The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the CSB. Switch to the CSB to read along with the audio.
24 Then Jeremiah said this to all the people, including the women:
‘Listen to the Lord's message, all you people of Judah who are now living in Egypt. 25 The Lord God Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You and your wives have certainly done the things that you said you would do. You said, ‘We will continue to do what we have promised to do. We will make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. We will pour out drink offerings to her.’ So do all those things that you promised to do!”
26 But listen to the Lord's message to all you people of Judah who are living in Egypt. The Lord says, “I now promise this to you, with the authority of my own name. None of you who live in Egypt will ever use my name again when you make a promise. You will not say, ‘I promise you I will do this, as surely as the Lord God lives.’ 27 Listen to me! I will choose to hurt you and not to help you. War or famine will kill all the people of Judah who are living in Egypt. None of them will remain alive. 28 But a few of them will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. They will be very few people. Then all the people of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know who speaks the truth. Do I speak the truth, or do they speak the truth? I do!”
29 The Lord also says, “I will show you that I will surely punish you in this place. I will tell you something that will soon happen. Then you will know that my promise to punish you will certainly become true. 30 I tell you now that I will put Hophra, king of Egypt, under the power of his enemies, who want to kill him. That is the same thing that I did to King Zedekiah of Judah. I put him under the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who wanted to kill him.” ’
God's message to Baruch
45 Baruch wrote down on a scroll the words that Jeremiah told him to write. That happened in the fourth year that Josiah's son, Jehoiakim, ruled Judah as king. At that time, Jeremiah said to Baruch, 2 ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says this to you, Baruch: 3 You said, “I have terrible trouble! I have a lot of pain, and the Lord has also made me very sad. I am so upset that I have become very weak. I cannot rest at all.”
4 But the Lord says this to you, Baruch: “I will soon knock down the things that I have built. I will pull out of the ground the things that I have planted. I will do that everywhere in the land. 5 If you want to become famous and important, do not hope for that to happen. I will send great trouble to all the people on the earth. But I promise that I will keep your life safe, wherever you go.” That is what the Lord says.’
The Lord's messages about Egypt[a]
46 The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah messages about the nations.
2 This is the message about Egypt.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his army fought against the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt. Babylon's army won the battle against Egypt's army at Carchemish on the Euphrates river. That happened in the fourth year that Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king.
3 ‘Get ready to march to the battle!
Pick up your shields and your weapons.
4 Prepare your horses and sit on them.
Put on your helmets and be ready to fight.
Make your spears sharp.
Put on your armour!’
5 The Lord says,
‘But I see this:
The soldiers are afraid and they are running away!
They cannot win the fight.
Terror is everywhere around them.[b]
They do not turn to look behind them.
They run away as fast as they can.
6 But none of them can run fast enough.
Even the strongest soldiers cannot escape.
In the north, beside the River Euphrates,
they fall down to the ground.
7 A nation is rising up, like the great waters of the Nile river.
Who is this nation?
8 Egypt is rising like the waters of the Nile.
Its streams of water quickly pour out over the earth.
Egypt says, “I will rise up and I will cover the earth.
I will destroy cities.
I will kill the people who live in them.”
9 So ride your horses quickly into the battle!
Drive your chariots as fast as they will go!
Tell your soldiers to march forward into the battle.
Send your soldiers of Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields.
Send your soldiers of Lydia who have bows and arrows.
10 But it is the Lord God Almighty who will win!
It is the day when he will punish his enemies.
His sword will completely destroy them,
like a hungry person who cannot stop eating!
His sword will cause a lot of blood to pour out.
The Lord God Almighty will accept his enemies as a sacrifice.
That is what will happen in the northern land beside the Euphrates river.
11 Dear people of Egypt,
go to Gilead and find medicine to make you well.
But that will not help you.
There is no medicine that will make you better.
12 The other nations will see that you are ashamed.
All over the earth, people will hear you as you weep.
As your soldiers run from the battle,
they will fall over each other.
They will fall to the ground together.’
King Nebuchadnezzar will attack Egypt
13 The Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah about King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He said that Nebuchadnezzar would come to attack Egypt.
14 ‘Shout this message everywhere in Egypt.
Let people hear it in Migdol, Memphis and in Tahpanhes.
“Get ready to fight against your enemies!
They are already killing the people all around you.”
15 Your brave soldiers will fall.
They will lie flat on the ground.
They cannot stand and fight because the Lord will knock them down.
16 They will continue to fall over each other.
They will say to each other, “Get up!
