The Daily Audio Bible

²¹ I did not send these men who say they speak for God, yet they ran to tell their news. I did not speak to them, yet they spoke in My name. ²² But if they had listened to Me, then they would have made My words known to My people. And they would have turned them back from their sinful way and from the sinful things they did.”

²³ “Am I a God Who is near,” says the Lord, “and not a God Who is far away? ²⁴ Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” says the Lord. “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

²⁵ “I have heard what the men say who speak false words in My name. They say, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will there be lies in the hearts of those who speak false words in My name, who speak the lies of their own heart? ²⁷ They plan to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they tell one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal. ²⁸ The one who has a dream may tell about his dream, but let him who has My Word speak My Word in truth. How can straw be compared with grain?” says the Lord. ²⁹ “Is not My Word like fire,” says the Lord, “and like iron that breaks a rock in pieces? ³⁰ So I am against those who tell what is going to happen in the future,” says the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. ³¹ See, I am against these men,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, ‘This is what the Lord says.’ ³² I am against those who have told false dreams,” says the Lord, “and have led My people the wrong way by their lies and foolish words of pride. I did not send them or tell them what to say, so they do not help these people at all,” says the Lord.

³³ “When these people, or the one who speaks in My name, or a religious leader asks you, ‘What heavy load has the Lord placed on us?’ then you say to them, ‘You are the heavy load. And I will throw you off, says the Lord.’ ³⁴ As for the man who speaks in My name, or the religious leader, or anyone of the people, who say, ‘The heavy load of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and those of his house. ³⁵ Each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ³⁶ But you must not say, ‘The heavy load of the Lord,’ any more. For every man’s own word will be the weight upon himself. And you have made sinful the words of the living God, the Lord of All, our God. ³⁷ This is what you should say to the man who speaks in My name: ‘What answer has the Lord given you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ³⁸ But if you say, ‘The heavy load of the Lord,’ then the Lord says, ‘You have said, “The heavy load of the Lord,” when I told you not to say it.’ ³⁹ So I will pick you up and throw you away from Me, together with the city which I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰ I will put you to shame forever. You will always be ashamed, and it will not be forgotten.”

The Two Baskets of Figs

24 After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the leaders of Judah, together with the able workmen from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs set in front of the house of the Lord. ² One basket had very good figs, like figs just ready to eat. And the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. ³ Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

⁴ Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁵ “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Like these good figs, so will I think of the people of Judah as being good, whom I have sent away from this place into the land of the Babylonians. ⁶ For I will keep My eyes on them for their good, and I will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pull them up by the roots. ⁷ And I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord. They will be My people and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.’

⁸ “But the Lord says, ‘Like the bad figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten, so I will give up Zedekiah king of Judah and his captains. And I will give up those left of Jerusalem who stay in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them a cause of fear and trouble for all the nations of the earth. They will be a shame and a curse and spoken against in all the places where I will make them go. ¹⁰ And I will send the sword and hunger and disease upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their fathers.’”

Seventy Years of Not Being Free

25 This is the word that came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. (That was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.) ² Jeremiah the man of God spoke this word to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ³ “These twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, until this day, the Word of the Lord has come to me. And I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴ The Lord has sent to you all his servants who have spoken for Him again and again, but you have not listened or turned your ear to hear. ⁵ They have said, ‘Every one of you turn now from your sinful way and the sinful things you do, and live on the land which the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. ⁶ Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them. Do not make Me angry with the work you do, and I will not hurt you.’ ⁷ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord. “You have made Me angry with the work of your hands to your own hurt. ⁸ “So the Lord of All says, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, ⁹ I will send for all the families of the north. And I will send for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its people, and against all these nations around you. I will make a complete end of them. I will destroy them all and make them an object of fear and hate, and a waste place forever. ¹⁰ I will also take from them the voice of joy, the voice of happiness, the voice of the man to be married and the voice of the bride. I will take from them the sound of the grinding stones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole land will be a waste and a cause of fear. And these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

¹² ‘Then when seventy years have past, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, and the land of the Babylonians, for their sin,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will make that land a waste forever. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all My words which I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has spoken against all the nations. ¹⁴ They themselves will be made to serve many nations and great kings. I will pay them for what they have done, and for the work of their hands.’”

The Cup of God’s Anger

¹⁵ For the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of anger from My hand. And make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They will drink and have trouble walking and become crazy because of the sword that I will send among them.” ¹⁷ So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it. ¹⁸ I was sent to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, to its kings and its leaders, to make them a waste, an object of fear and hate, and a curse, as it is this day. ¹⁹ I was sent to Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his sons, and to all his people. ²⁰ I was sent to all the people from different countries, all the kings of the land of Uz, and to all the kings of the land of the Philistines (Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and those left of Ashdod). ²¹ I was sent to Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, ²² and to all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and to the kings of the lands across the sea. ²³ I was sent to Dedan, Tema, Buz, to all who are far away in their lands, ²⁴ to the kings of Arabia, and to all the kings of the different people who live in the desert. ²⁵ I was sent to all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, all the kings of Media, ²⁶ and to all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another. I was sent to all the nations on the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach will drink.

