The Daily Audio Bible
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42 I will continue to punish you until I am no longer angry with you. I will not be upset or angry any more.
43 The Almighty Lord says this: I am punishing you as you deserve for all the things that you have done. You have forgotten how I helped you when you were young. You have done many disgusting things and you have also lived like a prostitute.
44 Look! Everyone says that this proverb is true about you: A daughter will do the same things that her mother does. 45 Yes, you are a true daughter of your mother! Your mother hated her husband and her children. And you are the same as your sisters too. They also hated their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite.[a] 46 Your older sister was Samaria. She and her daughters lived north of you. Your younger sister was Sodom. She and her daughters lived south of you. 47 You lived like them and you did all the same disgusting things that they did. But you quickly became even worse than them. 48 Your sister Sodom and her daughters never did such wicked things as you and your daughters have done. That is true as surely as I live, says the Almighty Lord.[b]
49 Listen to me! This is the wicked thing that your sister Sodom did: She and her daughters were very proud. They had plenty of food to eat and they enjoyed life. But they did not help people who were poor and weak. 50 They were proud and they did whatever they wanted to do. When I saw the disgusting things that they were doing, I removed them.[c] 51 Samaria's people did less than half as many sins as you have done. You have done many more disgusting things than they did. The many wicked things that you have done make your sisters seem righteous!
52 So now you must accept that you are guilty. You have done such wicked things that your sisters think that they are good people. You have done much worse things than they ever did. I must punish you even more than I punished them. So you should be ashamed and you should accept your punishment. You have made your sisters seem to be righteous.
53 But one day I will cause Sodom and her daughters to enjoy life again. I will also cause Samaria and her daughters to enjoy life again. And I will also do that for you, Jerusalem. 54 You will be sorry and ashamed that you did such wicked things. Your sisters will be happy that their punishment was less than yours. 55 Sodom and her daughters will become as happy as they were before. Samaria and her daughters will become as happy as they were before. And you and your daughters will also become as happy as you were before.
56 In the days when you were proud of yourselves, you did not respect your sister Sodom. 57 But now everyone can see how wicked you are. So the other nations around you laugh at you. The people of Syria and Philistia and the nations near to them all insult you. 58 You must accept your punishment because of the disgusting things that you have done. You have not been faithful to me. That is what the Almighty Lord says.
59 This is what the Almighty Lord says: You have not done the things that you promised to do when I made a covenant with you. So I will punish you as you deserve. 60 But I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were still young. I will make that covenant strong and it will continue for ever. 61 Then you will remember the wicked things that you have done and you will be ashamed. You will welcome again your sisters, Sodom and Samaria. I will make them like daughters for you. But they will not share in the same covenant that I make with you. 62 I will cause the covenant that I make with you to be strong. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 63 I will forgive you for your sins so that you are no longer guilty. Then you will remember your sins. You will be too ashamed to say anything. That is what the Almighty Lord says.” ’
A story about two eagles and a vine
17 The Lord gave this message to me: 2 ‘Son of man, I want you to tell a story to Israel's people. It tells about them.
3 Say to them, “The Almighty Lord says this: There was a great eagle that had strong wings. Its feathers were long and beautiful, with many colours. The eagle came to Lebanon and he took hold of the top of a cedar tree. 4 He broke off the top branch of the tree. He took it to a country where there were many traders who buy and sell things. He planted the branch in a city there.
5 The eagle also took a seed from Israel's land. He planted it in a good field, like a willow tree near to plenty of water. 6 The seed made a plant that grew well. It became a vine that grew near to the ground. The vine's branches turned up towards the eagle. Its roots went down into the ground. The vine grew with many new branches and leaves.
7 There was also another great eagle. It had strong wings and many feathers. Now the vine turned its roots and its branches towards this eagle. It wanted to get more water in the ground where it was growing. 8 But the vine was already growing in a good field where there was plenty of water. It could grow very well in that place, with new branches. It could become a beautiful vine and make grapesthere.”
9 Then say to Israel's people, “The Almighty Lord says this: Do you think that the vine will continue to grow well? No, the first eagle will surely pull its roots out of the ground! He will destroy its grapes. All its leaves and branches will become dry and die. It would be easy to pull it out of the ground. It would not need a strong man or a large army to do that. 10 Yes the plant is in the ground, but will it continue to grow? When the hot wind from the east blows on it, it will become completely dry. It will die in the same good field where it had been growing.” ’
11 Then the Lord gave this message to me: 12 ‘Israel's people have turned against me. Say to them, “Surely you must understand the meaning of this story.” Then say to them, “Listen! The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. He took away Israel's king and his officers. He took them with him as his prisoners to Babylon. 13 He made an agreement with one man from the king of Israel's family. He made that man promise to serve Babylon's king. Then he could rule as king in Jerusalem.[d]
The king of Babylon also took away the leaders of Jerusalem as his prisoners. 14 He wanted to make their kingdom weak. He did not want it to become strong enough to fight against him. He wanted them to obey his agreement with him. 15 But the man from the king's family did turn against the king of Babylon. He sent his officers with a message to Egypt. He asked them to send a large army with horses to save Jerusalem. But that will not help him to be safe! He did not obey his agreement with the king of Babylon, so he will not escape!