We must return to our homes where our own people live.
We must escape from our enemies, who want to kill us.”
17 When they get back home, they will say,
“The king of Egypt is only a loud noise.
He could not win when he had the chance.” ’
18 The Lord Almighty is the great King. He says,
‘I promise you, as surely as I live,
that a powerful army will come to fight against you!
They will look as great as Tabor looks among the other mountains.
They will seem like Carmel mountain that stands beside the sea.
19 You dear people of Egypt, be ready to travel as prisoners to a foreign land!
Your enemy will destroy Memphis city.
It will become a heap of stones where nobody lives.
20 Egypt is like a beautiful young cow.
But an army from the north will attack her, like a crowd of flies that bite.
21 Egypt has paid soldiers from other countries to help her.
But they are like fat calves that are too weak to fight.
They will not stand and fight, but they will turn and run away.
Yes, the day of Egypt's punishment has arrived!
Their enemy has come to destroy them.
22 Egypt's people will run away, like a snake along the ground.
The enemy's strong army will march forward.
They will attack Egypt with axes, like men who cut down trees.
23 Egypt's soldiers are as many as the trees in a great forest.
But the enemy's soldiers will cut them down.
Their army is like a hungry crowd of locusts.
They are too many to count.
24 The people of Egypt will be ashamed.
They will be under the power of the people from the north.’
That is what the Lord says.
25 The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, also says, ‘Now I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes city, and the other gods of Egypt. I will also punish Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and Egypt's other rulers. I will punish Egypt's people and everyone who trusts in Pharoah's power. 26 I will put them under the power of King Nebuchadnezzar and his army, who want to kill them. But in later years, people will again live in Egypt, as they did before.’ That is what the Lord says.
The Israelites will live in peace
27 ‘My servants, descendants of Jacob, do not be afraid.[c]
People of Israel, do not be upset.
You have been prisoners in countries far away.
But I will rescue you and your descendants.
You will return to your own land and you will live in peace.
Jacob's descendants will be safe and nobody will make them afraid.
28 So do not be afraid, descendants of my servant Jacob.
I am with you to help you.
I may completely destroy all the nations where I send you to live.
But I will never completely destroy you.
I will certainly punish you, to teach you what is right.
But I will do that in a fair way.’
That is what the Lord says.
The Lord's message about the Philistines
47 The Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah before Pharaoh and the army of Egypt attacked Gaza. The Lord said this about the Philistines:
2 ‘Look at what is happening!
Armies in the north are rising like a flood of water.
They will pour out from there like a great river.
They will cover the whole land and everything in it.
They will destroy the cities and the people who live in them.
People will shout for help.
Everyone who lives there will cry with pain.
3 They will hear the sound of their enemies' horses
and the loud noises of their chariots.
Fathers will not turn back to save their children,
because fear has made them weak.
4 The time has come when the Lord will destroy all the Philistines.
None of them will remain to give help to Tyre and Sidon.
The Lord is ready to destroy the Philistines who remain.
Those are the people who came from the island of Crete.[d]
5 The people of Gaza will cut the hair off their heads
because they are so upset.
In Ashkelon, nobody will say a word.
You Philistines who live near the sea and are still alive,
will you continue to cut your bodies?[e]
6 You shout to the Lord, “How long will you attack us with your sword?
Please stop killing us! Put your sword away!”
7 But the Lord has commanded his sword to kill.
So it cannot rest!
The Lord has commanded his sword to attack Ashkelon
and the people who live on the coast of the sea.’
22 Be careful not to do the kind of bad things that young people often want to do. Instead, always try to do what is right and fair. Continue to trust God. Love other people and live in peace with them. Join with people who are clean inside and who pray to the Lord.
23 Do not join with people who want to argue about silly things that do not mean anything. You know that silly things like that only cause people to quarrel. 24 As the Lord's servant, you must not quarrel. Instead, you must be kind to everyone. You must be able to teach them well. And you must be patient when people cause you to have trouble. 25 When people speak against God's true message, teach them carefully. Help them to understand what is right. Maybe God will change how they think so that they believe the true message. 26 Their minds will start to think clearly. It is the Devil who has made them believe wrong things. He has made them do what he wants. Now they can get free from his power.
