The Daily Audio Bible
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The Lord accuses Israel
4 Israelites, listen to the Lord's message! The Lord accuses the people who live in Israel of these bad things:[a]
‘Nobody in the land of Israel is faithful. They have no true love. They do not want to know God. 2 They curse people, they tell lies, they murder people, they rob people. They are guilty of adultery.[b] They continue to kill more and more people. 3 Because of this, the land will become like a desert. Everyone who lives there will become weak. Everything will die: the wild animals, the birds, and even the fish in the sea.
4 Do not argue among yourselves or accuse one another. It is you priests who are guilty. 5 You are always falling over. In the day and in the night, you trip and you fall.[c] The false prophets are the same as you. So I will destroy Israel, your mother. 6 The people do not know me. Because of that, they will come to an end. You refuse to respect my authority, so I will remove you as my priests. You refuse to obey the law of your God, so I will refuse to accept your children as my priests.
7 The more priests that there are among you, the more sins they do against me. They should have received honour as priests, but I will make them ashamed. 8 They get food to eat when the people bring their sin offerings to them. So the priests are happy when the people do bad things, because they get more food to eat. 9 The people do whatever the priests do. I will punish them all for the bad things that they do. I will give them what their sins deserve. 10 They will eat, but they will still be hungry. They will have sex with prostitutes, but they will still have no children. This will happen because they have turned away from the Lord. 11 Instead, they worship other gods.
My people cannot think properly because they drink too much old wine and new wine. 12 They ask wooden idols to tell them what to do! A stick tells them what will happen in the future! They have turned away from me and they have lost their way. They have not been faithful to me, their God, as a prostitute is not faithful to her husband. 13 They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains. They burn offerings on the hills. They do this under the oak trees, the poplar trees and the other big trees. They enjoy the shade under those trees. As a result, your daughters serve the false gods as prostitutes. Your sons' wives are also guilty of adultery. 14 But I will not punish them for those sins, because the men are just as guilty! They sleep with prostitutes. They join with prostitutes to offer sacrifices to the false gods.
All of this shows that people who cannot think properly destroy themselves.’
The people of Judah must not copy Israel's sins
15 You people of Israel are not faithful to the Lord. But do not let the people of Judah become guilty of the same sins. Do not travel to Gilgal to worship! Do not go to Beth Aven![d] Do not say, ‘I promise this is true, as surely as the Lord lives’. 16 Israel's people have turned against the Lord. They are like a young cow that refuses to obey its owner. So how can the Lord take care of them? Will he put them in a big field to eat the grass like lambs? 17 The people of Israel enjoy their idols. Do not go near them! 18 After they have drunk enough wine, they are happy to sleep with prostitutes. They enjoy doing things that should make them ashamed. 19 Now a strong wind will pick them up and take them away. They will become ashamed because of their sacrifices to false gods.[e]
God will punish Israel and Judah for their sins
5 ‘Listen to this, you priests! Listen carefully, you Israelites! Listen, you people of the royal family! You are guilty and you deserve punishment. You have caused trouble for people with your trap at Mizpah. You have caught people in your net at Tabor mountain.[f] 2 People have turned against me and they have murdered many people. So I will warn them all and I will punish them.
3 I know what the people of Ephraim are like.[g] The Israelites cannot hide their sins from me. You are no better than prostitutes! You can no longer serve me as my people. 4 Yes, the sins of the Israelites do not allow them to return to me, the Lord their God. They are not faithful to me and they love to worship idols. They do not want to know me. 5 The Israelites are proud of what they do, and that shows that they are guilty. Their sins cause them to fall into great trouble. That will happen to the people of Israel and Ephraim. And the people of Judah will fall with them.
6 They take their sheep and cows to offer as sacrifices to the Lord. They want the Lord to help them, but he does not answer them. They cannot find him because he has gone away from them. 7 They have turned against the Lord. Their children do not belong to him. They enjoy the new moon feast. But that will soon destroy them and the crops in their fields.’
