The Daily Audio Bible

Rekab's descendants

35 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. ² He said, ‘Go to the place where Rekab's descendants live. Ask them to come to the Lord's temple. Take them into one of the temple's small rooms. Give to them some wine to drink.’

³ So I went to meet with Rekab's descendants. They were Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah.^[a] I also met with Jaazaniah's brothers and all his sons. Those were all the descendants of Rekab. ⁴ I took them to the Lord's temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan lived. He was the son of Igdaliah. That room was next to the room where the temple officers lived. It was also above the room where Shallum's son Maaseiah lived. He was one of the guards for the doors of the temple. ⁵ I put some jars of wine and some cups in front of Rekab's descendants. I said to them, ‘Drink some wine.’

⁶ They replied, ‘We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab, son of Rekab, said to us, “You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ You must not build houses. You must not plant seed in fields to grow crops. You must not plant vines or have a vineyard. Instead, you must always live in tents. If you live in that way, you will live for a long time as you travel around in the land.”

⁸ We have obeyed all the rules that our ancestor Jonadab gave to us. Our wives and our children have also obeyed them. We have never drunk wine. ⁹ We have never built houses to be our homes. We have no fields or vineyards and we grow no crops. ¹⁰ We have always lived in tents. So we have completely obeyed our ancestor Jonadab. We have done everything that he commanded us to do. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked our land, we decided to come to Jerusalem. We said, “We must leave here and go to Jerusalem. We must escape from the armies of Babylon and Syria.” That is why we are now living in Jerusalem.’

¹² Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah. ¹³ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, said to him, ‘Go and speak to the people of Judah, including those who live in Jerusalem. Tell them that I, the Lord, say this: “Learn a lesson about how you should obey me! ¹⁴ Rekab's son Jonadab commanded his descendants that they must not drink wine. They have obeyed his command. Even now, they have never drunk wine because their ancestor told them not to do that. But as for you, I have spoken to you very many times and you have not obeyed me! ¹⁵ I have sent my servants the prophets to warn you many times. They told you, ‘You must all stop doing wicked things. Instead, start doing the things that are right. Do not serve other gods and worship them. Then you will continue to live in this land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.’ But you did not listen to my message. You did not obey me. ¹⁶ The descendants of Rekab's son Jonadab obeyed the commands that their ancestor gave to them. But as for you, my people, you have not obeyed me.”

¹⁷ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “Listen to me! I will soon punish the people of Judah and Jerusalem with all the things that I warned them about. I spoke to them, but they did not listen. I called out to them, but they did not answer. So now I will punish them.” ’

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to Rekab's descendants, ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You have completely obeyed the commands of your ancestor Jonadab. You have done everything that he told you to do.” ¹⁹ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, also says, “There will always be a male descendant of Rekab's son Jonadab who will live to serve me.” ’

King Jehoiakim destroys the Lord's message

36 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. He said, ² ‘Write down on a scroll all the messages that I have spoken to you. Since Josiah was king until now, I have given you messages about Israel, Judah and the other nations. Write them all on a scroll. ³ That will warn the people of Judah about the very bad things that I have decided to do to them. When they hear about it, perhaps they will stop doing the evil things that they have been doing. Then I will forgive their sins and everything wrong that they have done.’

⁴ So Jeremiah told Neriah's son Baruch to come to him. Jeremiah spoke all the words that the Lord had told him to say. Baruch wrote them down on a scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, ‘The officers will not let me go to the Lord's temple. ⁶ So you must go to the temple yourself. Go on a special day when people are fasting and they have come from their towns. Read the words that you wrote on the scroll to the people, so that they can all hear them. ⁷ Perhaps they will ask the Lord to forgive them. Perhaps they will stop doing all the evil things that they have been doing. The Lord is very angry with them and he has warned them that he will punish them.’

