The Daily Audio Bible

²⁰ Then Miriam, Aaron's sister, who was a prophet, took a tambourine in her hand.^[a] All the other women followed her, with tambourines in their hands. They danced while Miriam sang to them.

²¹ This is the song that she sang:

The waters of Marah and Elim

²² Then Moses led the Israelites away from the Red Sea. They travelled into the desert called Shur. They walked into the desert for three days and they could not find any water to drink. ²³ Then they arrived at Marah. But they could not drink the water there because it was too bitter. That is why they called that place ‘Marah’.^[b]

²⁴ Then the people complained. They spoke against Moses. They said, ‘There is nothing for us to drink!’

²⁵ Then Moses called to the Lord for help. The Lord showed Moses a special tree. Moses threw a branch into the water. Then the water became good for them to drink.

There at Marah, the Lord made a law for the Israelites to obey. He tested them there, to see if they would trust him. ²⁶ He said, ‘Be careful to listen to what the Lord your God says to you. Let him see that you are doing things that are right. Obey his commands and his rules. Then I will not give to you the diseases that I gave to the Egyptians. I am the Lord. I am the one who gives you health.’

²⁷ Then the Israelites arrived at Elim. There they found 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees. The Israelites put up their tents there, where there was water.

God sends special food

16 Then all the Israelites left Elim and they went into the desert called Sin. This is between Elim and Sinai. They arrived in the desert on the 15th day of the second month after they had left Egypt. ² When they were in the desert, all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, ‘It would have been better if the Lord had killed us in Egypt! There, we sat round pots with plenty of meat. We ate all the food that we wanted. But now you have brought us into this desert. We are so hungry that we will soon die!’

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will cause bread to fall down from the sky for you like rain. Each day, the people must go out and pick up enough bread for that day. In this way I will test them. I will discover whether they will obey my rules. ⁵ On the sixth day, they must pick up and prepare twice as much bread.’

⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘In the evening, you will know who brought you out of Egypt. It was the Lord! ⁷ Then, in the morning, you will see how great the Lord is. The Lord has heard the bad things that you have said against him. We, Moses and Aaron, are the Lord's servants. So you are complaining against him, not against us!’

⁸ Moses said to them, ‘The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening. And in the morning, he will give you all the bread that you want. He will do this because he has heard you when you complained against him. We are only his servants. You have said bad things against the Lord, not against us.’

⁹ Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Say to all the Israelites, “The Lord has heard the bad things that you have said against him. Now come together, and stand in front of him.” ’ ¹⁰ While Aaron spoke, the Israelites looked towards the desert. They saw the bright glory of the Lord which appeared in the cloud.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹² ‘I have heard the bad things that the Israelites have said against me. Tell them this: “In the evening, you will eat meat. And in the morning you will eat all the bread that you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” ’

¹³ That evening, quails appeared. They covered all the ground round the tents.^[c]

In the morning, there was dew on the ground round the tents. ¹⁴ When the dew had gone, thin white pieces remained on the dry ground, there in the desert. It seemed like frost on the ground. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw these pieces, they said, ‘What is it?’ They did not understand what it was. But Moses said to them, ‘This is the bread that the Lord has given to you. It is for you to eat. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord has commanded: “Each family must pick up as much as they need to eat. Pick up two litres for each person who lives in your tent.” ’

¹⁷ So the Israelites did this. Some of them picked up a lot of the food. Some of them picked up only a little food. ¹⁸ But when they measured the right amount, everyone had enough to eat. The person who had picked up a lot did not have too much. And the person who had picked up only a little food still had enough to eat. Each person had picked up what he needed.

¹⁹ Then Moses said to them, ‘Do not keep any of it until the morning.’ ²⁰ But some of the people did not listen to Moses. They kept part of the food until the morning. But worms appeared in it, and it began to have a bad smell. Then Moses was angry with those people.

²¹ Each morning, everyone picked up as much food as they needed. But when the sun became hot, the food would melt away. ²² On the sixth day, the Israelites picked up twice as much food. They picked up four litres for each person. Then the leaders of the people told Moses what they had done. ²³ Moses said to them, ‘This is what the Lord has said: “Tomorrow is a special day of rest. It is a Sabbath day, to worship the Lord. Today, you must bake any food that you want to bake. Boil the meat that you want to boil. Keep until the morning whatever food you do not eat today.” ’

²⁴ So they kept some food until the morning, as Moses had said. This time, the food did not have a bad smell and there were no worms in it. ²⁵ Moses said, ‘Eat the food today, because this day is a Sabbath day, to worship the Lord. You will not find any food on the ground today. ²⁶ On six days of each week, you must pick food up from the ground. But on the seventh day of the week, there will not be any food on the ground. That is because the seventh day is the Sabbath day of rest.’

²⁷ But on the seventh day, some of the people went out to pick up food. But they did not find any. ²⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The people continue to refuse to obey my commands. They refuse to do what I tell them! ²⁹ Remember this: The Lord has given the Sabbath day to you. That is why, on the sixth day, he gives you enough food for two days. Then everyone must stay at home on the seventh day. Nobody must leave his home that day.’ ³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹ The Israelites called the special food ‘manna’. It was white, like seeds called coriander. When they tasted the manna, it was like thin pieces of bread with honey in it.

³² Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Keep one bowl (an omer) of manna for people to look at in future times. They will see the bread that I fed to you in the desert, after I had brought you out of Egypt.” ’

³³ So Moses said to Aaron, ‘Put an omer of manna into a jar. Then put the jar in the place where we worship the Lord. We must keep it safe, so that our descendants can see it in the future.’

