The Daily Audio Bible
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The people say that they are sorry
6 ‘Listen! We should return to serve the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces, but now he will make us well again.
He has hurt us, but now he will make our wounds better.[a]
2 He will soon make us strong again.
After three days, we will have new lives.
Then we can live together with him.
3 We should respect the Lord's authority.
We must try to know him better.
Then he will certainly come to rescue us.
He will come to us as surely as the sun appears each morning.
He will help us as surely as the rain comes in spring
and it makes the ground wet for plants to grow.’
The Lord replies
4 ‘People of Ephraim and Judah, can I forgive you so easily?
Your love for me soon disappears.
It goes away as quickly as mist or dew in the morning.[b]
5 I sent my prophets to warn you.
They gave you my messages that I would punish you.
Now that punishment will certainly happen to you!
I will suddenly come to judge you,
like the sun that rises at dawn.
6 It is faithful love that makes me happy.
That would be better than your sacrifices to me.
You should know me as your God.
That would be better than your burnt offerings.
7 Like Adam, my people did not obey the covenant that I had made with them.[c]
They did not serve me faithfully.
8 All the people of Gilead do evil things.
The blood from their murders lies on the streets.
9 The priests join together like robbers.
They hide themselves and they are ready to attack.
They wait on the road to Shechem,
ready to murder people who pass that way.[d]
They have done wicked things.
10 I have seen people do disgusting things in Israel.
Like a prostitute, Ephraim's people serve false gods.
Yes, the Israelites have made themselves unclean.
11 People of Judah, I will also punish you when the right time comes.
But I do want to bring my people back.’
7 ‘Yes, I want to make the people of Israel healthy again,
but I see how great their sins are.
Samaria's people do many evil things.
They deceive one another,
they take things from other people's homes,
and they attack people in the streets to rob them.
2 They do not understand that I remember all their sins.
The wicked things that they do are everywhere.
Wherever they go, I see their sins very clearly.[e]
The king does not rule well
3 The king is happy to see the evil things that his people do.
The leaders are also happy when the people cheat and tell lies.
4 None of them serves me faithfully.
They are always ready to do bad things,
like an oven that has a hot fire inside it.
When the baker is ready to bake his bread,
he makes the fire even hotter.[f]
5 On a day when the king has a feast,
the leaders drink too much wine.
The king and the leaders join with other people to do foolish things.
6 But the leaders are planning to murder the king.
Their anger is like the fire of an oven.
It burns slowly inside them all through the night.
But in the morning the fire is too strong to hold.
7 They are so angry that they kill their rulers.
Now all their kings are dead.
None of them calls out to me for help.’
Israel's people refuse to change
8 ‘Ephraim's people have mixed themselves with people of other nations.[g]
So they have become useless, like bread that is not properly cooked.[h]
9 Foreign people have taken away Israel's strength.
But the Israelites do not realize what is happening!
They have become like an old man with grey hair.
But they do not realize how weak they are.
10 Israel's people are too proud to change.
This shows that they are guilty.
They still refuse to turn back to me, the Lord their God.
In all their troubles, they do not look for my help.
11 Ephraim has become like a silly dove.[i]
He cannot decide where to go.
The Israelites ask Egypt to help them.
Then they decide to ask Assyria instead.
12 When they fly around like that,
I will throw my net over them.
I will catch them like birds that fly in the sky.
I will punish them as they join together to do evil things.
13 Terrible trouble will happen to them,
because they have gone away from me.
They have turned against me, so they will die.
I wanted to rescue them,
but they have told lies about me.
14 They do not pray and trust me to help them.
Instead, they lie down on their beds and they weep loudly.
They cut their bodies to get grain and wine.[j]
They turn away from me.
15 I taught them what was right. I made them strong.
But now they have decided to do evil things against me.
16 They do not look up to me for help.
They are as useless as a bow that cannot shoot an arrow properly.
Their leaders are proud of their own strength,
but they will die in battle.
Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them.’
The Israelites worship idols instead of the Lord
8 The Lord says, ‘Warn the people of danger!
My people have not obeyed the covenant that I made with them.
