Daily Bible GNT November 17 Scroll

Warning to the Rich

James 5 And now, you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you! ²Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. ³Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days. ⁴You have not paid any wages to those who work in your fields. Listen to their complaints! The cries of those who gather in your crops have reached the ears of God, the Lord Almighty. ⁵Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered innocent people, and they do not resist you.

Patience and Prayer

⁷Be patient, then, my friends, until the Lord comes. See how patient farmers are as they wait for their land to produce precious crops. They wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains. ⁸You also must be patient. Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord's coming is near.

⁹Do not complain against one another, my friends, so that God will not judge you. The Judge is near, ready to appear. ¹⁰My friends, remember the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as examples of patient endurance under suffering. ¹¹We call them happy because they endured. You have heard of Job's patience, and you know how the Lord provided for him in the end. For the Lord is full of mercy and compassion.

¹²Above all, my friends, do not use an oath when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Say only "Yes" when you mean yes, and "No" when you mean no, and then you will not come under God's judgment.

¹³Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises. ¹⁴Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven. ¹⁶So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. ¹⁷Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops.

¹⁹My friends, if any of you wander away from the truth and another one brings you back again, ²⁰remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

Jeremiah's Letter to the Jews in Babylonia

Jeremiah 29 I wrote a letter to the priests, the prophets, the leaders of the people, and to all the others whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia. ²I wrote it after King Jehoiachin, his mother, the palace officials, the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, the engravers, and the skilled workers had been taken into exile. ³I gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. It said:

⁴"The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those people whom he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia: ⁵'Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. ⁶Marry and have children. Then let your children get married, so that they also may have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease. ⁷Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too. ⁸I, the LORD, the God of Israel, warn you not to let yourselves be deceived by the prophets who live among you or by any others who claim they can predict the future. Do not pay any attention to their dreams. ⁹They are telling you lies in my name. I did not send them. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.'
¹⁰"The LORD says, 'When Babylonia's seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home. ¹¹I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for. ¹²Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. ¹³You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land. I will gather you from every country and from every place to which I have scattered you, and I will bring you back to the land from which I had sent you away into exile. I, the LORD, have spoken.'
¹⁵"You say that the LORD has given you prophets in Babylonia. ¹⁶Listen to what the LORD says about the king who rules the kingdom that David ruled and about the people of this city, that is, your relatives who were not taken away as prisoners with you. ¹⁷The LORD Almighty says, 'I am bringing war, starvation, and disease on them, and I will make them like figs that are too rotten to be eaten. ¹⁸I will pursue them with war, starvation, and disease, and all the nations of the world will be horrified at what they see. Everywhere I scatter them, people will be shocked and terrified at what has happened to them. People will make fun of them and use their name as a curse. ¹⁹This will happen to them because they did not obey the message that I kept on sending to them through my servants the prophets. They refused to listen. ²⁰All of you whom I sent into exile in Babylonia, listen to what I, the LORD, say.'
²¹"The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has spoken about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are telling you lies in his name. He has said that he will hand them over to the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, who will put them to death before your eyes. ²²When the people who were taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia want to bring a curse on someone, they will say, 'May the LORD treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylonia roasted alive!' ²³This will be their fate because they are guilty of terrible sins--they have committed adultery and have told lies in the LORD's name. This was against the LORD's will; he knows what they have done, and he is a witness against them. The LORD has spoken."

The Letter of Shemaiah

^24-25The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, gave me a message for Shemaiah of Nehelam, who had sent a letter in his own name to all the people of Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and to all the other priests. In this letter Shemaiah wrote to Zephaniah:

²⁶"The LORD made you a priest in place of Jehoiada, and you are now the chief officer in the Temple. It is your duty to see that every crazy person who pretends to be a prophet is placed in chains with an iron collar around the neck. ²⁷Why haven't you done this to Jeremiah of Anathoth, who has been speaking as a prophet to the people? ²⁸He must be stopped because he told the people in Babylonia that they would be prisoners there a long time and should build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and eat what they grow."

²⁹Zephaniah read the letter to me, ³⁰and then the LORD told me ^31-32to send to all the prisoners in Babylon this message about Shemaiah: "I, the LORD, will punish Shemaiah and all of his descendants. I did not send him, but he spoke to you as if he were a prophet, and he made you believe lies. He will have no descendants among you. He will not live to see the good things that I am going to do for my people, because he told them to rebel against me. I, the LORD, have spoken."

The LORD's Promises to His People

Jeremiah 30 The LORD, the God of Israel, ²said to me, "Write down in a book everything that I have told you, ³because the time is coming when I will restore my people, Israel and Judah. I will bring them back to the land that I gave their ancestors, and they will take possession of it again. I, the LORD, have spoken."

⁴The LORD says to the people of Israel and Judah,

⁵"I heard a cry of terror,

a cry of fear and not of peace.

⁶Now stop and think!

Can a man give birth to a child?

Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach

like a woman in labor?

Why is everyone so pale?

⁷A terrible day is coming;

no other day can compare with it--

a time of distress for my people,

but they will survive."

⁸The LORD Almighty says, "When that day comes, I will break the yoke that is around their neck and remove their chains, and they will no longer be the slaves of foreigners. ⁹Instead, they will serve me, the LORD their God, and a descendant of David, whom I will enthrone as king.

¹⁰"My people, do not be afraid;

people of Israel, do not be terrified.

I will rescue you from that faraway land,

from the land where you are prisoners.

You will come back home and live in peace;

you will be secure, and no one will make you afraid.

¹¹I will come to you and save you.

I will destroy all the nations

where I have scattered you,

but I will not destroy you.

I will not let you go unpunished;

but when I punish you, I will be fair.

I, the LORD, have spoken."

¹²The LORD says to his people,

"Your wounds are incurable,

your injuries cannot be healed.

¹³There is no one to take care of you,

no remedy for your sores,

no hope of healing for you.

¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you;

they no longer care about you.

I have attacked you like an enemy;

your punishment has been harsh

because your sins are many

and your wickedness is great.

¹⁵Complain no more about your injuries;

there is no cure for you.

I punished you like this

because your sins are many

and your wickedness is great.

¹⁶But now, all who devour you will be devoured,

and all your enemies will be taken away as prisoners.

All who oppress you will be oppressed,

and all who plunder you will be plundered.

¹⁷I will make you well again;

I will heal your wounds,

though your enemies say,

'Zion is an outcast;

no one cares about her.'

I, the LORD, have spoken."

¹⁸The LORD says,

"I will restore my people to their land

and have mercy on every family;

Jerusalem will be rebuilt,

and its palace restored.

¹⁹The people who live there will sing praise;

they will shout for joy.

By my blessing they will increase in numbers;

my blessing will bring them honor.

²⁰I will restore the nation's ancient power

and establish it firmly again;

I will punish all who oppress them.
^21-22Their ruler will come from their own nation,

their prince from their own people.

He will approach me when I invite him,

for who would dare come uninvited?

They will be my people,

and I will be their God.

I, the LORD, have spoken."

^23-24The LORD's anger is a storm, a furious wind that will rage over the heads of the wicked. It will not end until he has done all that he intends to do. In days to come his people will understand this clearly.

In Praise of Living in Peace

Psalm 133 How wonderful it is, how pleasant,

for God's people to live together in harmony!

²It is like the precious anointing oil

running down from Aaron's head and beard,

down to the collar of his robes.

³It is like the dew on Mount Hermon,

falling on the hills of Zion.

That is where the LORD has promised his blessing--

life that never ends.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.