16 I promise you this, as surely as I live, says the AlmightyLord. That man that the king of Babylon made king in Jerusalem will die! He will die in Babylon because he did not obey the agreement he had made with the king of Babylon. He thought that his promise was not important. 17 The king of Egypt has a great army and many soldiers. But he still will not be able to help him to fight against Babylon's army. Babylon's soldiers will build heaps of earth against Jerusalem's walls. They will attack the walls and go into the city. They will kill many people in Jerusalem. 18 Judah's king did not obey his agreement with the king of Babylon. He had promised to serve Babylon's king but instead he turned against him. He did not do what he had promised to do, so he will not escape.
19 So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I promise you this, as surely as I live. I will certainly punish Judah's king for what he has done. He did not respect the promise that he made in my name. He did not obey the agreement that he made. 20 I will throw a net over him and I will catch him in my trap. I will take him to Babylon and I will judge him there. I will punish him because he was not faithful to me. 21 All the brave soldiers in his army will die in the battle. The soldiers who escape will run away in all directions. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken this message.[e]
22 The Almighty Lord says this: I myself will take a new branch from the top of a tall cedar tree. I will break off one of its small fresh branches. Then I will plant it on the top of a high mountain. 23 I will plant it on a high mountain in Israel. There it will grow and make branches and fruit. It will become a beautiful cedar tree. Many kinds of birds will live under the tree's branches. They will be safe in its shadow. 24 Then all the trees of the forest will know that I am the Lord. I cause tall trees to fall down. I cause small trees to grow tall. I cause green trees to become dry. I cause dry trees to make fresh leaves.
I, the Lord, have said this and I will surely do it.” ’
Jesus helps us as God's special priest
8 The most important thing that we are saying is this: In Jesus, we do have this kind of special priest. He has now sat down to rule with God in heaven. He sits at the right side of God, who rules with all authority. 2 He serves as priest in heaven on our behalf. He is in God's very special place, near to God himself. That is like the special place in the tabernacle of long ago. But it is not a tent that people have made. The Lord himself has made this special place, and it is the true one.
3 It is the duty of every special priest to offer gifts and sacrifices to God. So Jesus, as our special priest, must also have something to offer. 4 If he was living on earth, then he would not be a priest. There are already priests on earth who offer gifts to God. They do this in the way that Moses' law tells them. 5 But the way that those Levite priests work is only like a picture of the true things in heaven. It is like a shadow of what would happen in heaven. Long ago, when Moses was ready to make the tabernacle, God warned him about it. God said to Moses, ‘Be careful to make everything just like the plan which I showed you on the mountain.’[a]
6 But now God has given Jesus a much better way to serve him as a priest. The new agreement that God makes with his people is possible because of Jesus. Because of Jesus' work on our behalf, the new agreement is better than the old one. It is much better because it started with better promises.
7 If there had been nothing wrong with that first agreement, then nobody would have needed a second agreement. 8 But God did find something wrong with it. As a result, he said this to his people:
‘Listen to this! The Lord says:
A time will come when I make a new agreement with my people.
That is, with Israel's people and with Judah's people.[b]
9 It will not be like the old agreement that I made with their ancestors.
At that time, I brought my people safely out of Egypt.
I led them like a father who takes his child's hand.
But they did not continue to obey my agreement with them.
So I turned away from them.
That is what the Lord says.
10 But now the Lord says this:
After the time of that old agreement
I will make a new agreement with Israel's people.
It will be like this:
I will put my laws into their thoughts.
I will write my laws deep inside them.
I will be their God and they will be my people.
11 As a result, nobody will have to teach their friends or their family about me.
They will never need to say, “You should know the Lord.”
This is because everyone will already know me.
The most important people will know me,
as well as the least important people.
12 I will be kind to them.
I will forgive them for the wicked things that they have done.
I will not continue to think about their sins.
That is what the Lord says.’[c]
13 We see that God was speaking about a new agreement. That shows that he has caused the first agreement to become old. And anything that is becoming old like that will soon finish.[d]
13 But they soon forgot
what the Lord had done to help them.
They did not wait for him to tell them what to do.
14 In the wilderness they wanted better food.
They tested God to see what he would do.
15 He gave them the food that they asked for,
but he also sent a bad disease on them.[a]
16 The people became jealous of Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord's special priest.
17 So God made the earth break open,
so that Dathan fell into it.
It also destroyed Abiram and his people.
18 Fire burned all their group,
and it killed those wicked people.[b]
19 At Horeb, the Israelites used gold to make a cow,
and they worshipped it.
20 They turned away from their great God.
Instead, they worshipped the statue of a cow,
an animal that eats grass![c]
21 They forgot the God who had saved them,
when he did great miracles in Egypt.
22 He had done powerful things in the land of Ham's descendants,
and at the shore of the Red Sea.
His people forgot about all that!
23 So God said that he would destroy them.
But God's servant, Moses, spoke on their behalf.
He asked God not to be angry with his people,
and God agreed.
24 Later, they did not believe God's promise
to take them safely into the beautiful land of Canaan.
25 They spoke against the Lord in their tents,
and they did not obey him.
26 So he made a strong promise
that he would cause them to die in the desert.
27 He promised that he would chase their descendants away,
so that they died in foreign countries.[d]
28 After that, they started to worship the false god, Baal of Peor.
They ate the food from sacrifices
that people gave to dead idols.
29 The Lord became angry
because of what his people did.
He sent a bad disease among them.
30 Then Phinehas punished the guilty people,
so that the disease stopped killing people.[e]
31 So we remember that Phinehas was a righteous man,
and that will be true for ever.
7 A person who has eaten enough food will refuse honey.
But even bitter food seems sweet to a hungry person.
8 A person who travels away from his home
is like a bird that flies away from its nest.
9 Beautiful oil and perfume may give you joy.
But good advice from a friend is even better.
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