The Daily Audio Bible
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A story about two bad sisters
23 The Lord gave this message to me: 2 ‘Son of man, there were two sisters who had the same mother. 3 They were prostitutes in Egypt, from the time that they were both young women. Men touched their breasts and made love to them. 4 The older sister was called Oholah. The younger one was called Oholibah. In this story, Oholah is Samaria. Oholibah is Jerusalem. They became my wives, and later they gave birth to sons and daughters for me.[a]
5 Oholah was my wife but she continued to live as a prostitute. She wanted men from Assyria to be her lovers. 6 Her lovers were soldiers who wore blue clothes. Some of them were army officers and leaders. They were all strong young men. Some of them rode on horses. 7 Oholah gave herself to them as a prostitute. She had sex with all the important young men of Assyria. She did these disgusting things with anyone that she wanted. She worshipped their idols and she made herself unclean. 8 She had lived as a prostitute in Egypt when she was young. Men had sex with her. They touched her breasts and they enjoyed her body for themselves. She continued to do that with the Assyrian men.
9 She wanted the Assyrian men to be her lovers. Because of that I put her under their power. 10 They removed her clothes to make her ashamed. They took away her sons and daughters. They attacked her and they killed her. Because of her punishment, women everywhere talked about her.
11 Ohalah's sister, Oholibah, saw this, but she did even worse things than her sister. She wanted other lovers even more than her sister did. 12 She, too, wanted Assyrian men to be her lovers. They were army officers and leaders. They were brave soldiers in beautiful clothes. Some of them rode on horses. They were all strong young men. 13 I saw that she was living in the same way that her sister had done. Like her sister, she made herself unclean.
14 But Oholibah did even worse things, as a prostitute does. She saw pictures of men on the walls. They were bright red pictures that people had made of Babylonian men. 15 The men wore belts around their bodies. They wore large cloths around their heads. They looked like Babylonian army officers who came from Chaldea. 16 When Oholibah saw these pictures, she wanted the men to be her lovers. She sent messages to them in Babylonia. 17 The Babylonian soldiers came to have sex with her. They did many disgusting things with her so that she was unclean. After they had done this to her, she became upset. She turned away from them.
18 She was not ashamed to have sex with many other men. Everyone knew that she lived as a prostitute. So I was very upset. I turned away from her, as I had turned away from her sister. 19 But she wanted more and more men to be her lovers. She remembered how she had lived as a prostitute in Egypt when she was a young woman. 20 She wanted those strong men to be her lovers. They had sex in a strong way, like donkeys or horses. 21 Yes, Oholibah, you thought about the disgusting ways that you had sex when you were young. You wanted men to touch your breasts and make love to you as the Egyptian men had done.
22 So this is what the Almighty Lord says to you, Oholibah: “Listen to me! I will cause your lovers to become angry with you. The lovers that you turned away from will come to attack you. I will bring them from every direction to attack you. 23 The soldiers from Babylon and from Chaldea will come. Men from Pekod, Shoa and Koa will come. All the Assyrian soldiers will come with them. They will be beautiful young men, army officers, leaders and important men. They will all ride on horses. 24 They will attack you with their weapons, their chariots and with a large army of soldiers. They will come together all around you, on every side. They will have different kinds of shields. They will wear helmets on their heads. I will give them authority to judge you. They will punish you in the way that they choose.
25 You have not been faithful to me, so I am very angry with you. I will cause these men to punish you in cruel ways. They will cut off your noses and your ears. They will use their swords to kill any men who remain. They will take away your sons and daughters. Fire will destroy any of your people who remain. 26 They will pull off your clothes. They will take away your beautiful jewels. 27 That is how I will stop you living in a disgusting way. You will no longer live as a prostitute, in the way that you lived in Egypt. You will not want to live in that way again. You will not think about how you lived in Egypt any more.”
28 This is what the Almighty Lord says: “Listen! I will put you under the power of people that you hate. Those were the people that you turned away from because you were upset. 29 They will be cruel to you. They will take away everything that you worked hard to get. When they leave you, you will have no clothes to wear. You will be ashamed. Everyone will see that you have lived as a prostitute and you have done disgusting things. 30 I am punishing you in this way because you were not faithful to me. You wanted other nations to be your lovers. You became unclean because you worshipped their idols. 31 You have lived in the same bad way that your sister lived. So I will punish you as I punished her.”