⁸ Neriah's son Baruch did everything that the prophet Jeremiah had told him. He went to the Lord's temple. He read the Lord's message that was written on the scroll. ⁹ That happened in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. People from all Judah's towns had come to Jerusalem. They joined with the people of Jerusalem to fast and pray in the Lord's temple. ¹⁰ Baruch stood in the temple, at the entrance of the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan. Shaphan had been the king's secretary. Gemariah's room was in the higher yard of the temple, near the New Gate. Baruch stood there. He read the Lord's message that Jeremiah had told him to write on the scroll.

¹¹ Micaiah, son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard the Lord's message as Baruch read it aloud. ¹² Then Micaiah went to the secretary's room in the king's palace. All the king's officers were meeting there. They included: the king's secretary Elishama, Shemaiah's son Delaiah, Akbor's son Elnathan, Shaphan's son Gemariah, and Hananiah's son Zedekiah. All the officers were sitting there. ¹³ Micaiah told them everything that he had heard when Baruch read the scroll aloud to the people. ¹⁴ The officers sent somebody to go and speak to Baruch. They sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, and the grandson of Cushi's son, Shelemiah. They told him to say to Baruch, ‘Bring here to us the scroll with the words that you read aloud to the people.’

So Neriah's son Baruch went to them. He took the scroll with him in his hand. ¹⁵ The officers said to him, ‘Please sit down and read it to us.’ So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶ They listened to the words that Baruch had written on the scroll. They looked at each other in fear. They said to Baruch, ‘We must certainly report this to the king. We must tell him about everything that you have read to us.’ ¹⁷ They also asked Baruch, ‘Please tell us how you wrote all these words. Did Jeremiah himself tell you what to write?’

¹⁸ Baruch said, ‘Yes, he told me what I should write. Then I used ink to write the words on this scroll.’^[b]

¹⁹ The officers said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah must go and hide yourselves. Do not tell anyone where you are.’

²⁰ The officers put the scroll into the room of Elishama, the king's secretary, to keep it safe. Then they went to see the king. He was in the palace yard. They reported to him everything that they had heard. ²¹ Then the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought the scroll from Elishama's room in the temple. Then he read the message that was written on the scroll. He read it aloud to the king and to all the officers who were standing around him. ²² It was autumn, so the king was sitting in the rooms that he used when it was cold. A fire was burning beside him. ²³ Jehudi read a small section of the words that were written on the scroll. As soon as he finished each section, the king cut off that part of the scroll with a knife. He threw each piece of the scroll on the fire. The king continued to do that until fire had burned up the whole scroll. ²⁴ As the king and his officers heard Jehudi read each section of the scroll, it did not make them afraid. None of them tore their clothes because they were upset. ²⁵ Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah asked the king very strongly not to burn the scroll. But the king refused to listen to them. ²⁶ Instead, the king told Prince Jerahmeel to go and find the secretary Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. Jerahmeel went with Azriel's son Seraiah and Abdeel's son Shelemiah to take hold of them. But the Lord had hidden Baruch and Jeremiah.

Baruch and Jeremiah write another scroll

²⁷ After the king had destroyed the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah's words, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah again. ²⁸ He said, ‘Take another scroll. Write on it everything that was written on the first scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. ²⁹ Then tell the king that the Lord says this: “You burned the scroll because you did not like the message that was written on it. It said that the king of Babylon would come to destroy this land, with all its people and animals. You warned Jeremiah that he should not write things like that.” ³⁰ So now the Lord says this to you, Jehoiakim, king of Judah: “None of your descendants will rule David's kingdom of Judah. When you die, people will not bury your body. They will throw your dead body on the ground. As it lies there, the sun will burn it in the daytime. At night it will be cold with frost. ³¹ I will punish you, your descendants and your officers because you have all done wicked things. I will also bring terrible trouble on the people of Jerusalem and all of Judah. I will punish everyone in the way that I promised I would do. I warned them, but they did not listen to me.” ’

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll. He gave it to Neriah's son, Baruch, the secretary. Jeremiah spoke the same message that Baruch had written on the first scroll. That was the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire. They also added more messages that were like the first one.

How to help people in the church

5 Do not speak strongly to an older man and tell him what he must do. Instead, ask him in a kind way, as you would speak to your father. Speak to younger men as you would speak to your brothers. ² Speak to older women as you would speak to your mother. Speak to younger women as you would speak to your sisters. Always respect them properly.

