The Daily Audio Bible

¹² The Lord gave this message to me: ¹³ ‘Son of man, the people of a whole nation may choose not to obey me. Then I would punish them because of their sins. I might stop the people getting any food to eat. Then there would be a famine that kills both people and animals. ¹⁴ If that happens, I would only save the righteous people who lived there. If men like Noah, Daniel and Job lived there, I would save them. But nobody else would escape. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁵ Or I might send wild animals to kill the people of that nation. Nobody would travel through that place. The wild animals would make it too dangerous to travel there. ¹⁶ I promise you this, as surely as I live: if those three righteous men lived there, they would only save themselves. They could not even save the lives of their own children. The whole land would become an empty place. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁷ Or I might bring an enemy to attack that nation. I would say, “Soldiers with swords should destroy the whole land.” I would cause them to kill both people and animals. ¹⁸ I promise you this, as surely as I live: if those three righteous men lived there, they would only save themselves. They could not even save the lives of their own children. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁹ Or I might punish that nation with a terrible disease. Because I am very angry with those people, I would cause people and animals to die in that place. ²⁰ I promise you this, as surely as I live: if Noah, Daniel and Job lived there, they would only save themselves because they are righteous people. They could not save the lives even of their own children. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

²¹ This is what the Almighty Lord says: It will be terrible for Jerusalem's people when I punish them in all these four ways. I will send enemy soldiers with swords. I will send famine. I will send wild animals. And I will send disease. That will cause both people and animals to die. ²² But some people will still be alive. Some sons and daughters will come out from the city. They will come to you here in Babylon. You will see the way that those people have lived. You will see the things that they have done. Then you will not be upset that I have punished Jerusalem in all these ways. ²³ Yes, when you see what they are like, you will no longer be upset. You will know that I have punished the people of Jerusalem as they deserved. That is what the Almighty Lord says.’

Jerusalem is like a useless vine

15 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, the wood of a vine is no better than the wood of any other tree that grows in the forest.^{[a] 3} Nobody can use its wood to make anything that is useful. They cannot even make pegs to hang clothes on! ⁴ You can throw it on a fire to make the fire burn. But after the fire has finished, only a useless black piece of vine remains. ⁵ It was useless before you put it on the fire. It is even more useless after the fire has burnt it. You cannot make anything with it.

⁶ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: Among the trees of the forest, I have provided the wood of vines to burn on a fire. In the same way, I will take the people of Jerusalem to punish them. ⁷ I will become their enemy. They may have escaped from the fire once, but soon the fire will destroy them. When I punish them like that, then you will know that I am the Lord. ⁸ They have not served me faithfully. So I will destroy their land. That is what the Almighty Lord says.’

16 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, warn Jerusalem's people about the disgusting things that they do. ³ Say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says to Jerusalem's people: You were born in the land of Canaan. That is where you came from. Your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite.^{[b] 4} They did not take proper care of you on the day that you were born. They did not wash you properly. They did not cut your cord. They did not put salt or oil on your skin. They did not put cloths around you.^{[c] 5} Nobody was kind enough to do any of these things for you. Instead, they threw you out into a field. Nobody loved you on the day that you were born.

⁶ Then I saw you as I went that way. You were lying there on the ground in your blood. You were trying to move. While you lay there, I said to you, ‘Stay alive.’ ⁷ I made you grow well, like the plants in a field. You became tall and beautiful, like a bright jewel. Your breasts grew and your hair became long. But you still had no clothes to cover your bare body.

⁸ Later, I saw you again as I went that way. I saw that you had become a woman who was old enough to marry. So I covered your bare body with my coat. I promised to marry you. I made a covenant with you so that you became my wife. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

⁹ Then I washed your body with water. I washed away the blood and I put sweet oil on your body. ¹⁰ I put a beautiful dress on you. I put the best leather shoes on your feet. I dressed you with clothes made from linen and other expensive cloths. ¹¹ I put beautiful jewels on you. I put rings on your hands and a necklace around your neck. ¹² I put a gold ring in your nose. I put rings in your ears. And I put a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ I used gold and silver to make you beautiful. I gave you expensive clothes that were made of linen and other pretty cloth. I gave you good food to eat, flour, honey and olive oil. You became a very beautiful woman. You even became a queen. ¹⁴ The people of other nations heard news about your beauty. That was because of all the good things that I had given you to make you very beautiful. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁵ But you trusted your beauty to give you what you wanted. Because you were famous, you lived like a prostitute. You had sex with any man that you liked. They all enjoyed your beautiful body. ¹⁶ You used some of your clothes to give honour to idols. You made their altars beautiful. You had sex with those men there on your beautiful cloths. Those things should never happen! ¹⁷ You took your beautiful gold and silver rings and your jewels. You used them to make images of male idols for yourself. You worshipped them instead of me. ¹⁸ You put your beautiful clothes on them. You gave them my oil and my incense as an offering. ¹⁹ You also offered to those idols the food that I had given to you, the good flour, the olive oil and the honey. You wanted to please your idols with sweet smells. Yes, that is what happened! That is what the Almighty Lord says.