32 This is what the Lord God says:
“You will drink from the same cup of punishment that I gave to your sister.
It is a cup that holds a lot of punishment.
People will laugh at you and they will insult you.
33 You will suffer very much.
You will be drunk and very sad.
The cup of your punishment will destroy you.
Like your sister Samaria, nothing will remain in you.
34 You will have to drink all the punishment that is in that cup!
Then you will break the cup into pieces.
You will cut your breasts to show that you are very upset.
I, the Almighty Lord, have said this.”
35 This is what the Almighty Lord says: “You have forgotten me. You have not been faithful to me. You have lived as a prostitute and you have done disgusting things. So now you must receive the punishment that you deserve.” ’
36 The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, you must judge Oholah and Oholibah. Warn them that they have done disgusting things. 37 They have not been faithful to me. They have murdered people. They have worshipped idols. They have not been faithful to me as their husband. They have even offered their children as food to their idols. Those were my children that they burned with fire.
38 Also, they have done these things against me: They made my holy place unclean. At the same time, they did not obey my rules for Sabbath days. 39 They offered their sons as sacrifices to their idols. Then, on the same day, they came into my temple! That is how they made my own special house unclean.
40 The two sisters sent messages to men in places far away. When the men came to visit them, the sisters washed themselves. Yes, you made your eyes beautiful with paint. You wore beautiful jewels. 41 You sat on a beautiful bed with a table in front of it. On the table you put incense and olive oil that I had given to you.
42 There was a crowd of happy men around them. They included men who came from the desert and who were drunk. They put rings on the sisters' hands and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 I said this about the woman who had become tired of having sex with so many men: “They will continue to have sex with her, as she is a prostitute.” 44 So the men had sex with her, as men have sex with prostitutes. That is how they had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, those two prostitutes. 45 But good men will say that those women are guilty. They will punish them as they deserve, because they have not been faithful to me. They have also murdered people.
46 This is what the Almighty Lord says: Bring an army to attack those women. Make them very afraid. Take away their valuable things. 47 The army will throw stones at them and cut them with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters. They will destroy their houses with fire.
48 That is how I will stop the people of this land from doing disgusting things. All the women will see what has happened to Oholah and Oholibah. They will not do the same disgusting things themselves. 49 And you, Oholah and Oholibah, will receive the punishment that you deserve. You have lived as prostitutes, and you have not been faithful to me. Instead, you have worshipped idols. So I will punish you. Then you will know that I am the Almighty Lord. ’
18 So that is the way that God forgives our sins. When God has done that, we do not need to have any other sacrifice to take away our sins.
We must continue to trust God
19 So then, Christian friends, we see that Jesus died as a sacrifice on our behalf. Because of that, we may go into God's Most Holy Place. We are not afraid to do that. 20 Jesus has opened a new way for us to come near to God. That way gives us life with God. It leads us through the curtain into God's Most Holy Place. Jesus opened that curtain for us when he offered his own body to God as a sacrifice.[a] 21 We have a great priest who rules the people of God's house. 22 So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. But we must be honest and we must continue to trust him. He has made us clean from the dirt of our sins. Our thoughts no longer give us trouble about our sins. We have become clean. It is like he has washed our bodies with clean water.[b]
23 We know that we can trust God to do the things that he has promised. So we must continue to expect those things. We must tell other people that we trust God. We should not stop doing that. 24 We should think about how we can help one another. We want everyone to show love to each other. We want everyone to do good things to help one another. 25 Some people have stopped meeting with the group of Christians. But that is not good. We should all continue to meet together. We need to help one another to be strong and brave. That is now even more important, because the Lord's great day is coming. You know that the Lord will return soon.
