this place Topheth or Ben-Hinnom Valley. Instead, they will call it Death Valley.[a]
7 I will spoil all the ideas that the people of Judah and Jerusalem have. In this place I will put them under the power of their enemies. Their enemies will kill them in war. I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds and the wild animals. 8 I will make this city a heap of stones. People will see how disgusting my people are. Everybody who goes near there will be very surprised. They will see all the terrible trouble that has happened to the city and they will insult it. 9 Enemies will make their camp all around the city, so that they can kill the people who live there. The people will not have any food to eat. They will be so hungry that they will eat their own children and they will eat each other.”
10 Then, Jeremiah, take the pot that you bought. Break it in front of all those people who are there with you. 11 Tell them that the Lord Almighty says, “I will destroy this nation and this city. They will be like this broken pot that nobody is able to mend. They will bury lots of dead people here in Topheth. There will be no space left to bury any more people. 12 I tell you this: I will cause this city and its people to become like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem will be full of dead bodies like Topheth. The palaces of the kings of Judah will be the same. I will do that because people went up on the roofs of their houses to offer sacrifices to the stars. They poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’
14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to speak his message. He went to the Lord's temple in the city. He stood in the yard of the temple. He spoke aloud to the people. 15 He said, ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: “Listen to me! I will soon punish this city and all the towns around it, as I have promised that I will do. I will do it because the people have refused to listen to my message.” ’
Jeremiah and Pashhur
20 Immer's son Pashhur was the priest who had authority in the Lord's temple. He heard Jeremiah's message about Jerusalem. 2 So he told his men to beat Jeremiah. Then they tied Jeremiah up with heavy pieces of wood on his legs. That was at the Benjamin Gate of the Lord's temple. 3 The next day, Pashhur let Jeremiah go free. Jeremiah said to him, ‘The Lord's name for you is not “Pashhur”. It is “Terror is all around”. 4 The Lord says, “I will send enemies to make you and your friends very afraid. You yourself will see enemies kill all your friends in war. I will put Judah's people under the power of Babylon's king. He will take some of them away as prisoners. His soldiers will kill others of them. 5 I will give all the riches in this city to Judah's enemies. I will give them all the things that the people have worked hard to get. They will take all the valuable things that belonged to the people, and to the kings of Judah. They will take everything away to Babylon. 6 They will also take you, Pashhur, and everybody who lives in your house. They will take you as prisoners to Babylon. You will die there and people will bury you there. The same thing will happen to all your friends. You spoke false messages to these people, as if they were messages from me.” ’
Jeremiah complains to the Lord
7 Lord, you forced me to become a prophet,
and I let you do that.
You used your power to make me agree,
and you won.
Now everybody laughs at me and they insult me.
8 When I speak your message, I have to say,
‘Terrible trouble is coming!’
When I shout that message from the Lord,
people laugh at me.
They insult me.
9 Sometimes I think,
‘I will say nothing about the Lord or his message.’
But then his message burns like a fire inside me.
It gives me pain in my mind and my body.
I cannot keep his message to myself.
I have to speak it.
10 I hear what people are saying against me.
They say, ‘Terror is all around him![b]
We should tell the officers what he is saying.’
All my friends want me to make a mistake
so that they can accuse me.
They say, ‘Perhaps we can cause him to say something wrong.
Then we will have power over him.
We will pay him back for the trouble he has given us.’
11 But the Lord is with me,
like a brave soldier who will fight for me.
So people who want to hurt me will fail.
They will not get power over me.
They will be very ashamed because they have failed.
Nobody will ever forget their shame.
12 Lord Almighty, you test righteous people,
to see if they are faithful.
You know what people think.
You know their feelings.
I trust you to show that I am not guilty.
So punish those people who want to hurt me.
13 Sing to the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
He rescues poor people
from the power of wicked people.
14 I would like to curse the day that I was born.
That day was not a happy day,
the day that my mother gave birth to me.
15 That day, a man told my father,
‘Good news! You have a son!’
I would like to curse that man too.
16 May the Lord destroy that man,
as he completely destroyed those cities long ago.[c]
I want that man to hear people who are weeping in the morning.
I want him to hear the noise of battles at noon.
17 He should have killed me before I was born.
I should have died inside my mother.
She would have held me inside her.
That would have been my grave for ever.
18 I should have stayed in that safe place.
In my life, I only receive trouble and pain.
When I die, all I will have is shame.
King Nebuchadnezzar will take Jerusalem
21 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. King Zedekiah sent Malkijah's son Pashhur, to speak to Jeremiah. He also sent the priest Zephaniah, Maaseiah's son. They went to say to Jeremiah, 2 ‘Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, is attacking us. Please ask the Lord to help us. Perhaps he will do a powerful miracle as he has done for us in the past. Perhaps he will cause Nebuchadnezzar to go away and leave us alone.’[d]
3 Jeremiah answered them, ‘Tell Zedekiah that the Lord, Israel's God, says this:
4 “Your soldiers have gone outside the city to fight against the king of Babylon and his soldiers. But I will make the weapons of your soldiers useless. You will have to bring them all back into the city. 5 I myself will use my great power and strength to fight against you. I will do that because I am very angry with you. 6 I will attack everything that lives in this city, both people and animals. A very bad disease will kill them.”
