The Daily Audio Bible
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42 Then I will take away My anger from you, and My jealousy will leave you. I will be at peace, and will not be angry any more. 43 You have not remembered the days when you were young, but have made Me angry with all these things. So I will punish you for what you have done,” says the Lord God. “Did you not add these sex sins to all your other hated sins?
More Sinful Than Samaria and Sodom
44 “Every one who uses sayings will use this saying about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who hated her husband and her children. You are also a sister of your sisters who hated their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite. 46 Your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters. And your younger sister is Sodom, who lives south of you with her daughters. 47 Yet you have walked in their ways and done their hated acts. As if that were too little, you acted worse in all your ways than they. 48 As I live,” says the Lord God, “your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, much food, and too much rest, but she did not help those who were poor and in need. 50 They were proud and did hated sins in front of Me. So I took them away when I saw it. 51 Samaria has not done half of your sins. You have done more sins than they. So you have made your sisters look right and good by all the hated sins which you have done. 52 Take your shame upon you, for you have made Me show favor to them in their punishment. Because of your sins in which you acted worse than they, they are more in the right than you. So then be ashamed and take your shame upon you, for you have made your sisters look right and good.
53 “I will return them to their land, both Sodom and her daughters, and Samaria and her daughters. With them I will return you to your land. 54 This is so you will take your shame upon you, and feel ashamed for all that you have done in becoming a comfort to them. 55 Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to the land they had before. And you with your daughters will return to your land also. 56 You did not speak against your sister Sodom in the days of your pride, 57 before your sinful acts were seen. Now you have become like her, an object of shame for the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors, and for the daughters of the Philistines. All those around you who hate you now look on you with shame. 58 The penalty of your sex sins and other hated sins has come upon you,” says the Lord. 59 For the Lord God says, “I will do with you as you have done, because you have hated your promise by breaking the agreement.
An Agreement That Lasts Forever
60 “But I will remember My agreement which I made with you when you were young. And I will make an agreement with you that lasts forever. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older one and younger one. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your agreement with Me. 62 So I will make My agreement with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63 Then you will remember and be ashamed. You will never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” says the Lord God.
The Picture-Story of the Eagles and the Vine
17 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, give the people of Israel this picture-story to think about. 3 Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “A large eagle with big wings and long feathers of many colors came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar tree. 4 He broke off the very top of its young branches and brought it to a land of traders. He placed it in a city of people who buy and sell. 5 Then he took some of the seed of the land and planted it in good ground for growing. He planted it like a willow tree where there was much water to make it grow. 6 And it grew and became a low spreading vine. Its branches grew toward him, but its roots stayed under it. So it became a vine, and branches and leaves grew out from it.
7 “But there was another large eagle with big wings and many feathers. And the vine turned its roots and branches toward him from where it was planted, that he might water it. 8 It had been planted in good ground beside much water, that it might grow branches and give fruit and become a beautiful vine.”’ 9 Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “Will it live and grow? Will not its roots be pulled up and its fruit be cut off so that its leaves that started to grow dry up? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by the roots. 10 Even if it is planted again, will it live and grow? Will it not dry up when the east wind hits it? Will it not dry up in the place where it grew?”’”
11 Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, 12 “Now tell these sinful people, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘See, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. He took its king and the king’s sons, and brought them back with him to Babylon. 13 He took one of the king’s family and made an agreement with him. And he made him promise to keep it. He also took away the strong leaders of the land, 14 so that the nation would be under his power and not become strong again. It could only last by keeping his agreement. 15 But the king of Judah turned against him by sending his men to Egypt to get horses and a large army for him. Will it go well for him? Can he get away with that? Can he break the agreement and not be punished? 16 As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘he will die in the land of the king who put him on the throne, whose promise he hated, and whose agreement he broke. He will die in Babylon. 17 Pharaoh with his powerful army of many men will not help him in the war, when battle-walls are put up so that many people are killed. 18 He hated the promise and broke the agreement. Because he had given his promise and then did all these things, he will not get away from being punished.’” 19 So the Lord God says, “As I live, I will punish him for hating My promise and for breaking My agreement. 20 I will spread My net over him and he will be caught in My trap. Then I will bring him to Babylon and punish him there for not being faithful to Me. 21 And all the best of his soldiers will be killed by the sword, and those left alive will be thrown to the wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.”