We must not turn away from Jesus Christ
26 Now that we have learned what is true, we must continue to believe in Jesus. If we know God's true message, but we still choose to do wrong things, God will not forgive us. There is no other sacrifice that will take away our sins. 27 We know that God will judge us, and that will make us very afraid. Because we know that God will punish everyone who is against him. That punishment will be a very hot fire that destroys people. 28 In the old agreement, anyone who refused to obey Moses' rules had to die. If two or three people said that he had done a bad thing, that person had to die. They would not forgive him.[c]
29 So think about a person who has turned against the Son of God. That person's punishment will surely be much worse! He says that Christ's sacrifice has no value for him. He has made God's new agreement seem like something bad. It was Christ's death on the cross that made that person clean, so that he belonged to God. But now that person has insulted God's Spirit, who brings God's kind help to us. 30 We know God and his message. And God said this: ‘I am the one who will punish people for their sins. I will give them the punishment that they ought to receive.’[d] God also said this: ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 31 Yes, if God takes hold of you to punish you, that will make you very afraid! He is the powerful God who lives for ever.[e]
32 Remember what happened to you in those early days. When you first understood the message about Christ, you had many troubles. But you continued to be strong. 33 Sometimes people insulted you. They made you ashamed in front of other people. Sometimes you chose to help other Christians who had trouble like that. Their troubles became your troubles. 34 You were kind to Christians who were in prison. When people took away your own things, you still chose to be happy. You knew that you had something better that would belong to you for ever.[f]
35 So continue to be strong in your thoughts. If you continue to trust God, you will receive great things. 36 You need to be patient and strong. Then you will continue to do what God wants. As a result, you will receive what God has promised. 37 This is what the Bible says:
‘In a very short time,
my special servant will come.
He is the one that I promised to send to you.
He will not be late.[g]
38 The person that I have accepted as right will live.
That person will live because he trusts me.
But if anyone is afraid and he turns back,
I will not be happy with that person.’[h]
39 But we are not like those people who are afraid and who turn back. If we were, God would destroy us. But we are people who continue to trust God. And so, our lives are safe with God.
David wrote this psalm for the music leader.
A prayer for help in trouble[a]
109 You are the God that I praise.
Let me hear you speak!
2 Wicked people are saying bad things against me.
They are telling lies about me.
3 They are all round me,
and they say cruel things.
I have done nothing against them,
but they still attack me.
4 I have loved them,
but they still accuse me.
I will continue to pray for them.[b]
5 I have been kind to them,
but they do bad things to me in return.
I have loved them,
but they hate me in return.
6 Find an evil man to judge my enemy!
Put somebody at his right side to accuse him!
7 When they judge him,
show that he is guilty.
Show that even his prayers are a sin.
8 Make his life very short!
Let somebody else do the job which he did.
9 May he soon die,
so that his children have no father,
and his wife has no husband.
10 Cause his children to have no home,
so that they go from place to place,
and ask people to give them food.
11 May the people who lent money to my enemy,
take away everything that belonged to him.
Let strangers take everything
that he worked hard to get for himself.
12 Do not let anyone be kind to him.
Do not let anyone help his children,
even when they have no father.
13 Remove all the descendants in his family.
When his children die,
may nobody remember his family any more!
14 Lord, please remember his ancestors sins.
Please do not forgive his mother's sins.
15 Lord, never forget his family's sins.
May nobody on earth remember his family's name.
16 My enemy was never kind to anyone.
He was cruel to poor, weak, and helpless people.
He even caused them to die,
17 He loved to curse people.
Now may those curses happen to him!
He never asked God to bless other people,
so nobody will ask God to bless him!
18 He always cursed others,
as he always put on clothes.
So those curses have become like his food and drink.
May they go deep inside him,
like olive oil that goes into his bones.
19 Then curses will truly be his clothes.
They will be like the belt that he wears every day.
20 Yes, Lord, please punish all my enemies like that,
because they say evil things to accuse me!
21 You, Almighty Lord, must help me!
Show that your name is great.
Rescue me,
because your faithful love is good.
22 I am weak and helpless.
My heart beats fast inside me.
23 I will soon be gone,
like a shadow that disappears in the evening.
I am like an insect
that the wind blows away.
24 I am so hungry that my knees shake.
I am so thin that my bones show.
25 My enemies laugh at me!
When they see me,
they shake their heads at me.
26 Lord my God, please help me!
Please rescue me,
because of your faithful love.
27 Lord, cause my enemies to know
that you are the one who has rescued me.
28 They may curse me,
but you will bless me.
When they attack me,
they will become ashamed.
But I will be very happy,
as your servant.
29 Shame will come on my enemies.
It will cover them like a coat.
30 I will thank the Lord with a loud voice!
I will praise him,
in front of a big crowd of people.
31 He stands beside poor people,
and he is ready to help them.
When cruel people accuse a weak person,
the Lord saves that person's life.
So I will praise the Lord.
13 If someone promises to pay the debts of a stranger,
take his coat as a guarantee that he will pay.
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