The Daily Audio Bible

²⁵ “I have heard what these prophets prophesying lies in my name are saying: ‘I’ve had a dream! I’ve had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will this go on? Is [my word] in the hearts of prophets who are prophesying lies, who are prophesying the deceit of their own minds? ²⁷ With their dreams that they keep telling each other, they hope to cause my people to forget my name; just as their ancestors forgot my name when they worshipped Ba‘al.

³² “I am against those who concoct prophecies out of fake dreams,” says Adonai. “They tell them, and by their lies and arrogance they lead my people astray. I didn’t send them, I didn’t commission them, and they don’t do this people any good at all,” says Adonai.

³³ “When [someone from] this people, a prophet or a cohen asks you, ‘What is the burden of Adonai?’ you are to answer them, ‘What burden? I am throwing you off,’ says Adonai. ³⁴ As for a prophet, cohen or [someone else from] this people who speaks about ‘the burden of Adonai,’ I will punish him and his household.”

³⁵ So, when you speak with your neighbor or brother, ask, “What answer has Adonai given?” or “What has Adonai said?” ³⁶ Don’t use the expression, “burden of Adonai” any more; for every person’s own word will be his burden. Must you twist the words of the living God, of Adonai-Tzva’ot, our God? ³⁷ So, when speaking to a prophet, ask, “What answer has Adonai given you?” or “What did Adonai say?” ³⁸ But if you talk about “the burden of Adonai,” then here is what Adonai says: “Because you use this expression, ‘the burden of Adonai,’ after I have already sent you the order not to say, ‘the burden of Adonai,’ ³⁹ I will lift you up, burden that you are, and throw you off, away from my presence — you and the city I gave you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰ Then I will subject you to everlasting disgrace — eternal, unforgettable shame.”

24 It was after N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel had carried Y’khanyahu the son of Y’hoyakim, king of Y’hudah, along with the leaders of Y’hudah, the artisans and the skilled workers into exile from Yerushalayim and brought them to Bavel, that Adonai gave me a vision. There, in front of the temple of Adonai, two baskets of figs were placed. ² One of the baskets had in it very good figs, like those that ripen first; while the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they were inedible. ³ Then Adonai asked me, “Yirmeyahu, what do you see?” I answered, “Figs — the good figs are very good; but the bad ones are very bad, so bad they are inedible.” ⁴ The word of Adonai came to me: ⁵ “Here is what Adonai the God of Isra’el says: ‘I will regard the exiles from Y’hudah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Kasdim, as good, just as I do these good figs.

⁸ “But concerning the bad figs that are so bad as to be inedible, Adonai says: ‘I will make Tzidkiyahu the king of Y’hudah and his leaders resemble them, likewise the rest of Yerushalayim remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt. ⁹ Everywhere I drive them I will make them an object of horror, repulsive to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace, a byword, a laughingstock and a curse; ¹⁰ and I will send sword, famine and plague among them until they have disappeared from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’”

25 This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Y’hudah in the fourth year of Y’hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y’hudah; this was also the first year of N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel. ² Yirmeyahu the prophet proclaimed it before all the people of Y’hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim: ³ “For twenty-three years, since the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y’hudah, until today, the word of Adonai has come to me; and I have proclaimed it to you on numerous occasions; but you haven’t listened. ⁴ Moreover, Adonai sent you all his servants the prophets — again, on numerous occasions — but you didn’t listen or pay attention. ⁵ The message was always: ‘Every one of you, turn back from his evil way, from the evil of your actions. Then you will live in the land Adonai gave you and your ancestors forever and ever. ⁶ Don’t follow other gods by serving and worshipping them. “Don’t provoke my anger with things your own hands have made; then I will do you no harm. ⁷ But you wouldn’t listen to me,” says Adonai, “so that you could provoke me with the products of your hands, to your own harm.”

