The Daily Audio Bible

¹² The word of Adonai came to me: ¹³ “Human being, when a land sins against me by dealing treacherously with me, so that I stretch out my hand over it and break off its food supply, sending it famine and eliminating both its humans and its animals; ¹⁴ even if these three men were in it — Noach, Dani’el and Iyov — they would by their righteousness save only themselves,” says Adonai Elohim.

¹⁵ “If I unleash wild beasts on the land, and they kill its children and desolate it, so that no one can pass through because of the animals; ¹⁶ even if these three men were in it, as I live,” says Adonai Elohim, “they would save neither sons nor daughters; only they themselves would be saved, and the land would remain barren.

¹⁷ “Or if I bring the sword down on that land, saying, ‘Let the sword pass through the land,’ so that I eliminate both its humans and its animals; ¹⁸ even if these three men were in it, as I live,” says Adonai Elohim, “they would save neither sons nor daughters; only they themselves would be saved.

¹⁹ “Or if I bring a plague into that land and pour out my fury on it in bloodshed, so that I eliminate both its humans and its animals; ²⁰ even if Noach, Dani’el and Iyov were in it, as I live,” says Adonai Elohim, “they would save neither a son nor a daughter; they would save only themselves by their righteousness.”

²¹ For here is what Adonai Elohim says: “Even if I inflict my four dreadful judgments on Yerushalayim — sword, famine, wild animals and plagues — to eliminate both its humans and its animals; ²² there will still be left a remnant in it to be brought out, including both sons and daughters. When they come out to you, and you see their way of life and how they act, then you will be consoled over the calamity I have brought upon Yerushalayim, over everything I have done to it. ²³ Yes, they will console you when you see their way of life and how they act; and you will understand that it was not without good reason that I did what I did in [Yerushalayim],” says Adonai Elohim.

15 The word of Adonai came to me:

16 The word of Adonai came to me: ² “Human being, make Yerushalayim realize how disgusting her practices are. ³ Say that Adonai Elohim is telling Yerushalayim, ‘By origin and birth you are of the land of the Kena‘ani — your father was an Emori, and your mother was a Hitti. ⁴ As for your birth — on the day you were born nobody cut your umbilical cord, washed you in water to clean you off, rubbed salt on you or wrapped you in cloth. ⁵ No one seeing you had enough pity on you to do any of these things for you — no one had any compassion on you. Instead, you were thrown into an open field in your own filth on the day you were born.

⁶ “‘I passed by and saw you there, wallowing in your own blood; and as you lay in your blood I said to you, “Live!” Yes, I said to you, as you lay in your blood, “Live! ⁷ I will increase your numbers just like plants growing in the field.” And you did increase, you developed, you reached puberty, your breasts appeared, and your hair grew long; but you were naked and exposed.

⁸ “‘Again I passed by you, looked at you and saw that your time had come, the time for love. So I spread my cloak over you to cover your private parts and entered into a covenant with you,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘and you became mine. ⁹ Then I bathed you in water, washed the blood off you, and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I also clothed you with an embroidered gown, gave you fine leather sandals to wear, put a fine linen headband on your head and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I gave you jewelry to wear, bracelets for your hands, a necklace for your neck, ¹² a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears and a beautiful crown for your head. ¹³ Thus you were decked out in gold and silver; your clothing was of fine linen, silk and richly embroidered cloth; you ate the finest flour, honey and olive oil. You grew increasingly beautiful — you were fit to be queen. ¹⁴ Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, because it was perfect, due to my having bestowed my own splendor on you’ says Adonai Elohim.

¹⁵ “‘But you put your trust in your own beauty and began prostituting yourself because of your fame, soliciting everyone passing by and accepting all comers. ¹⁶ You took your clothes and used them to decorate with bright colors the high places you made for yourself, and there you continued prostituting yourself. Such things shouldn’t happen, and in the future they won’t. ¹⁷ You also took your beautiful jewels made of my gold and my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images, with which you continued to prostitute yourself. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered clothing and covered them; you set my olive oil and my incense in front of them; ¹⁹ and you took my food, which I had given you — my fine flour, olive oil and honey, that I had given you to eat — and set it in front of them to give a pleasant aroma. That is how it was,’ says Adonai Elohim.