²⁷ “Then you will say to them, ‘The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Drink, be drunk, throw up, fall, and get up no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’ ²⁸ And if they will not take the cup from your hand to drink, then say to them, ‘The Lord of All says, “You must drink! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to make trouble in this city which is called by My name. And will you not be punished? You will not be free from punishment, for I am bringing a sword against all the people of the earth,” says the Lord of All.’

³⁰ “So you should speak all these words against them. Tell them, ‘The Lord will sound from on high. His voice will be heard from His holy place. He will call out in a loud voice against his flock. He will call out like those who crush the grapes, against all the people of the earth. ³¹ The noise will go to the ends of the earth, because the Lord has something against the nations. He is deciding what should be done with all flesh. As for the sinful, He has given them to the sword,’” says the Lord.

³² The Lord of All says, “See, sinful ways are spreading from nation to nation. A powerful storm is moving from the farthest parts of the earth. ³³ Those killed by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. No one will cry for them or gather up the bodies and bury them. They will be like animal waste on the ground. ³⁴ Cry in a loud voice, you shepherds. And roll in ashes, you leaders of the flock. For the days for you to be killed and sent everywhere have come, and you will fall and be broken like a fine pot. ³⁵ The shepherds will have no place to run. And the leaders of the flock will have no place to get away. ³⁶ Listen to the cry of the shepherds and the loud cry of the leaders of the flock! For the Lord is destroying their field. ³⁷ The fields of peace are laid waste because of the burning anger of the Lord. ³⁸ He has left His hiding place like a lion. For their land has become a cause of much fear because of the sword of the one who makes it hard for them, and because of the Lord’s burning anger.”

Some People Will Believe a Lie

2 Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. We will be gathered together to meet Him. But we ask you, Christian brothers, ² do not be troubled in mind or worried by the talk you hear. Some say that the Lord has already come. People may say that I wrote this in a letter or that a spirit told them. ³ Do not let anyone fool you. For the Lord will not come again until many people turn away from God. Then the leader of those who break the law will come. He is the man of sin. ⁴ He works against and puts himself above every kind of god that is worshiped. He will take his seat in the house of God and say that he himself is God. ⁵ Do you not remember that while I was with you, I told you this? ⁶ You know the power that is keeping the man of sin back now. The man of sin will come only when his time is ready. ⁷ For the secret power of breaking the law is already at work in the world. But that secret power can only do so much until the One Who keeps back the man of sin is taken out of the way. ⁸ Then this man of sin will come. The Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of His mouth. The coming of Christ will put an end to him. ⁹ Satan will use this man of sin. He will have Satan’s power. He will do strange things and many powerful works that will be false. ¹⁰ Those who are lost in sin will be fooled by the things he can do. They are lost in sin because they did not love the truth that would save them. ¹¹ For this reason, God will allow them to follow false teaching so they will believe a lie. ¹² They will all be guilty as they stand before God because they wanted to do what was wrong.

You Belong to Those Who Believe the Truth

¹³ Christian brothers, the Lord loves you. We always thank God for you. It is because God has chosen you from the beginning to save you from the punishment of sin. He chose to make you holy by the Holy Spirit and to give you faith to believe the truth. ¹⁴ It was by our preaching the Good News that you were chosen. He chose you to share the shining-greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ So then, Christian brothers, keep a strong hold on what we have taught you by what we have said and by what we have written.

¹⁶ Our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father loves us. Through His loving-favor He gives us comfort and hope that lasts forever. ¹⁷ May He give your hearts comfort and strength to say and do every good thing.

A Desire for God’s House

84 How beautiful are the places where You live, O Lord of all! ² My soul wants and even becomes weak from wanting to be in the house of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. ³ Even the bird has found a home. The swallow has found a nest for herself where she may lay her young at Your altars, O Lord of all, my King and my God. ⁴ How happy are those who live in Your house! They are always giving thanks to You.

⁵ How happy is the man whose strength is in You and in whose heart are the roads to Zion! ⁶ As they pass through the dry valley of Baca, they make it a place of good water. The early rain fills the pools with good also. ⁷ They go from strength to strength. Every one of them stands before God in Zion.

⁸ O Lord God of all, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. ⁹ Look upon our safe-covering, O God. And look upon the face of Your chosen one. ¹⁰ For a day in Your house is better than a thousand outside. I would rather be the one who opens the door of the house of my God, than to live in the tents of the sinful. ¹¹ For the Lord God is a sun and a safe-covering. The Lord gives favor and honor. He holds back nothing good from those who walk in the way that is right. ¹² O Lord of all, how happy is the man who trusts in You!

¹⁵ When one is slow to anger, a ruler may be won over. A gentle tongue will break a bone.