The Daily Audio Bible

Hananiah, the false prophet

28 In the same year, the prophet Hananiah spoke to me. It happened in the fifth month of the fourth year that King Zedekiah ruled Judah. Hananiah was the son of Azzur, who came from Gibeon. He spoke to me in the Lord's temple, where the priests and all the people could hear him. ² He said, ‘Israel's God, the Lord Almighty, says this: “I will break the yoke that the king of Babylon has put around your necks. ³ King Nebuchadnezzar took with him to Babylon many valuable things from this temple. In less than two years, I will bring all those things back here. ⁴ I will also bring back Jehoiakim's son, King Jeconiah of Judah. And I will bring back all the people of Judah that King Nebuchadnezzar took as prisoners to Babylon.” The Lord says, “I will break the king of Babylon's yoke.” ’^[a]

⁵ Jeremiah replied to Hananiah, the prophet, in the Lord's temple. The priests and all the people who were standing there could hear him. ⁶ The prophet Jeremiah said, ‘Amen! I agree! I pray that the Lord would do that! I pray that what you have prophesied really happens. May the Lord bring back from Babylon all the valuable things that belong in his temple. May he bring back all the people that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylon as prisoners. ⁷ But listen to what I say to you, and to all the people here. ⁸ From long ago, there have been prophets, before you and I became prophets. They often prophesied that war, famine and disease would bring great trouble to many countries and kingdoms. ⁹ But it is different if a prophet says that people will live safely in peace. We would only agree that the Lord has really sent him if his message becomes true.’

¹⁰ Then the prophet Hananiah removed the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah.^[b] He broke it into pieces. ¹¹ He said in front of all the people, ‘The Lord says, “That shows how I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He has put his yoke around the necks of all the nations. In less than two years I will break his yoke and I will remove it from their necks.” ’

After Hananiah said that, the prophet Jeremiah went away from the temple.

¹² Soon after Hananiah had broken the yoke that was on Jeremiah's neck, the Lord spoke again to Jeremiah. ¹³ He said, ‘Go to Hananiah and tell him that the Lord says, “It is true that you have broken a wooden yoke. But instead of that you will get a yoke that is made from iron! ¹⁴ Yes, the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: I have put an iron yoke around the necks of all those nations. They will have to serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as his slaves. Everything will be under his power, even the wild animals.” ’^[c]

¹⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, ‘Listen to me, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you as his prophet. You have spoken lies to these people and they have believed you. ¹⁶ So the Lord says to you, “I will remove you from this earth. You have taught people to turn against me, the Lord. You will certainly die this year.” ’

¹⁷ In the seventh month of that same year, the prophet Hananiah died.

Jeremiah's letter

29 Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the people of Judah who were in Babylon. He sent it to the Israelite leaders and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people who were there. Nebuchadnezzar had taken them there as prisoners from Jerusalem. ² He sent the letter after King Nebuchadnezzar had taken King Jeconiah and his mother away from Jerusalem. He had taken them to Babylon with Jeconiah's officers, and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. He had also taken away to Babylon the men who had special skills to work with wood or metal. ³ King Zedekiah of Judah was sending some men to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. They were Shaphan's son Elasah, and Hilkiah's son Gemariah. Jeremiah gave his letter to them to take to Babylon. This is what the letter said:

⁴ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, sends this message to all the people of Judah who are in Babylon. He sent them there from Jerusalem as prisoners. ⁵ He says, ‘Build houses for yourselves. Make Babylon your home. Plant gardens. Eat the food that grows in them. ⁶ Marry, so that you have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons to marry. Let your daughters marry too. Then they also can give birth to sons and daughters. Your descendants should become more and more, not fewer. ⁷ Work well to help the foreign place where I have sent you to live. Try to make it a successful place. Pray to the Lord that it will do well. If it does well, you will also do well.’

⁸ Yes, the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, ‘Some of the prophets and the other people use magic to tell you what will happen in the future. Do not let them deceive you with their lies. Do not listen to the dreams that they tell you about. ⁹ They say that they are speaking with my authority. But the things that they prophesy are lies. I have not sent them to speak to you.’ That is what the Lord says.

¹⁰ The Lord says, ‘You will live in Babylon for 70 years. Then I will choose to help you. I will be kind to you, as I promised. I will bring you back here to your home. ¹¹ I, the Lord, tell you this: I have decided what I will do for you. I have plans to help you to do well. I do not want to hurt you. I want to give you hope for a good life in the future. ¹² At that time, when you call out to me for help, I will hear your prayers. ¹³ You will want to find me, and I will be ready to meet with you. If you really want to find me, ¹⁴ I will be there for you.’ That is what the Lord says. ‘I will bring you back from the nations and all the places where I sent you as prisoners. You will no longer have to live in those foreign places.’^[d]

¹⁵ You may say, ‘The Lord has chosen prophets to bring his message to us here in Babylon.’ ¹⁶ But listen to what the Lord says about the people who are still here in Jerusalem. The enemy did not take them with you as prisoners to Babylon. That includes the king who now rules David's kingdom.^{[e] 17} The Lord Almighty says, ‘I will send war, famine and disease to hurt them. They will be like bad figs that nobody can eat. ¹⁸ I will use war, famine and disease to chase them away from their homes. I will send them to live among other nations. The people of all the nations in the world will see how disgusting they are. People will use their names as a curse. They will see how foolish they are and they will laugh at them. ¹⁹ I will do that because they have not listened to my message. I sent my servants, the prophets, to speak to them many times, but the people in Jerusalem refused to listen.’ That is what the Lord says.

