Daily Bible CEV November 17 Scroll

Warning to the Rich

James 5 You rich people should cry and weep! Terrible things are going to happen to you. ²Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³Your money has rusted, and the rust will be evidence against you, as it burns your body like fire. Yet you keep on storing up wealth in these last days. ⁴You refused to pay the people who worked in your fields, and now their unpaid wages are shouting out against you. The Lord All-Powerful has surely heard the cries of the workers who harvested your crops.

⁵While here on earth, you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time. But now you are like fat cattle on their way to be butchered. ⁶You have condemned and murdered innocent people, who couldn't even fight back.

Be Patient and Kind

⁷My friends, be patient until the Lord returns. Think of farmers who wait patiently for the spring and summer rains to make their valuable crops grow. ⁸Be patient like those farmers and don't give up. The Lord will soon be here! ⁹Don't grumble about each other or you will be judged, and the judge is right outside the door.

¹⁰My friends, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They were patient, even when they had to suffer. ¹¹In fact, we praise the ones who endured the most. You remember how patient Job was and how the Lord finally helped him. The Lord did this because he is so merciful and kind.

¹²My friends, above all else, don't take an oath. You must not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. "Yes" or "No" is all you need to say. If you say anything more, you will be condemned.

¹³If you are having trouble, you should pray. And if you are feeling good, you should sing praises. ¹⁴If you are sick, ask the church leaders to come and pray for you. Ask them to put olive oil on you in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵If you have faith when you pray for sick people, they will get well. The Lord will heal them, and if they have sinned, he will forgive them.

¹⁶If you have sinned, you should tell each other what you have done. Then you can pray for one another and be healed. The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot. ¹⁷Elijah was just as human as we are, and for three and a half years his prayers kept the rain from falling. ¹⁸But when he did pray for rain, it fell from the skies and made the crops grow.

¹⁹My friends, if any followers have wandered away from the truth, you should try to lead them back. ²⁰If you turn sinners from the wrong way, you will save them from death, and many of their sins will be forgiven.

Jeremiah's Letter to the People of Judah in Babylonia

Jeremiah 29 ^1-2I had been left in Jerusalem when King Nebuchadnezzar took many of the people of Jerusalem and Judah to Babylonia as prisoners, including King Jehoiachin, his mother, his officials, and the metal workers and others in Jerusalem who were skilled in making things. So I wrote a letter to the prophets, the priests, the leaders, and the rest of our people in Babylonia. ³I gave the letter to Elasah and Gemariah, two men that King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to Babylon to talk with Nebuchadnezzar. In the letter, I wrote ⁴that the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:

I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. Now I tell you ⁵to settle there and build houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. ⁶Get married and have children, then help your sons find wives and help your daughters find husbands, so they can have children as well. I want your numbers to grow, not to get smaller.

⁷Pray for peace in Babylonia and work hard to make it prosperous. The more successful that nation is, the better off you will be.

^8-9Some of your people there in Babylonia are fortunetellers, and you have asked them to tell you what will happen in the future. But they will only lead you astray. And don't let the prophets fool you, either. They speak in my name, but they are liars. I have not spoken to them.

¹⁰After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised. ¹¹I will bless you with a future filled with hope--a future of success, not of suffering. ¹²You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers. ¹³You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you ¹⁴and accept your worship. Then I will gather you from all the nations where I scattered you, and you will return to Jerusalem.

¹⁵You feel secure, because you think I have sent prophets to speak for me in Babylonia.

^16-19But I have been sending prophets to the people of Judah for a long time, and the king from David's family and the people who are left in Jerusalem and Judah still don't obey me. So I, the LORD All-Powerful, will keep attacking them with war and hunger and disease, until they are as useless as rotten figs. I will force them to leave the land, and all nations will be disgusted and shocked at what happens to them. The nations will sneer and make fun of them and use the names "Judah" and "Jerusalem" as curse words.

And you have not obeyed me, even though ²⁰I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. But you had better listen to me now. ^21-23You think Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are prophets because they claim to speak for me. But they are lying! I haven't told them anything. They are also committing other horrible sins in your community, such as sleeping with the wives of their friends. So I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar, who will put them to death while the rest of you watch. And in the future, when you want to put a curse on someone, you will say, "I pray that the LORD will kill you in the same way the king of Babylonia burned Zedekiah and Ahab to death!"

