The Daily Audio Bible

That is what the King says. His name is the Lord Almighty.

⁵⁸ The Lord Almighty says this:

Jeremiah sends God's message to Babylon

⁵⁹ This is the command that the prophet Jeremiah gave to the king's officer Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Neriah and the grandson of Mahseiah. He took the message when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. That happened in the fourth year that Zedekiah had ruled Judah as king. ⁶⁰ Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the terrible troubles that would happen to Babylon. Those were all the messages that he had written about Babylon. ⁶¹ Jeremiah said to Seraiah, ‘When you arrive in Babylon, you must read aloud all these messages. ⁶² Then say, “Lord, you have said that you will destroy this place. Then no people or animals will live in it any longer. It will be empty for ever.” ⁶³ When you have finished reading aloud all the words on the scroll, tie a big stone to it. Throw it all into the middle of the Euphrates river. ⁶⁴ Then say, “That is how Babylon will sink! It will go down and it will never rise up again. The Lord is ready to cause all these terrible troubles to happen to Babylon. Its people will be too weak to stop it.” ’

That is the end of Jeremiah's messages.

Nebuchadnezzar gets power over Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 11 years. His mother's name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah, who came from Libnah.^{[a] 2} Zedekiah did things that the Lord said were evil, as Jehoiakim had done.

³ All this trouble happened to Jerusalem and to Judah because the Lord was very angry with them. In the end, the Lord sent them away from himself. This is what happened when King Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon.

⁴ Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, marched with his army to attack Jerusalem. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month, in the ninth year when Zedekiah had ruled Judah. His soldiers made their camp all around the city. They built heaps of earth all around Jerusalem's walls. ⁵ Babylon's army stayed around the city until the 11th year that Zedekiah had been king.

⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month there was a very bad famine in the city. There was no food for the people to eat. ⁷ Then Babylon's army broke down Jerusalem's wall so that they could go into the city. Their soldiers were all around the city. So the king of Judah and all his army tried to escape in the night. They went through the gate that was near the king's garden. The path went between the two walls of the city. They ran towards the Jordan Valley. ⁸ But the soldiers of Babylon's army chased after King Zedekiah. They caught him on the flat land near Jericho. All King Zedekiah's soldiers ran away from him in many directions.

⁹ Babylon's soldiers took hold of Zedekiah. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, in Hamath region. Nebuchadnezzar decided how to punish Zedekiah. ¹⁰ He told his soldiers to kill all Zedekiah's sons, while Zedekiah watched. He also punished all the officers of Judah with death there at Riblah. ¹¹ Then they cut out Zedekiah's eyes to make him blind. They tied him with chains and they took him to Babylon as their prisoner. They kept him in prison until the day that he died.

¹² King Nebuchadnezzar had an officer whose name was Nebuzaradan. He was the captain of the king's royal guards. Nebuzaradan came to Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar had ruled Babylon for 19 years. It was on the tenth day of the fifth month. ¹³ Nebuzaradan destroyed the Lord's temple, the king's palace and all the other houses in Jerusalem. He burned them all with fire, so that he destroyed every important building in the city. ¹⁴ Then Nebuzaradan commanded his whole army to knock down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Captain Nebuzaradan sent away as prisoners some of the poor people and the rest of the people who remained in Jerusalem. He also sent away those people who had agreed to serve the king of Babylon, and the workers who had special skills. ¹⁶ But he let some of the poorest people stay there. He gave them vineyards and fields to work in.

¹⁷ The soldiers from Babylon broke the two bronze pillars that were in the Lord's temple. They also broke the carts which carried the buckets for water and the large bath called ‘the Sea’. They carried all the bronze pieces away to Babylon. ¹⁸ They also took away the pots, the bowls, the spades, the small tools for the lamps, and the dishes. They took all the bronze tools that the priests used in the temple. ¹⁹ Captain Nebuzaradan also took away everything that was made from gold or silver. He took the dishes, the baskets that carried hot coals, the bowls for water, the pots, the lampstands and other bowls.