They have refused to obey my laws.
So an enemy army will come to attack their land,
like an eagle that is ready to fly down and catch them.[k]
2 Israel's people call out to me for help.
They say, “We know you as our God.”
3 But they have refused to do what is good and right.
So their enemies will chase after them.
4 My people chose kings to rule them,
but they did not ask me about it.
They chose people to lead them, but I did not agree.
They used their silver and their gold
to make idols for themselves.
But that will destroy them in the end.
5 People of Samaria, you have made an image of a calf as your idol.[l]
But I hate that idol!
I am very angry with the Israelites.
How much longer will it be before I have to punish them?
6 That idol is not a true god!
An Israelite worker with special skills made it.
Samaria's idol of a calf will break into pieces!
7 Like a farmer, Israel's people have planted the wind.
So their harvest will be a strong storm!
The crops that grow in their fields will not have any grain.
So they will not be able to make flour for bread.
Even if the crops do make some grain,
foreign people will take it for themselves.
8 Israel will become lost among the other nations.
It will be like a useless pot that nobody needs.
9 Israel's rulers have gone to Assyria for help.
They are like a wild donkey that goes here and there.
Ephraim's people have paid money to get help from other nations.[m]
as if they are paying for lovers.
10 Yes, they have paid money to get friends who will help them.
But I will soon bring them together to punish them.
A great king will be cruel to them and they will receive much pain.[n]
11 Ephraim's people have built many altars to make sin offerings.
But the altars have become places where the people do even more sins![o]
12 I carefully explained my laws to my people.
But they do not accept my laws as their own.
13 Israel's people offer sacrifices to me,
and they eat the meat from those sacrifices.
But their sacrifices do not please me.
I know that they are guilty of wicked things.
Soon I will punish them for their sins.
They will have to return to Egypt.
14 Israel's people have built beautiful palaces.
But they have forgotten me, who made them into a nation!
Judah's people have built many strong cities.
But I will send fire to destroy their cities and their strong buildings.’
The Lord will punish Israel
9 People of Israel, do not shout with joy,
as the people of other nations do at their festivals.
You have not been faithful to me, your God.
Like a prostitute, you sell yourselves to foreign gods
that you worship on the threshing floors.
2 But the threshing floors will not provide enough grain to feed the people.
The winepresses will not give them enough new wine.
3 The Israelites will not remain in the Lord's land.
They will have to return to Egypt.
In Assyria, they will have to eat food that is unclean.
4 They will not pour out wine as an offering to the Lord.
Their sacrifices will not please him.
Instead, their offerings will be like food that people eat at a funeral.
Anyone who eats it becomes unclean.
They may eat the food to feed themselves,
but they cannot offer it to the Lord in his temple.
5 So what will you do on your festival days?
You will no longer be able to worship the Lord properly.
6 Listen! Perhaps some Israelites will escape when Assyria's army attacks.
But then Egypt's army will take hold of them.
They will die in Memphis and people will bury them there.[p]
Weeds will grow all over their valuable silver things.
Thorn bushes will grow in their homes.
7 The time for Israel's punishment has arrived!
The Lord must now pay them back for their sins.
The Israelites will soon know about it!
You do many sins and you hate the Lord.
Because of that, you say that his prophets are fools.
You think that his messengers are crazy.
8 God has sent his prophet to warn the people of Ephraim.[q]
But wherever he goes, people try to stop him.
They speak angry words against him, even in the temple of his God.
9 The Israelites do very wicked things,
like the terrible sins that they did at Gibeah.[r]
God will not forget the wicked things that they have done.
He will surely punish them for their sins.
The Lord warns his people
10 The Lord says,
‘When I first found Israel, they gave me pleasure.
It was as if I had found grapes in the wilderness.
Your ancestors made me happy,
like the first fruit on a young fig tree.[s]
But then they came to the god, Baal-Peor.[t]
They began to worship that disgusting idol.
They became as disgusting as the idol that they loved so much.