A Message for Shemaiah

^24-25The LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, told me what would happen to Shemaiah, who was one of our people in Babylonia. After my letter reached Babylonia, Shemaiah wrote letters to the people of Jerusalem, including the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and the other priests. The letter to Zephaniah said:

²⁶After the death of Jehoiada the priest, the LORD chose you to be the priest in charge of the temple security force. You know that anyone who acts crazy and pretends to be a prophet should be arrested and put in chains and iron collars. ²⁷Jeremiah from the town of Anathoth is pretending to be a prophet there in Jerusalem, so why haven't you punished him? ²⁸He even wrote a letter to the people here in Babylonia, saying we would be here a long time. He told us to build homes and to plant gardens and grow our own food.

²⁹When Zephaniah received Shemaiah's letter, he read it to me. ³⁰Then the LORD told me what to write in a second letter ³¹to the people of Judah who had been taken to Babylonia. In this letter, I wrote that the LORD had said:

I, the LORD, have not chosen Shemaiah to be one of my prophets, and he has misled you by telling lies in my name. ³²He has even talked you into disobeying me. So I will punish Shemaiah. He and his descendants won't live to see the good things I will do for my people. I, the LORD, have spoken.

The LORD Will Rescue Israel and Judah

Jeremiah 30 ^1-2The LORD God of Israel said, "Jeremiah, get a scroll and write down everything I have told you. ³Someday I will let my people from both Israel and Judah return to the land I gave their ancestors."

^4-5Then the LORD told me to say to Israel and Judah:

I, the LORD, hear screams of terror,

and there is no peace.

⁶Can men give birth? Then why do I see them

looking so pale and clutching their stomachs

like women in labor?

⁷My people, soon you will suffer worse than ever before,

but I will save you.

⁸Now you are slaves of other nations,

but I will break the chains and smash the yokes

that keep you in slavery.

⁹Then you will be my servants,

and I will choose a king for you

from the family of David.

^*10Israel, you belong to me, so don't be afraid.

You deserved to be punished; that's why I scattered you

in distant nations.

But I am with you,

and someday I will destroy those nations.

¹¹Then I will bring you and your descendants

back to your land,

where I will protect you and give you peace.

Then your fears will be gone.

I, the LORD, have spoken.

The LORD Will Heal Israel and Judah

¹²The LORD said:

My people, you are wounded and near death.

¹³You are accused of a crime with no one to defend you,

and you are covered with sores

that no medicine can cure.

^*14Your friends have forgotten you; they don't care anymore.

Even I have acted like an enemy.

And because your sins are horrible and countless,

I will be cruel as I punish you.

¹⁵

So don't bother to cry out for relief from your pain.

¹⁶But if your enemies try to rob or destroy you,

I will rob and destroy them,

and they will be led as captives to foreign lands.

¹⁷No one wants you as a friend or cares what happens to you.

But I will heal your injuries, and you will get well.

The LORD Will Rescue Israel and Judah

¹⁸The LORD said:

Israel, I will be kind to you and let you come home.

Jerusalem now lies in ruins, but you will rebuild it,

complete with a new palace.

¹⁹Other nations will respect and honor you.

Your homes will be filled with children,

and you will celebrate, singing praises to me.

²⁰It will be just like old times. Your nation will worship me,

and I will punish anyone who abuses you.

²¹One of your own people will become your ruler.

And when I invite him to come near me

at the place of worship, he will do so.

No one would dare to come near without being invited.

²²You will be my people, and I will be your God.

I, the LORD, have spoken.

²³I am furious! And like a violent storm

I will strike those who do wrong.

²⁴I won't calm down until I have finished

what I have decided to do.

Someday, you will understand what I mean.

Psalm 133
[A song for worship.]
Living Together in Peace

¹It is truly wonderful

when relatives live together in peace.

²It is as beautiful as olive oil poured on Aaron's head

and running down his beard and the collar of his robe.

³It is like the dew from Mount Hermon,

falling on Zion's mountains,

where the LORD has promised to bless his people

with life forevermore.

These daily Bible readings from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. BibleCard® images copyright iCreative. All rights reserved.