Daily Bible GNT November 15 Scroll

The Tongue

James 3 My friends, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others. ²All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what he says, he is perfect and is also able to control his whole being. ³We put a bit into the mouth of a horse to make it obey us, and we are able to make it go where we want. ⁴Or think of a ship: big as it is and driven by such strong winds, it can be steered by a very small rudder, and it goes wherever the pilot wants it to go. ⁵So it is with the tongue: small as it is, it can boast about great things.

Just think how large a forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame! ⁶And the tongue is like a fire. It is a world of wrong, occupying its place in our bodies and spreading evil through our whole being. It sets on fire the entire course of our existence with the fire that comes to it from hell itself. ⁷We humans are able to tame and have tamed all other creatures--wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish. ⁸But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison. ⁹We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse other people, who are created in the likeness of God. ¹⁰Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My friends, this should not happen! ¹¹No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. ¹²A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.

The Wisdom from Above

¹³Are there any of you who are wise and understanding? You are to prove it by your good life, by your good deeds performed with humility and wisdom. ¹⁴But if in your heart you are jealous, bitter, and selfish, don't sin against the truth by boasting of your wisdom. ¹⁵Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic. ¹⁶Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. ¹⁸And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace.

The Enemy from the North

Jeremiah 25 In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, I received a message from the LORD concerning all the people of Judah. (This was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia.) ²I said to all the people of Judah and of Jerusalem, ³"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah until this very day, the LORD has spoken to me, and I have never failed to tell you what he said. But you have paid no attention. ⁴You would not listen or pay attention, even though the LORD has continued to send you his servants the prophets. ⁵They told you to turn from your wicked way of life and from the evil things you are doing, so that you could go on living in the land that the LORD gave you and your ancestors as a permanent possession. ⁶They told you not to worship and serve other gods and not to make the LORD angry by worshiping the idols you had made. If you had obeyed the LORD, then he would not have punished you. ⁷But the LORD himself says that you refused to listen to him. Instead, you made him angry with your idols and have brought his punishment on yourselves.

⁸"So then, because you would not listen to him, the LORD Almighty says, ⁹'I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the LORD, have spoken. ¹⁰I will silence their shouts of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. They will have no oil for their lamps, and there will be no more grain. ¹¹This whole land will be left in ruins and will be a shocking sight, and the neighboring nations will serve the king of Babylonia for seventy years. ¹²After that I will punish Babylonia and its king for their sin. I will destroy that country and leave it in ruins forever. ¹³I will punish Babylonia with all the disasters that I threatened to bring on the nations when I spoke through Jeremiah--all the disasters recorded in this book. ¹⁴I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done, and many nations and great kings will make slaves of them.'"

God's Judgment on the Nations

¹⁵The LORD, the God of Israel, said to me, "Here is a wine cup filled with my anger. Take it to all the nations to whom I send you, and make them drink from it. ¹⁶When they drink from it, they will stagger and go out of their minds because of the war I am sending against them."

¹⁷So I took the cup from the LORD's hand, gave it to all the nations to whom the LORD had sent me, and made them drink from it. ¹⁸Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, together with its kings and leaders, were made to drink from it, so that they would become a desert, a terrible and shocking sight, and so that people would use their name as a curse--as they still do.

^19-26Here is the list of all the others who had to drink from the cup:

the king of Egypt, his officials and leaders;

all the Egyptians and all the foreigners in Egypt;

all the kings of the land of Uz;

all the kings of the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what remains of Ashdod;

all the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon;

all the kings of Tyre and Sidon;

all the kings of the Mediterranean lands;

the cities of Dedan, Tema, and Buz;

all the people who cut their hair short;

all the kings of Arabia;

all the kings of the desert tribes;

all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another.

Every nation on the face of the earth had to drink from it. Last of all, the king of Babylonia will drink from it.

²⁷Then the LORD said to me, "Tell the people that I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of the war that I am sending against them. ²⁸And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink from it, then tell them that the LORD Almighty has said that they will still have to drink from it. ²⁹I will begin my work of destruction in my own city. Do they think they will go unpunished? No, they will be punished, for I am going to send war on all the people on earth. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.

³⁰"You, Jeremiah, must proclaim everything I have said. You must tell these people,

'The LORD will roar from heaven

and thunder from the heights of heaven.

He will roar against his people;

he will shout like a man treading grapes.

Everyone on earth will hear him,

³¹

and the sound will echo to the ends of the earth.

The LORD has a case against the nations.

He will bring all people to trial

and put the wicked to death.

The LORD has spoken.'"

³²The LORD Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth. ³³On that day the bodies of those whom the LORD has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.

³⁴Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, and you will be butchered like rams. ³⁵There will be no way for you to escape. ^36-37You moan and cry out in distress because the LORD in his anger has destroyed your nation and left your peaceful country in ruins. ³⁸The LORD has abandoned his people like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the LORD's fierce anger have turned the country into a desert.

Jeremiah Is Brought to Trial

Jeremiah 26 Soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah, ²the LORD said to me, "Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything. ³Perhaps the people will listen and give up their evil ways. If they do, then I will change my mind about the destruction I plan to bring on them for all their wicked deeds."

⁴The LORD told me to say to the people, "I, the LORD, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you, ⁵and by paying attention to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have kept on sending to you. You have never obeyed what they said. ⁶If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse."

⁷The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple, ⁸and as soon as I had finished all that the LORD had commanded me to speak, they grabbed me and shouted, "You ought to be killed for this! ⁹Why have you said in the LORD's name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?" Then the people crowded around me.

¹⁰When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate. ¹¹Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, "This man deserves to be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears."

¹²Then I said, "The LORD sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city. ¹³You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the LORD your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you. ¹⁴As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right. ¹⁵But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the LORD who sent me to give you this warning."

¹⁶Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man spoke to us in the name of the LORD our God; he should not be put to death."

¹⁷After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had gathered, ¹⁸"When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the LORD Almighty had said,

'Zion will be plowed like a field;

Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins,

and the Temple hill will become a forest.'
¹⁹King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah honored the LORD and tried to win his favor. And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves."

( ²⁰ There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the LORD against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did. ²¹When King Jehoiakim and his soldiers and officials heard what Uriah had said, the king tried to have him killed. But Uriah heard about it; so he fled in terror and escaped to Egypt. ²²King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men to Egypt to get Uriah. ²³They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

²⁴But because I had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan, I was not handed over to the people and killed.

A Prayer of Humble Trust

Psalm 131 LORD, I have given up my pride

and turned away from my arrogance.

I am not concerned with great matters

or with subjects too difficult for me.

²Instead, I am content and at peace.

As a child lies quietly in its mother's arms,

so my heart is quiet within me.

³Israel, trust in the LORD

now and forever!

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.