The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the CEB. Switch to the CEB to read along with the audio.
8 How can you say, “We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us,”
when in reality the lying pen of the scribes
has changed it into a lie?
9 Your wise men will be put to shame.
They will be shattered and captured.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what kind of wisdom do they have?
10 That is why I will give their wives to other men
and their fields to new owners,
because, from the least to the greatest,
all of them are greedy for gain.
From prophet to priest, everyone practices deceit.
11 They dress the wound of the daughter of my people[a]
as if it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace.
12 Are they ashamed when they do such a detestable thing?
No, they have no shame at all.
They do not even know how to blush.
That is why they will fall among the fallen.
They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.
13 I will take away their harvest,[b] declares the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine.
There will be no figs on the fig tree,
and the leaves will wither.
What I have given them will be taken away from them.
The People React
14 Why are we just sitting here?
Let’s get together!
Let us go into the fortified cities and die there.
The Lord our God has condemned us to die
by giving us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against him.
15 We hoped for peace,
but no good came.
We hoped for a time of healing,
but there is only terror.
16 The snorting of horses is heard from Dan.
At the sound of the neighing of mighty stallions,
the whole land trembles.
They have come to devour the land and everything in it,
the city and all who live there.
The Lord Responds
17 Look, I am sending snakes among you,
venomous snakes that cannot be charmed,
and they will bite you, declares the Lord.
Jeremiah Reacts
18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me,[c]
and my heart is sick.
19 I hear the cry of my dear people from a distant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not there?”
The Lord Responds
Why have they provoked my anger with their carved images,
with their worthless foreign idols?
The People
20 The harvest is past,
summer has ended,
and we have not been saved.
Jeremiah’s Grief
21 Because my people are crushed, I have been crushed.
I am in mourning, and horror seizes me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?[d]
Is there no physician there?
Why has the health of my people not been restored?
9 I wish my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears.
Then I would weep day and night
for the fallen of my people.[e]
2 I wish there was a lodging place for travelers
in the wilderness.
Then I would leave my people
and get away from them.
They are all adulterers,
a society of traitors.
The Lord Gives a Warning
3 They bend their tongues like bows, to deceive.
It is not by faithfulness that they prevail in the land.
They go from evil to evil,
and they do not acknowledge me,
declares the Lord.
4 Everyone should be on guard against his friend.
Do not trust any brother,
for every brother is really a deceiver,
and every friend spreads slander.
5 Everyone betrays his friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie.
They wear themselves out with sinning.
6 You, Jeremiah, live in the midst of deception!
In their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,
declares the Lord.
7 Therefore this is what the Lord of Armies says.
Watch me. I will refine them and test them.
What else can I do for my dear people?
8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows.
They speak deceitfully.
With their mouths they speak peacefully to their neighbors,
but in their hearts they set traps.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord.
Shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?
Jeremiah’s Grief
10 I will cry and sob for the mountains.
I will sing a lament for the pastures in the wilderness.
They are desolate and untraveled,
and not even the lowing of cattle is heard.
From the birds in the sky to all the animals below, everything has fled.
They are all gone.
The Lord’s Threat
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a jackals’ den,
and I am going to lay waste to the cities of Judah,
so that no one can live there.
Jeremiah’s Question
12 Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord so that he can explain it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through it?
The Lord’s Answer
13 The Lord said:
This happened because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them. They did not listen to my voice or live according to it. 14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts, and they have followed the Baals as their fathers taught them. 15 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Watch me. I am going to make this people eat wormwood and drink bitter water. 16 I will scatter them among nations that they and their fathers have not known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them. 17 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Consider this, and call for the wailing women.
Send for those who are the most skilled.
The People Mourn[f]
18 They should hurry and sob over us.
Our eyes will run with tears.
Our eyelids will stream with water.
19 The sound of sobbing is heard from Zion.
“We are ruined!
We are so ashamed!
We must leave our land
because they have torn down our dwellings.”
20 Listen to the word of the Lord, you women.
Pay attention to the word from his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to sob.
Each of you should teach her neighbor a lament.
21 Death has climbed in through a window
and entered our citadels.
It has taken away the children from the streets
and the young men from the city squares.
22 This is what the Lord says.
Dead bodies will fall
like manure on the ground,
like freshly cut grain after the reaper,
with no one to gather it.
23 This is what the Lord says.
The wise man should not boast in his wisdom.
The strong man should not boast in his strength,
nor the rich man in his riches.
24 Instead, let those who boast boast about this:
that they have understanding, and that they know me.
They know that I am the Lord,
who shows mercy, justice, and righteousness on earth,
for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.
25 Watch! The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all who cut their hair short[g] and who live in the wilderness.[h] Actually, these are all uncircumcised nations. And the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in their hearts.
3 Therefore, because you were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
The New Creation
5 So put to death whatever is worldly in you: sexual immorality, uncleanness, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 It is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.[b] 7 You too once walked in these things, when you were living in them.
8 But now, you too are to rid yourselves of all of these: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to each other since you have put off the old self with its practices, 10 and put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in knowledge, according to the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but rather Christ is all and is in all.
List of Virtues
12 Therefore, as God’s elect, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against anyone else. Forgive, just as Christ[c] forgave you. 14 And, in addition to all these things, put on love, which ties things together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ control your hearts, to which you were also called, in one body. And be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ[d] dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.[e] 17 And everything you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
32 In spite of all this, they kept sinning,
and they did not believe in his wonders.
33 So he ended their days in frustration[a]
and their years in terror.
34 Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him.
Then they turned and sought God.
35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would deceive him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they would lie to him.
37 Their hearts were not committed to him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was compassionate.
He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them.
Many times he restrained his anger,
and he did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He still remembered that they were only flesh,
like a wind that goes by and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they grieved him in the wasteland!
41 They repeatedly put God to the test.
They provoked[b] the Holy One of Israel.
God’s Power Displayed in Egypt (Exodus 5–14)
42 They did not remember the power of his hand—
the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 when he displayed his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
44 when he turned their rivers to blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent against them a swarm of flies that bit them.
Then he sent frogs that destroyed them.
46 Then he gave their crops to the grasshopper.
He gave what they worked for to the locust.
47 He killed their grapevines with hail,
and their sycamore fig trees with sleet.
48 Then he turned over their cattle to hail,
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
49 He sent against them his burning anger,
his wrath and indignation and distress
by sending destroying angels.[c]
50 He prepared a path for his anger.
He did not spare their lives from death,
but he delivered their lives to the plague.
51 Then he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruit of their virility in the tents of Ham.
52 But he led his people out like sheep.
He led them like a flock through the wilderness.
53 Then he guided them safely, so they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.
God’s Power Displayed in Canaan (Joshua)
54 Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain which his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them.
He marked the boundaries of their inheritance,
and he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
27 Prepare your work outside,
and get things ready for yourself in the fields.
Afterward, build your house.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.