11 The great things that Israel enjoys will soon disappear.
They will be like birds that fly away!
The women of Israel will no longer give birth to children.
They will not even become pregnant.
12 But even if they do have children,
I will cause them all to die so that none are still alive.
It will be a terrible time for the Israelites,
because I will turn away from them.
13 At one time, I saw that Ephraim's land was a beautiful place, like Tyre.
But now Ephraim's people must bring out their children
for an enemy to kill them.’
14 Lord, what should I ask you to give to these people?
Make it impossible for their women to give birth!
Stop the milk from their breasts to feed their babies!
15 The Lord says,
‘They started to do evil things at Gilgal.[u]
It was there that I began to hate them.
Because they do evil things, I will chase them out of my land.
I will not love them any more.
Their leaders have all turned against me.
16 Ephraim's people are very sick.
They are like a plant that has dry roots
and it gives no fruit.
Even if they give birth to children that they love very much,
I will kill those children.’
17 My God will not accept them as his people,
because they have not obeyed him.
They will have no home of their own.
They will have to live among different nations.
John says ‘Hello’ to Gaius
1 This letter comes from me, the leader of the believers. I am writing to you, my friend Gaius. I love you because we believe God's true message. 2 My friend, I pray that God will help you to live well. I know that you are well in your spirit. I pray that your body will also be well. 3 I was very happy when I heard news about you. Some Christian friends came here to tell me about you. They said that you are living in a good way. That is the way that God's true message tells us to live. 4 I am happy when I hear that my children are living like that. When they obey God's true message, it makes me very happy.
Continue to help people
5 My friend, you do many things to help other believers. You help them even when they are strangers to you. This shows that you are serving God well. 6 These men have spoken to the group of believers here about your love. Please continue to help them when they visit you. Give them the things that they need to continue on their journey. That will make God happy. 7 They are travelling to different places to tell people about Jesus Christ. They do not accept any gifts from those people who are not Christians. 8 Because of that, we Christians must help them with the things that they need. In this way we will be working together with them as they tell people the true message about Christ.
Diotrephes is causing problems
9 I have already written something to the group of believers. But Diotrephes refuses to accept our authority. He really wants to be the only leader among them. 10 So, when I arrive there myself, I will speak to the believers about this. I will tell them clearly about the bad things that Diotrephes is doing. He tells other people bad things about us that are not true. Even that is not enough for him. He himself refuses to welcome the believers who are visiting. He also stops anyone else who wants to welcome those visitors.[a] Instead, he sends them away from the group of believers.
Copy what good people do
11 My friend, do not copy what bad people do. Instead, you should copy the good things that people do. The person who does good things shows that he belongs to God. But anyone who does bad things does not know God.
12 All the believers say that Demetrius is a good person. He obeys God's true message. That also shows clearly that he is a good person. We also say the same thing about him. You know very well that what we say about him is true.
John finishes his letter
13 I would like to tell you many more things. But I do not want to write them in a letter. 14 Instead, I hope to come and visit you soon. Then I can see you and we can talk together.
15 I pray that God will give you peace. All your Christian friends here say ‘hello’ to you. Say ‘hello’ for me to each of my friends there, one by one.
A song to sing as we climb.
The Lord has done great things for us![a]
126 When the Lord turned us round,
so that we enjoyed a good life in Zion again,
we thought that we were dreaming!
2 At that time, we laughed a lot.
We shouted because we were so happy!
People in other countries said to each other,
‘The Lord has done great things for them!’
3 Yes, the Lord has done great things for us.
So we are very happy.
4 Lord, please bless us like before.
That will be like streams of water that return to the desert.[b]
5 When people went out to plant their seeds,
they were crying.
But they will be happy when they bring in the harvest!
6 People were weeping when they took their bags of seeds to plant.[c]
But when they carry their crops back home,
they will shout because they are so happy![d]
12 When a ruler listens to lies,
all his officers will be wicked.
13 The Lord gives light to all people so that they can see.
He does that for poor people and also those who are cruel to them.
14 If a king judges poor people in a true way,
he will always have the power to rule.
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