Widows

³ Respect those widows in the church who are really alone. ⁴ If a widow has children or grandchildren, then they should take care of her. The children must help their parents or grandparents because they belong to the same family. Their parents helped them, so they need to give them something in return. The children need to learn that important lesson. It is what God's message teaches them to do and it makes God happy. ⁵ Some widows are really alone and they have nobody to take care of them. A widow like that trusts God that he will help her. As a result, she prays a lot, at night and during the day, and she asks God to help her. ⁶ But some widows only want to enjoy themselves. For a widow like that, her spirit is already dead, even while she is still alive.

⁷ Teach everyone clearly to do these things. Then nobody can say that the believers are doing anything wrong. ⁸ Every believer must take care of his own family. Certainly, he must do that for the people who live with him in his home. If anyone does not do that, it shows that he has refused God's true message. That person is worse than someone who does not believe in Christ.

⁹ If you want to put a widow's name on the list of widows, this is what she must be like. She must be more than 60 years old. She must have been the wife of one husband. ¹⁰ People should know that she has done good things. For example, she must have been a good mother to her children. She must have received visitors into her home. She must have helped God's people as their servant. She must have taken care of people who had problems. She must have continued to do all kinds of good things like that.

¹¹ But do not put the names of younger widows on the list. They may decide to marry again, because they strongly want to have sex. Then they will no longer choose to serve Christ. ¹² As a result, they will stop doing what they had earlier promised to do for the church. That will make them guilty.^[a]

¹³ Young widows may learn to be lazy. They may go around from house to house. Not only do they become lazy, but they talk too much about silly things. They talk wrongly about other people and what they are doing. They say things that they ought not to say. ¹⁴ So I think that widows who are still young women should marry again. Then they can have children and they can take care of their own homes. If they live well like that, the enemy of God's people will not have a chance to say bad things against us. ¹⁵ Some of the younger widows have already turned away from Christ, so that they can obey Satan.

¹⁶ A woman who believes in Christ should take care of any widows in her own family. Then the church will not have to do that work. Instead, the church will be able to help those widows who are really alone.

Leaders in the church

¹⁷ Everyone should respect leaders of the believers who lead the church well.^[b] The church should also pay them properly for their work. That is certainly true for leaders who teach God's people and speak God's message to them. ¹⁸ The Bible says: ‘Do not tie shut the mouth of a bull while it walks on your wheat seeds.’^[c] The Bible also says: ‘You must pay a worker what his work is worth.’

¹⁹ Somebody may tell you that a leader of the believers has done something wrong. But do not accept that as true, unless two or three people say the same thing. ²⁰ If a leader is really guilty and continues to do wrong things, you must warn him. Do that when everyone in the church is there. They will hear what you say, and they will be afraid to do wrong things themselves.

²¹ I say this to you very strongly: Obey what I am telling you to do. Remember that God himself and Christ Jesus, together with their special angels, are all watching what you do. Do not quickly decide if someone has done right or wrong. Be fair and judge everyone in the same way. ²² Do not hurry to put your hands on anyone to choose him as a leader of the church. Perhaps that man has done something wrong. Then people might think that you agree with his sins. You yourself must always be careful to do what is right and good.

²³ I know that you often become ill. So do not drink only water, but drink a little wine. This will help your stomach to keep well.

²⁴ Some people do wrong things that everyone can see clearly. When someone judges those people, everyone already knows that they are guilty. So everybody already knows that it is right to punish those people. But for other people, nobody knows about their sins until later. ²⁵ It is the same with the good things that people do. Many good things are clear for everyone to see. And even the good things that people do secretly will not remain a secret for ever.

God's covenant with David

²⁵ If you receive good news from a far away country, it is like cool water when you are tired and thirsty.

²⁶ If you put dirt in a well, its good water becomes bad. It is the same with a righteous person who agrees to do wicked things.

²⁷ It is bad for you to eat too much honey. If you always want people to praise you, it is also bad for you.