The Lord also says, ‘You people of Judah who are now in Babylon have not listened to my message either. ²⁰ I sent you away from Jerusalem as prisoners to Babylon. All of you must also listen carefully to my message.’

²¹ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this about Kolaiah's son Ahab and Maaseiah's son Zedekiah: ‘They are speaking to you in my name, but they are prophesying lies. So I will put them under the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He will kill them while you watch. ²² They will be an example to the people of Judah who are now living in Babylon. When they want to curse someone, they will say, “May the Lord punish you in the same way that the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah and Ahab. He burned them to death in a fire!” ²³ That will happen to them because of the terrible sins that they have done in Israel. They have sex with the wives of their neighbours. They have used my name to tell lies. They have spoken messages that I did not command them to speak. I know what they have done because I have seen it all.’ That is what the Lord says.

A message to Shemaiah

²⁴ The Lord told Jeremiah to send this message to Shemaiah, who came from Nehelam: ²⁵ ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God says, “You sent a letter on your own authority to all the people in Jerusalem. Those people included the priest Zephaniah, Maaseiah's son, and all the other priests. In your letter, you said to Zephaniah: ²⁶ The Lord chose you to be priest instead of Jehoiada. You are the officer who has authority over the Lord's temple. If there is any crazy man who says that he is a prophet, you must take hold of him. It is your duty to tie him up. Put heavy pieces of wood on his legs and iron chains around his neck. ²⁷ That is your job, so I do not know why you have not punished Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth. He is there and he is prophesying to you. ²⁸ He has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He told us that we will be here for a long time. He told us to build houses and make our homes here. He says that we should plant gardens to grow food for ourselves.” ’

²⁹ When Zephaniah the priest received Shemaiah's letter, he read it to the prophet Jeremiah. ³⁰ Then the Lord said to Jeremiah, ³¹ ‘Send a message to all the people of Judah who are now in Babylon. Tell them that the Lord says this about Shemaiah, the man from Nehelam: “Shemaiah has prophesied to you. But I did not send him to you. He has caused you to believe a lie.” ³² So the Lord says, “I will certainly punish Shemaiah and his family. He will not have any descendants who remain among my people. None of them will receive any of the good things that I will do for my people. I will punish him because he has taught my people to turn against me.” That is what the Lord has said.’

Paul says ‘Hello’ to Timothy

1 This letter is from me, Paul. I am an apostle of Christ Jesus. God, our Saviour, is the one who commanded that I should be an apostle. So did Christ Jesus, the one that we trust to help us.

² I am writing to you, Timothy. I told you the message about Jesus and you believed in him. So you are like my own child.

I pray that God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord will continue to help you and be kind to you. I pray that they will give you peace in your mind.

Paul tells Timothy to stop the wrong teachers

³ When I was going to Macedonia, I asked you to stay in Ephesus. Please continue to stay there. Certain people in Ephesus are teaching wrong things about God. You must tell them to stop doing that. ⁴ Tell people not to listen to false stories. They should not always be studying long lists of their families' names from years ago. Those things do not help people. They only cause them to argue. Instead, they need to understand God's purpose for us. To do that, people must trust him.

⁵ We need to teach people to love one another with pure thoughts. They need to be sure in their minds that they are living in a good way. They need to trust God completely. ⁶ But certain people have failed to live in that way. They would rather talk about things that do not help anyone. ⁷ They want to be teachers of God's laws. They speak very strongly, but they do not really understand what they are talking about.

The purpose of God's laws

⁸ We know that God's laws are good, if people use them properly. ⁹ We also know that God did not make those laws for people who already live in a good way. He made them for people like this, to show them what is right:

¹¹ That true message is the good news that comes from our great God. We praise him for it. He has chosen me to tell this good news to people.

Paul thanks Christ Jesus

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has made me strong to serve him. He decided to trust me and he chose me to work on his behalf. ¹³ Before he chose me, I said bad things about him. I caused great trouble for his people. I was a cruel man, but God was very kind to me. He forgave me because I did not know what I was doing. That was because I did not believe in Jesus. ¹⁴ Our Lord continued to be very good and kind to me. He caused me to believe in Christ Jesus and to love him.

¹⁵ Here is a true message that everyone should believe: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save people who do wrong things.’ I am the worst person like that! ¹⁶ But God was kind to me.^[a] Christ Jesus showed that he was completely patient with me, the worst person. That was an example to those people who would later believe in him. They would believe and receive life for ever with God.

¹⁷ Praise God, the King who rules for ever! He can never die. He lives where we cannot see him. He is the only God. So praise him and say how great he is! That is true always and for ever! Amen! This is true.

Timothy should be a good leader in the church

¹⁸ Timothy, you are like my own child. So now I am telling you to serve God well. Remember the words from God that people spoke about you, when you became a servant of God.^[b] Those words will help you to be strong, like a soldier who fights well.^{[c] 19} You must continue to trust God. Always do what you know to be right. Some people have refused to do what is right, even when they know what they should do. As a result, they no longer believe God's true message. ²⁰ Hymenaeus and Alexander are people like that.^[d] I have given them to Satan so that he may punish them. Then they will learn not to say bad things against God any more.

David's prayer.

A prayer for help

¹⁷ Do not visit your neighbour's house too often. He may see you too much and he will start to hate you.