²⁰ You also offered your sons and your daughters as sacrifices to those idols. They were my children too! But you offered them as food to your idols. Like a prostitute, you were not faithful to me. ²¹ But you did an even worse thing. You killed my children. You offered them as sacrifices to idols! ²² You forgot what you were like when I first found you. At that time you had no clothes to cover your bare body. You lay on the ground in your own blood. You did not remember this. Instead, you chose to do disgusting things and live as a prostitute.

²³ Terrible trouble will come to you! That is what the Almighty Lord says. You did even more wicked things than these. ²⁴ In the public places of every town you built huts to worship your idols. ²⁵ You built these high places at the end of every street. There you made your beauty a disgusting thing. You offered your body to anyone who went past. Everyone knew that you were a prostitute. ²⁶ You had sex with the Egyptians, who lived near to you. They were ready to have sex with you at any time. So you lived as a prostitute more and more and you made me very angry.

²⁷ So I decided to punish you. I took from you things that belonged to you. I gave your enemies, the Philistines, power over you. Even they were ashamed because of the disgusting things that you were doing. ²⁸ You has sex with the Assyrians, too. You wanted more and more sex! You sold yourself to them, but you still wanted more ²⁹ You also had sex with the traders from Babylon. Like a prostitute, you sold yourself to more and more people. But they could still not make you happy.^[d]

³⁰ The Almighty Lord says this: Your mind no longer knows what is right. You do disgusting things, like a prostitute who is not ashamed. ³¹ You built places to worship your idols on every street. You offered yourself to people, like a prostitute. But you did not want them to pay you anything, as a prostitute would do.

³² You are like a wife who is not faithful. You want to have sex with strangers more than with your own husband! ³³ Prostitutes receive money when they have sex with someone. Instead, you give gifts to all the men who have sex with you. You pay them to come from many different places to have sex with you. ³⁴ Those men did not come and ask you to have sex with them. So you are different from other prostitutes. You paid money to those men. They did not pay money to you. So you are very different from those other women!

³⁵ So listen to Lord's message, you prostitute! ³⁶ This is what the Almighty Lord says: You wanted to have sex with many men. You offered your bare body to them, like a prostitute. You have worshipped disgusting idols. You have killed your own children as sacrifices to those idols. ³⁷ So listen to me! I will bring all those men that you had sex with. You liked some of them and you hated others. I will bring all of them to stand around you. Then I will remove all your clothes and they will all see your completely bare body. ³⁸ I will punish you as you deserve, because you are an adulteress and a murderer. I am very angry with you because you have not been faithful to me. So my punishment will destroy you. ³⁹ I will put you under the power of those men that you gave yourself to. They will destroy the places that you built for your idols. They will remove all your clothes. They will take your beautiful jewels. Then they will leave you with nothing, completely bare. ⁴⁰ They will bring a crowd of people to attack you. They will throw stones at you. They will cut you in pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ They will use fire to destroy your houses. Many women will watch while those people punish you. I will stop you from having sex as a prostitute. You will no longer pay men to have sex with you.

¹⁸ So the old law about priests no longer has authority. It was weak and it could not help people. ¹⁹ God's Laws that he gave to Moses could not make anything completely right. But now God has brought us something better to hope for. And in that way, we ourselves can come near to God.

²⁰ Also, when God said that Jesus would be his special priest, he made a strong promise. When the Levites became priests, he did not make a strong promise like that. ²¹ But when Jesus became God's priest, God made a strong promise. God said:

²² Because God promised that to Jesus, we know that his new agreement with his people is very strong. It is a much better agreement than the old one.

²³ In the old way, there were many Levite priests. Each one of them died, so that they could not continue to serve God as priests. ²⁴ But Jesus lives for ever, so he will never stop being a priest. ²⁵ Jesus is always alive and he asks God to help his people. So he can completely save everyone who believes in him. He will lead them to God.

²⁶ Jesus is the kind of special priest that we need. He completely belongs to God. He has never done anything wrong. He is completely good and clean. He is separate from everyone who does wrong things. God has raised him up to the most important place in heaven. ²⁷ Jesus is not like the Levite priests. They need to offer sacrifices to God every day. First, they offer sacrifices so that God will forgive their own sins. Then they offer sacrifices on behalf of the other people, so that God will forgive their sins too. But Jesus offered one sacrifice for all time. That sacrifice was himself. ²⁸ In the old agreement, Moses' laws decide who will become special priests. Because those men are weak, they often do wrong things. But God's very strong promise came after the Law that he gave to Moses. With that promise, God chose his Son to be his special priest. And his Son has become everything that God wants him to be, completely and for ever.^[a]

The Lord is good!^[a]