God’s Promise of Hope
22 The Lord God says, “I will also take a young branch from the very top of the cedar tree and plant it. I will break a soft new one from the very top of its young branches, and plant it on a high mountain. 23 I will plant it on the high mountain of Israel. It will grow branches and give fruit and become a beautiful cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it. They will nest in the shadow of its branches. 24 Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I bring down the high tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree become green. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I say.”
8 Now the important thing is this: We have such a Religious Leader Who has made the way for man to go to God. He is the One Who sits at the right side of the All-powerful God in the heavens. 2 He is the Religious Leader of that holy place in heaven which is the true place of worship. It was built by the Lord and not by men’s hands. 3 Every religious leader of the Old Way of Worship had the work of killing animals and of giving gifts on the altar to God. So Christ had to have something to give also. 4 If Christ were on the earth, He would not be a religious leader such as these. The religious leaders on earth give gifts like the Law says. 5 Their work shows us only a picture of the things in heaven. When Moses was putting up the tent to worship in, God told him, “Be sure you make the tent for worship like I showed you on Mount Sinai.” (A)
6 But Christ has a more perfect work. He is the One Who goes between God and man in this new and better way. The New Way of Worship promises better things. 7 If the Old Way of Worship had been perfect, there would have been no need for another one. 8 God was not happy how the people lived by the Old Way of Worship. He said, “The day will come when I will make a New Way of Worship for the Jews and those of the family group of Judah. 9 The New Way of Worship will not be like the Old Way of Worship I gave to their early fathers. That was when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. But they did not follow the Old Way of Worship. And so I turned away from them. 10 This is the New Way of Worship that I will give to the Jews. When that day comes, says the Lord, I will put My Laws into their minds. And I will write them in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 11 No one will need to teach his neighbor or his brother to know the Lord. All of them will already know Me from the least to the greatest. 12 I will show loving-kindness to them and forgive their sins. I will remember their sins no more.” (B)
13 When God spoke about a New Way of Worship, He showed that the Old Way of Worship was finished and of no use now. It will never be used again.
13 But they soon forgot His works. They did not wait to hear what He wanted them to do. 14 They wanted many things in the desert, and they tempted God there. 15 So He gave them what they wanted, but He allowed their souls to become weak because of it.
16 They were jealous of Moses in the place where they set up their tents. And they were jealous of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord. 17 So the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan. It closed over the group of Abiram. 18 And a fire came among their followers. It burned up the sinful people.
19 They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a god of gold. 20 They traded their shining-greatness for something that looked like a bull that eats grass. 21 They forgot the God Who saved them, Who had done great things in Egypt, 22 powerful works in the land of Ham, and works that brought fear by the Red Sea. 23 So He said that He would destroy them. But Moses, His chosen one, stood in the way to keep His anger from destroying them. 24 Then they hated the good land. They did not believe in His Word. 25 But they complained in their tents. They did not listen to the voice of the Lord. 26 So He swore to them that He would let them die in the desert. 27 And He would spread out their children among the nations and divide them over all the earth.
28 They joined themselves to Baal of Peor and ate gifts given to the dead. 29 They made the Lord angry by their actions and a sickness broke out among them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and came between them, and the sickness was stopped. 31 And this made him right with God to all people forever.
7 He who is full hates honey, but any bitter thing is sweet to a hungry man.
8 Like a bird that goes away from her nest, so is a man who goes away from his home.
9 Oil and perfume make the heart glad, so are a man’s words sweet to his friend.
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