People will turn away from God in the last days
3 Let me tell you this. During the last days of this world, there will be times of great trouble. 2 People will love only themselves, and they will want lots of money for themselves. They will be proud and they will say how great they are. They will insult other people. They will not obey their parents. They will not thank anyone who helps them. They will not respect anything that is good. 3 They will not be kind to other people, but they will like to quarrel. They will tell lies to hurt other people. They will be unable to control themselves properly. They will be cruel and they will hate anything that is good. 4 People will turn against their friends. They will do foolish things. They will boast that they are very important. They will not love God, but instead they will only want to enjoy themselves. 5 Those people will seem to be serving God. But really they refuse to accept God's power to help them. You must stay away from people like that.
6 Among those people, there are some men who find a way into people's homes. They get power over silly women who feel very guilty about their sins. Those women want to do wrong things and they cannot stop themselves. 7 They are always trying to learn new things, but they can never really understand God's true message. 8 These are people who speak against God's true message, in the same way that Jannes and Jambres spoke against Moses.[a] Their minds have become confused. The way that they serve God is false. 9 But they will not continue to do many more bad things. Everyone will see clearly that they are fools. That is what happened to Jannes and Jambres.
Timothy must copy Paul's example
10 But you, Timothy, have heard my message and you know it well. You also know the way in which I have lived. You know my purpose in life. You know how I trust God. You know how patient I have been. You know my love for God and for other people. You know that I have been strong during troubles. 11 You also know what happened to me in the cities called Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. People caused me to have a lot of trouble and pain in those places. But I was patient and brave in those bad troubles! And the Lord kept me safe in all those dangerous times.[b]
12 It is not only me. Every Christian who wants to live in a way that pleases God will have trouble from other people. 13 Bad people like that will become even worse. Some of them will teach a false message and people will believe their lies. Those false teachers even believe their own lies!
It is important for us to know the Bible
14 But you must continue to believe the things that you have learned. You know that those things are true. You know the teachers who taught you those things. 15 Even when you were a child, you already knew the message of the Bible. The Bible has taught you how you can be truly wise. You understand that God saves you because you believe in Christ Jesus. 16 Everything that is written in the Bible comes from God's Spirit. It helps us in many ways. The Bible teaches us what is true. It warns us when we are doing wrong things. It shows us what is right. It teaches us how to live good lives.[c] 17 As a result, people who want to serve God can know how to live properly. They will be people who are ready to do all kinds of good things.
God judges all people
94 Lord, you are the God
who punishes guilty people.
God, show your power
to punish people as they deserve![a]
2 Judge of all people on the earth, do something!
Punish proud people as they deserve!
3 How long will wicked people continue to be happy?
Yes, Lord, how long?
4 Those people who do evil things
speak many proud words.
They boast about how great they are.
5 Lord, see how they hurt your own people.
They are cruel to the people that belong to you.
6 They kill widows
and foreign people who live in our land.
They murder children that have no family.
7 They say, ‘The Lord does not see us.
Israel's God does not see what we are doing.’
8 Think again, all you fools among the people!
Stupid people, become wise!
9 God made our ears!
Can he himself not hear?
He made our eyes!
Does he not see?
10 He teaches the nations what is right.
Will he not punish you,
when you do what is wrong?
He teaches people what they should know.
11 The Lord knows what people think.
He knows that their thoughts are empty.
12 Lord, when you teach people what is right,
you have really blessed them.
You use your Law to teach them.
13 When those people have troubles,
you keep them safe.
Then the wicked people fall into a deep hole
that you have dug to catch them.
14 The Lord will not leave his people alone.
He will not forget to help the people that belong to him.
15 Once again, judges will do what is right and fair,
and good, honest people will agree.
16 Who would fight for me
against the wicked people?[b]
Who would keep me safe
from the people who do evil things?
17 Unless the Lord had helped me,
I would soon have become silent in death.
18 When I think, ‘I am falling down,’
your faithful love keeps me safe, Lord.
19 When I have troubles in my mind,
so that I am afraid,
you help me to be happy again.
20 You will not become a friend of cruel rulers.
They make laws that only hurt people.
21 They join together to work against good people.
They say that people are guilty
who have done nothing wrong.
They say that they must die.
22 But the Lord is a strong place for me.
Yes, my God is a rock
where I can hide and be safe.
23 He will punish those wicked leaders.
He will destroy them,
because they do evil things.
The Lord our God will completely destroy them.
6 If you send a message with a fool, there will be trouble.
It would be better to cut off your own feet!
7 A lame person cannot use his legs properly.
A fool cannot use a proverb properly.
8 If you tie a stone into a sling, it will be a useless weapon.
It is also useless to give honour to a fool.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.