³⁴ Aaron did what the Lord had told Moses. He put the jar in the Covenant Box, to keep it safe.^[d]

³⁵ The Israelites ate the manna for 40 years, until they had finished their journey in the desert. After those 40 years, they arrived at the edge of Canaan.

³⁶ (The people used omers to measure the food. Ten omers is equal to one ephah.)^[e]

God gives water out of a rock

17 Then all the Israelites continued to travel on from the desert called Sin. They moved from one place to another, as the Lord told them. When they arrived at Rephidim, they put up their tents there. But there was no water for the people to drink. ² Because of this, the people quarrelled with Moses. They said, ‘Give us water to drink!’ Moses said to them, ‘You should not quarrel with me! You should not try to test the Lord!’

³ But the people needed water to drink. They complained against Moses. They said, ‘You should not have brought us out of Egypt! You will kill us and our children and our animals. We will all die, because we have no water to drink.’

⁴ Then Moses called to the Lord for help. He said, ‘What can I do with these people? They will soon be throwing stones at me to kill me.’

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take some of the leaders of the Israelites with you and go in front of the people. Take your stick in your hand. Take the stick that you used to hit the Nile river. Now go! ⁶ I will stand there, in front of you, by the rock at Sinai. Hit the rock with your stick, and water will come out of it. Then the people can drink.’ So Moses did this, while the leaders of the Israelites watched him.

⁷ Moses called that place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled there. They tried to test the Lord to see what he would do. They said, ‘Let us see if the Lord is really with us. Will he help us, or not?’^[f]

Jesus tells a story about a meal at a marriage

22 Jesus continued to teach the people with stories. ² He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a special meal for his son's marriage. ³ He asked many people to come. When the meal was ready, he sent his servants out to tell those people to come. But they refused to come.

⁴ So the king then sent out other servants. He said to them, “Tell this message to all those people that I have asked to come. Tell them that the master says, ‘My servants have prepared the meal. They have killed my large oxen and some fat young cows to eat. Everything is ready. Now come to the marriage party!’ ”

⁵ But the people did not think that the king's message was important. They went away to do their own work. One man went to his farm and another man went to his business. ⁶ Other people took hold of the king's servants. They hurt them and then they killed them. ⁷ The king was very angry. He sent his soldiers to the city where those people lived. They killed the people who killed the king's servants. They destroyed their city with fire.

⁸ Then the king said to his other servants, “The meal for my son's marriage is ready. But the people that I had asked to come did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go out now to the town's streets where people meet together. Ask all the people that you find there to come to the marriage party.” ¹⁰ Then those servants went out into the streets. They brought to the king's house all the people that they met. Some were good people and some were bad people. Very many people came. The room for the marriage was full!

¹¹ Then the king came into the room to see all the people. He saw one man who was not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.^{[a] 12} The king said to the man, “How did you come in here, my friend? You are not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.” The man could not answer the king.

¹³ The king said to his servants, “Tie his hands and his feet. Take him and throw him into the dark place outside. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.”

¹⁴ God asks many people to come to him. But he only chooses a few people to be there with him.’

The Pharisees ask Jesus about taxes

¹⁵ After the Pharisees heard this, they thought about what they could do. They wanted to ask Jesus difficult questions. They wanted to make him say something wrong about the Roman ruler. ¹⁶ So the Pharisees sent their own disciples to Jesus. They also sent people who were friends of King Herod. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. You teach us what God wants us to do. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. ¹⁷ So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’

¹⁸ Jesus knew that these men wanted to do bad things to him. So he said to them, ‘You are asking that question to cause trouble for me. You are not being honest! ¹⁹ Now, show me the coin that you use for the tax.’ So they brought a coin to him. ²⁰ Then Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’

²¹ They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’

Jesus said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. And give to God the things that belong to God.’

²² When they heard Jesus' answer, they were very surprised. So they left him and they went away.

The Sadducees ask Jesus a question

²³ On that day, some Sadducees also came to Jesus. Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die. They wanted to ask Jesus a question.^[b]

²⁴ ‘Teacher,’ they said to him, ‘Moses said in the Bible: A man may die and leave behind a wife but no children. Then that man's brother must marry the woman. Then their children will be called the children of the brother who died. ²⁵ Once, there were seven brothers who lived here. The oldest brother married a woman. Then he died before they had any children. So the second brother married the woman. ²⁶ But then he also died with no children. So a third brother married this woman. And the same thing happened to all the brothers down to the seventh brother. They all died before the woman had any children. ²⁷ After all this, the woman also died. ²⁸ You teach that one day dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’

²⁹ Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is. ³⁰ One day, God will raise people up after they have died. They will become alive again. But then men and women will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹ It is true that one day dead people will become alive again. You have read in the Bible about what God said to you: ³² “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.” God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive.’^[c]

³³ The crowd heard this. They were very surprised about what Jesus was teaching.

This is a song that David wrote.

I trust God to keep me safe

²⁰ My child, obey your father's commands. Do not forget what your mother has taught you. ²¹ Keep their teaching in your thoughts. Keep it as near to you as a necklace that you wear.

²² Wherever you go in life, their words will be your guide. They will keep you safe while you sleep. When you wake up, they will teach you.

²³ Their commands and their teaching are like a lamp that gives you light. When they warn you that you are doing wrong things, that helps you to live well.

²⁴ They will keep you safe from any bad woman, so that the sweet words of an adulteress will not deceive you. ²⁵ Do not keep thinking how beautiful her body is. Do not let her use her eyes like a trap to catch you.

²⁶ If you sleep with a prostitute, that may cost the price of a meal. But if you sleep with another man's wife, you may pay with your life.