²⁰ “‘Moreover, your sons and daughters, whom you bore me, you took and sacrificed for them to devour. Were these fornications of yours a casual matter? — ²¹ killing my children, handing them over and setting them apart for [these idols]? ²² In all your disgusting practices and fornications you never remembered the condition you were in when you were young — naked, exposed and wallowing in your own blood.

²³ “‘So, after all this wickedness of yours — woe, woe to you!’ says Adonai Elohim — ²⁴ ‘you built platforms and made yourself high places in every open space. ²⁵ You built your high places at every streetcorner, turning your beauty into an abomination, spreading your legs for every passer-by, and multiplying your acts of fornication. ²⁶ You had sex with your big-membered Egyptian neighbors and engaged in fornication over and over, just to provoke me. ²⁷ So now I have stretched out my hand over you, diminished your ration of food and put you at the mercy of those who hate you, the daughters of the P’lishtim, who find your lewd behavior revolting.

²⁸ “‘Still unsatisfied, you acted like a whore also with the people of Ashur; yes, you fornicated with them and were still not satisfied. ²⁹ You multiplied your acts of fornication with the land of traders, the Kasdim, and still weren’t satisfied.

³⁰ “‘You are so weak-willed!’ says Adonai Elohim. ‘You do all these things, behaving like a shameless whore, ³¹ building your platforms on every streetcorner, making your high places in every open space — and yet you aren’t like a whore, because you scorn getting paid. ³² Here is a wife who commits adultery, who goes to bed with strangers instead of her husband; ³³ but also instead of receiving gifts like every other prostitute, you give gifts to all your lovers, you bribe them to come to you from all over the place and have sex with you! ³⁴ You are the opposite of other women — you solicit the fornication, you aren’t solicited; and you pay them, they don’t pay you — you’re the opposite!

³⁵ “‘All right, you whore, listen to the word of Adonai!’ ³⁶ Adonai Elohim says: ‘Because your filth has been poured out and your privates exposed through your acts of fornication with your lovers, and because of all the idols of your disgusting practices, and because of the blood of your children, which you gave them, ³⁷ therefore, look! I am going to gather all your lovers, to whom you have been so very nice, all the ones you hate right along with all the ones you love — I will gather them against you from all over the place and expose your private parts to them, so that they will see you completely naked. ³⁸ I will pronounce on you the sentence that applies to women who commit adultery and murder; I will bring on you the death [decreed for] furious jealousy. ³⁹ Yes, I will hand you over to them; and they will make a ruin of your platforms, tear down your high places, strip you of your clothes, take away your jewels, and leave you naked and exposed. ⁴⁰ They will also bring up a mob against you, who will stone you to death and hack you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ They will burn your houses to the ground and execute judgments against you in the presence of many women. I will make you stop fornicating, and you will never again pay for a lover.

¹⁸ Thus, on the one hand, the earlier rule is set aside because of its weakness and inefficacy ¹⁹ (for the Torah did not bring anything to the goal); and, on the other hand, a hope of something better is introduced, through which we are drawing near to God.

²⁰ What is more, God swore an oath. For no oath was sworn in connection with those who become cohanim now; ²¹ but Yeshua became a cohen by the oath which God swore when he said to him,

²² Also this shows how much better is the covenant of which Yeshua has become guarantor.

²³ Moreover, the present cohanim are many in number, because they are prevented by death from continuing in office. ²⁴ But because he lives forever, his position as cohen does not pass on to someone else; ²⁵ and consequently, he is totally able to deliver those who approach God through him; since he is alive forever and thus forever able to intercede on their behalf.

²⁶ This is the kind of cohen gadol that meets our need — holy, without evil, without stain, set apart from sinners and raised higher than the heavens; ²⁷ one who does not have the daily necessity, like the other cohanim g’dolim, of offering up sacrifices first for their own sins and only then for those of the people; because he offered one sacrifice, once and for all, by offering up himself. ²⁸ For the Torah appoints as cohanim g’dolim men who have weakness; but the text which speaks about the swearing of the oath, a text written later than the Torah, appoints a Son who has been brought to the goal forever.