War between Judah and Israel
8 ‘Make a noise with your horns in Gibeah!
Make a noise with your trumpets in Ramah!
Warn the people in Beth Aven of danger!
Men of Benjamin's tribe, prepare to fight![h]
9 The day for Ephraim's punishment will soon come.
That will be the end of them!
I make this promise to all the tribes of Israel.
It will certainly happen!
10 The leaders of Judah are not honest.
They are like people who move the stones that show the edge of their land.
So I will punish them with my strong anger.[i]
11 Terrible trouble will come to Ephraim's people.
They will receive great punishment.
They deserve that because they chose to worship idols.
12 I will destroy the people of Ephraim,
as a moth eats cloth.
I will also destroy the people of Judah,
as ants destroy wood.
13 Ephraim's people knew that they were not well.
Judah's people knew that they had wounds.
Ephraim's leaders expected Assyria to help them.
They asked Assyria's great king for help.
But he is not able to make you well.[j]
He cannot make your wounds better.
14 I will attack Ephraim's people like a lion.
I will also attack Judah's people like a young lion.
I myself will tear them into pieces.
I will carry them away.
Nobody will be able to rescue them.
15 Then I will return to my place.
I will leave them to receive their full punishment.
When they have suffered enough, they will turn back to me.
They will want to serve me again.’
John says ‘Hello’ to a special lady
1 This letter comes from me, the leader of the believers. I am writing to you, a special lady that God has chosen, and to your children. I love all of you, because you have believed God's true message. And I am not the only one who loves you. Everyone who knows the true message about God really loves you. 2 I love you because we have all come to understand what is true. It will remain with us for ever.[a]
3 God our Father, and his Son Jesus Christ will help us. He will be kind to us and he will give us peace in our minds. This will happen because God loves us and because we believe his true message.
4 I was very happy to hear about some of your children. I am happy because they are living in a good way. They are obeying the true message about God. They are doing what God our Father has told us to do.
Do not believe false teachers
5 So now, dear lady, I want you to do something. I want all of us to love one another. I am not telling you a new command to obey. This is a command that we have had from the beginning. 6 How do we show real love? We show it when we live in a way that makes God happy. We obey his commands. He tells us to love one another, and that is how you should live. You have heard that command from the beginning.
7 I say this because many false teachers are travelling around everywhere. They do not agree that Jesus Christ was born as a human baby. People like that are telling lies. They are enemies of Christ. 8 So be careful! Do not believe their lies. Do not lose the good things that we have worked for. Make sure that you receive all the good things that God has promised to give you. 9 Remember the message which Christ taught. Anyone who teaches his own ideas instead of Christ's true message does not belong to God. Continue to believe what Christ taught. Anyone who does that belongs to God the Father and to his Son, Jesus. 10 Someone may come to you and teach you something that is different. Do not receive that person into your house. Do not receive him as a Christian. 11 If you receive people like that as Christian people, you are making yourself the same as them. You also are doing the same kind of bad work.
12 I want to tell you many more things, but I do not want to write about them in a letter. Instead, I hope to come and visit you. Then I can see you and we can talk together. Then we will be completely happy.
13 The believers here say ‘hello’ to you. They are the children of your sister that God has chosen.[b]
A song to sing as we climb.
125 People who trust in the Lord are strong,
like Mount Zion.[a]
Nothing can shake it. It will always be there.
2 The Lord is always near to his people,
like the mountains round Jerusalem.
He keeps his people safe, now and for ever.[b]
3 Wicked people will not rule over God's own people.
They will not rule the land where righteous people live.
If they did, the righteous people might also do bad things.
4 Lord, please do good things to good, honest people.
Be kind to those who follow your good ways.
5 But as for people who follow their own bad ways,
Lord, please remove them!
Take them away, along with people who do evil things.
May Israel have peace!
9 If a wise person accuses a foolish person in court,
there will be no agreement.
The fool will only laugh or he will become angry.
10 Murderers hate honest people.
They try to kill any good person.
11 Foolish people cannot control their anger.
But wise people are patient.
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