⁸ “Therefore, here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘Because you haven’t paid attention to what I’ve been saying, ⁹ I’m going to send for all the families of the north,’ says Adonai, ‘and for my servant N’vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, and bring them against this land, against its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them, making them an object of horror and ridicule, a perpetual ruin. ¹⁰ Moreover, I will silence among them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of lamps. ¹¹ This entire land will become a ruin, a waste; and these nations will serve the king of Bavel for seventy years. ¹² But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Bavel and that nation for their sin,’ says Adonai, ‘and I will turn the land of the Kasdim into everlasting ruins. ¹³ I will inflict on that land all my words that I have decreed against it, everything written in this book, in which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For they too will become slaves to many nations and to powerful kings; I will pay them back according to their deeds and the work of their own hands.’

¹⁵ “For here is what Adonai the God of Isra’el says to me: ‘Take this cup of the wine of fury from my hand, and make all the nations where I am sending you drink it. ¹⁶ They will drink, stagger to and fro and behave like crazy people because of the sword that I will send among them.’”

¹⁷ Then I took the cup from Adonai’s hand and made all the nations drink, where Adonai had sent me — ¹⁸ Yerushalayim and the cities of Y’hudah, along with their kings and leaders, to make them a ruin and an object of horror, ridicule and cursing, as it is today; ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants and leaders and all his people, both native ²⁰ and foreign; all the kings of the land of ‘Utz; all the kings of the land of the P’lishtim, Ashkelon, ‘Azah, ‘Ekron and those remaining in Ashdod; ²¹ Edom, Mo’av, and the people of ‘Amon; ²² all the kings of Tzor, of Tzidon and of the coastlands across the sea; ²³ D’dan, Teima, Buz and all who cut the corners of their beards; ²⁴ all the kings of Arabia and of the mixed peoples living in the desert; ²⁵ all the kings of Zimri, of ‘Eilam and of the Medes; ²⁶ and all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another — indeed, all the kingdoms of the world that there are on the surface of the earth. And the king of Sheshakh will drink last of all.

²⁷ “You are to say to them, ‘Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: Drink until you’re so drunk that you throw up, fall down, and never get up again, because of the sword I am sending among you!’ ²⁸ If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, then say to them, ‘Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: You must drink! ²⁹ For, look! — if I am bringing disaster on the city that bears my own name, do you expect to go unpunished? Yes, I will summon a sword for all the inhabitants of the earth,’ says Adonai.

³⁰ “As for you, [Yirmeyahu,] prophesy all these words against them; say to them,

2 But in connection with the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and our gathering together to meet him, we ask you, brothers, ² not to be easily shaken in your thinking or anxious because of a spirit or a spoken message or a letter supposedly from us claiming that the Day of the Lord has already come. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way.

For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed, the one destined for doom. ⁴ He will oppose himself to everything that people call a god or make an object of worship; he will put himself above them all, so that he will sit in the Temple of God and proclaim that he himself is God.^[a]

⁵ Don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I used to tell you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For already this separating from Torah is at work secretly, but it will be secretly only until he who is restraining is out of the way. ⁸ Then the one who embodies separation from Torah will be revealed, the one whom the Lord Yeshua will slay with the breath of his mouth^[b] and destroy by the glory of his coming.

⁹ When this man who avoids Torah comes, the Adversary will give him the power to work all kinds of false miracles, signs and wonders. ¹⁰ He will enable him to deceive, in all kinds of wicked ways, those who are headed for destruction because they would not receive the love of the truth that could have saved them. ¹¹ This is why God is causing them to go astray, so that they will believe the Lie. ¹² The result will be that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken their pleasure in wickedness, will be condemned.

¹³ But we have to keep thanking God for you always, brothers whom the Lord loves, because God chose you as firstfruits for deliverance by giving you the holiness that has its origin in the Spirit and the faithfulness that has its origin in the truth. ¹⁴ He called you to this through our Good News, so that you could have the glory of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

¹⁵ Therefore, brothers, stand firm; and hold to the traditions you were taught by us, whether we spoke them or wrote them in a letter. ¹⁶ And may our Lord Yeshua the Messiah himself and God our Father, who has loved us and by his grace given us eternal comfort and a good hope, ¹⁷ comfort your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.