²⁰ The bronze from the things that King Solomon had made for the Lord's temple was very heavy. They included the two bronze pillars, the large bath called ‘the Sea’, the 12 bronze bulls under the bath and the carts which carried the buckets for water. The bronze from all these things was more than they could weigh. ²¹ Each pillar was 8 metres high and 5 metres around. The bronze was 8 centimetres thick and each pillar was empty inside. ²² The bronze piece on the top of one pillar was more than a metre high. It had rows of chains with images of pomegranates made from bronze all around it. The other pillar, with its rows of chains and pomegranates, was the same. ²³ There were 96 images of pomegranates around the sides of the pillars. There were 100 images of pomegranates on the chains at the top.

²⁴ Captain Nebuzaradan took hold of these people:

²⁵ He also took hold of these people who remained in Jerusalem:

²⁶ Captain Nebuzaradan took hold of all those people. He brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ There, at Riblah in the Hamath region, the king of Babylon commanded his soldiers to punish them all with death.

That was how Judah's people went into exile, away from their own land.

²⁸ This is a list of the number of people that Nebuchadnezzar took away as prisoners to Babylon:

Jehoiachin lives in Babylon^[b]

³¹ 37 years after King Jehoiachin of Judah had gone as a prisoner to Babylon, Evil-Merodach became the king of Babylon. On the 25th day of the 12th month, he took Jehoiachin out from his prison so that he became free. ³² King Evil-Merodach spoke in a kind way to Jehoiachin. He gave him more honour than the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ Jehoiachin no longer had to wear the clothes of a prisoner. Every day for the rest of his life, he ate a meal at the king's table in Babylon. ³⁴ The king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin everything that he needed each day of his life until he died.

Do what is right

3 Tell the believers there to respect the government and those who have authority. They must remember to obey their rulers. They must always be ready to help other people. ² They must not say bad things about anyone. They must not quarrel with people. Instead, they should be kind and polite to everyone.

³ Before we believed in Christ, we ourselves were fools too. We did not obey God. We believed a false message. We wanted to do many kinds of bad things to make us happy. We could not stop doing them. Every day we did evil things. We were jealous of other people. People hated us, and we hated each other.

⁴ But then God, our Saviour, showed clearly that he is very kind. He showed that he loves all people. ⁵ God did not save us because of any good things that we ourselves had done. He saved us because he chose to forgive us. God has washed us so that we are clean inside. We have been born again, so that we live a new life. God's Holy Spirit has done this for us. ⁶ Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice to save us. So now God has poured his Holy Spirit into us, to fill us. ⁷ Because God is very kind, he has accepted us as right with himself. As a result, we know that we will receive the good things that God has prepared for us. We know that we will live with God for ever.

⁸ That message is certainly true. So you must teach people the things that I have said in this letter. Make sure that they understand them well. Then the people who have believed in God will be careful to do good things. Good things like that will help everyone.

⁹ But stay away from people who argue about silly things. They study long lists of their families' names from years ago. Refuse to quarrel with people like that. Refuse to argue about the rules in God's Law. All those kinds of things have no value and they do not help anyone. ¹⁰ If someone teaches a false message that causes trouble, warn him. If you warn him twice and he still does not stop, stay away from him. ¹¹ You know that a person like that has chosen not to believe the true message. He knows that he is doing a bad thing, but he continues to do it.

Paul finishes his letter

¹² I will send either Artemas or Tychicus to you.^[a] After one of them has arrived, please come to meet me in Nicopolis. Come as quickly as you can. I have decided that I will stay in Nicopolis during the winter.^[b]

¹³ Please help Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos as much as you can.^[c] Make sure that they have everything that they need for their journey. ¹⁴ Our Christian friends there must learn to do good things. They should supply things to people who need help. That will show that their lives are really useful.

¹⁵ Everyone who is here with me says ‘hello’ to you. Please say ‘hello’ on our behalf to the believers there who love us. I pray that God will continue to be very kind to all of you.

This is a psalm to say ‘thank you’.

Thank you, God!^[a]