7 The Lord also says this: “Then I will put King Zedekiah of Judah under the power of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I will do the same thing to any of his officers or people who are still alive. Those are the people that war, famine or disease has not already killed. I will give them to King Nebuchadnezzar and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will tell his soldiers to kill them. He will not be kind to them and he will kill them all.”
8 But also tell the people that the Lord says this: “I will let you choose between two things. One is a way that will give you life. The other is a way that will give you death. 9 Anyone who stays in the city will die. War or famine or disease will kill them. But you may choose to leave the city. You may put yourselves under the power of Babylon's army that is attacking the city. Anyone who does that will continue to live. 10 I, the Lord, tell you this: I have decided not to rescue this city. Instead I will destroy it. I will give it to the king of Babylon. He will destroy it with fire.” ’
A message to Judah's kings
11 This is the Lord's message to the king of Judah, to his family and his officers:
12 ‘Descendants of King David, the Lord says this to you:
Every day you must be fair as you judge people.
Punish those who rob other people.
Punish those who are cruel to other people.
Help the people that they have hurt.
If you do not do judge in a fair way,
I will be very angry.
My anger will burn like a hot fire
that nobody can stop.
It will destroy you
because of the evil things that you have done.’
The Lord says:
13 ‘I have turned against you, Jerusalem's palace.
Kings sit there on their thrones,
on a high rock above the valley.
You say, “We are safe here in our strong building.
No enemy can get in here to attack us.”
14 But I will punish you for everything that you have done.
I will destroy your palace with fire.
That fire will destroy everything that is around you.’
That is what the Lord says.
4 But you, our Christian friends, know about these things. You are not like people who live in the dark. So when the great day of the Lord happens, it should not suddenly surprise you, like a robber might surprise you. 5 All of you are people who belong to the light and to the day. We who are believers do not belong to the night or to the dark. 6 So we must watch carefully. We should be like people who stay awake. We should not be like other people who are sleeping. 7 It is at night that people sleep. It is at night that people become drunk.
8 But we belong to the day, not to the night. So we should think clearly. We must prepare ourselves like a soldier who puts on his armour. We must continue to trust God and to love him. That will be like a metal shirt that keeps our body safe. We must also continue to hope that God will save us. That will be like a strong hat that keeps our head safe.
9 God did not choose us as his people so that he could be angry with us. He chose us so that he could save us because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done. 10 Jesus died on our behalf so that we can live together with him. It does not matter whether we are alive or dead when he returns. We will all go to live with him. 11 Because of that, you should help each other to become stronger as believers. I know that you are already doing that.
Paul finishes his letter
12 Our friends, we ask you to respect your leaders who work hard among you. They lead you and they teach you what is right on the Lord's behalf. 13 Show them how valuable they are to you. And love them very much because of the work that they do. Live at peace among yourselves.
14 Friends, you must warn lazy people that they should work.[a] If people are afraid, help them to be brave. If people are weak, take care of them. Be patient with everyone.
15 If someone does something bad against you, do not do anything bad against them in return. Never do that. Instead, always try to do good things that will help one other and help everyone else.
16 Always be happy. 17 Pray at all times. 18 Whatever may happen to you, continue to thank God. God wants you to do that, because you belong to Christ Jesus. 19 Do not stop the work of God's Spirit. 20 When people speak messages on God's behalf, do not refuse to listen. 21 Instead, think carefully about everything, to see if it is true. Remember to obey anything that is good. 22 But keep away from any kind of bad thing.
23 I pray that God will help you to be completely good, as his people should be. He is the one who gives us peace in our minds. I pray that he will take care of you in every way, in your spirit, in your soul and in your body. Then you will not be guilty of anything that is bad, when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 24 God has chosen you to be his people. We can trust him to do what he has promised to do. So he will do all this for you.
25 Our Christian friends, please pray for us. 26 Say ‘hello’ to all the believers on our behalf, and kiss them as Christian brothers and sisters.
27 I tell you very seriously on the Lord's behalf, please read this letter to all the believers there. 28 I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be very kind to you.
This is a psalm that Asaph wrote.
God and the gods[a]
82 God calls the powerful rulers to meet in heaven.
He sits on his throne to judge them.
2 He asks them, ‘How long will you continue to judge people
in a way that is not fair?
How long will you say that wicked people are right?
Selah.
3 You must help poor people and those with no family
to receive justice.
Help those who have pain and trouble
to receive the help that they need.
4 Rescue weak and helpless people,
so that evil people cannot hurt them.
5 The powerful leaders know nothing
and they understand nothing.
They walk about in a dark place.
At the same time the foundation of the earth shakes![b]
6 I said, “You are gods.
You are all sons of the Most High God.
7 But you will die, as all people die.
You will come to an end, like all other rulers.” ’[c]
8 God, now do something!
Judge all the nations of the earth.
For they all belong to you.
9 If you argue with your neighbour, do not tell his secrets to other people. 10 If you do that, everyone will know about it. Then you will be ashamed for your whole life.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.