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The warnings to Judah's people continue. Rogue shepherds will trample its vineyards, turning pleasant pasture into parched and desolate wasteland because there is no one left to care about it or take care for it. These shepherds are Babylon's armies which arrive decades after Jeremiah is writing. There is still time to turn the ship around, but no one appears to be listening. If they are...

The slow tour through the Bible's longest book (by word count) continues. Standing at the entrance to Jerusalem's temple, Jeremiah accuses the nation's Jews of simply paying lip service to worshipping God. These people are so convinced that their Jewishness alone will rescue them that they are happy hedging their bets by worshipping lots of other gods. God however, is a fan of exclu...

There's no telling some people. Judah's Jews assume that they have a free pass when it comes to enjoying the good life. Simply because of an accident of birth and their ethnicity, they feel that God will turn a blind eye to the fact that they have wholeheartedly abandoned him, choosing instead to immerse themselves in pagan religion. Jeremiah has news for these people, and as the title o...

It's not easy being an Old Testament prophet. Jeremiah describes the feeling of being stabbed in the heart and writhing in pain. His compatriots seem not only content to turn their backs on God - the 'Big I Am' believed to have set the universe in motion - they are hedging their bets with every other deity then can grab hold of. The prophet describes his people as lusty stallions an...

A sex worker waiting by the road for hook-ups  A young camel so on heat she doesn't even need chasing. Such is the out of control idolatry of the nation of Judah. Yet one holy man can see the writing on the wall and is is tasked with warning his people before it's too late and God calls time on their nation. That man is Jeremiah. Join us as Season 20 begins. Written and produced by Chas...

The doom and gloom continues - this is a book by an Old Testament prophet after all - but there is also light at the end of the tunnel. Israel will rebound and its people will drink deeply "from her satisfying breasts." The prophet foresees a future where people are not only forgiven by God, he forgets the things they did wrong. Better still, he is planning an entirely new heaven and a n...

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord  He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” These words from The Battle Hymn of the Republic embody this passage from Isaiah's epic book. Poetry rises to a crescendo as the prophet explains the euphoria of his people's future hope as well as the brutal punishment which he believes God will rain down on I...

Doom is coming. The days of all those who fail to follow God wholeheartedly are numbered. Nor is this any kind of fair-weather following. Performative box ticking gets nowhere with God, it seems. Isaiah wants his people to be completely aware of what is coming if they do not undertake a volte face, put away their pagan idols and return to the one deity who has consistently fought their battles and...

A childless old woman who is drunk on wine is about as defenceless and vulnerable as life can get in Old Testament times.  This woman who represents the city of Jerusalem has been brought down by her own personal four horsemen: ruin, destruction, famine and sword.  She is inconsolable and her children are as powerless as she is, lying unconscious on the ground like an antelope caught in a net and...

Hard as it may be to believe that freedom and a return to Jerusalem are just around the corner for Israel's exiled Jews, Isaiah does what he can to impress upon his readers that this is exactly what is about to happen. He also appears to spell out in uncanny detail that a man is coming who will be verbally and physically abused for the wrongdoings of everyone else, and that he will be "a...

A shamed princess having to hoist her skirts in order to cross streams, and who sits in the dirt like a commoner. This is how the prophet Isaiah sees the proud empire of Babylon. It seems improbable, but Isaiah believes anything is possible with his God. Right now, God is predicting that his own people will be freed from Babylonian captivity without bloodshed or money changing hands, and that the...

A man who will be "a light to the Gentiles" and who will "open the eyes of the blind and set the prisoners free." It's easy to see how Christians believe Isaiah was predicting the arrival of Jesus. But the prophet promises action much sooner, and much closer to home. In a move unprecedented in Near Eastern history, Persia's king will set his Israelite captives free. ...

In this episode, we identify Lilith, a Jewish myth figure believed to have been married both to Adam and the Angel of Death. Isaiah also appears to predict New Testament holy man, John the Baptist, writes my favourite verse in the entire Bible, gets embroiled in a plagiarism battle and appears to hand his quill to another scribe. Quite an episode. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Mic...

As the title suggests, Isaiah doesn't pull any punches. If graphic and repulsive use of bodily fluids as a metaphor get his readers' attention, the prophet is all in. However, anyone looking for action and adventure may be disappointed; in Isaiah's book, the drama is all in the writing. If you want a quintessential raging Old Testament prophet so incandescent that he tips  into apoc...

Isaiah's tirade against Israel's neighbours continues, and with it come vivid descriptions of Near Eastern Mediterranean trade in the eighth century BC. But God's fury doesn't stop with pagan kingdoms and empires; Judah too is in the firing line. Oh, and in this episode, the prophet also strips naked, and remains "au naturel" for three years. Truly, there is nothing i...

If you picture in your head a robed, beared prophet raging with florid language at at a nation that isn't listening to him, you are probably thinking of Isaiah. In this episode, he launches a broadside against nations who he believes are enemies of God. These are Israel's near neighbours and the prophet foresees disaster for each and every one of them. Enjoy the schadenfreude. WARNING: T...

"Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." It's no wonder that these words written some 800 years before the birth of Jesus make the prophet Isaiah such a favourite with Christians, especially at Christmas.  However, before Jesus arrives to save the day, things are going to get worse for Israel. Much, much worse. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Mu...

It's easy to see the Bible as fable, a kind of religious fairy tale with a moralistic sting in its tail. Passages like this one show that much of the book is rooted in actual historical events. These chapters are a snapshot of the late eighth century BC Middle East. The prophet Isaiah is begging the king of one of these nations (Ahaz of Judah) not to enter an alliance with two others (Israel...

The poetry books are over and now it's time for the prophets to step up. These are the maverick outsiders, the truth tellers who appear able to channel the word of God and to warn their nations of the danger of turning their backs on him. Of all the men who rage through the pages of these books, Isaiah is perhaps the most quintessential, and certainly the most poetic. He is also much beloved...

How this book made it into the Bible is a mystery. Why it rarely gets a outing in church services us not surprising.; The Song of Songs is steamy stuff, so much so we've had to put an 'explicit content' warning on this episode. Some see the book as a metaphor for God's love for his church, others see a gentleman delighting in the aromatic fruits of a lady's garden as a who...

In a book that rarely veers away from blank negativity and abject realism, the Teacher in Ecclesiastes gives readers yet another reality check: The fast don’t always win the race nor are the strong guaranteed to prevail in battle.  The wise don’t always have enough to eat, the brilliant aren’t always rich and everyone is subject to the vagaries of time and chance.  We simply make the most of the c...

Suffering is part of the human condition. But is it part of God's plan for his people? Why, if he is all powerful, doesn't he stop it? Yes listeners, we go there. Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins Music Cover Art by Lisa Goff

Gilead. Marthas. Handmaids. Eyes. They sound biblical but if they are, where and what do these references mean? Are actual slave women co-opted as surrogate baby providers in the Bible? Do they truly lie in their mistresses' laps to conceive and give birth? What do the Handmaids mean by "Blessed be the fruit"? And who was the original Jezebel? Fans of the show need look no further....

Meaningless! Meaningless! There aren't many books in the Bible or otherwise that begin as bleakly as this one. And, plot spoiler, the vibe doesn't lift much as Ecclesiastes progresses. There is no point to life it seems than for a person to eat, drink and take what pleasure they can from work, as a human lifespan is as brief as it is pointless. Furthermore, the dead are soon forgotten. E...

Unexpectedly, given that the only women described in the Book of Proverbs so far have been an adulteress and a quarrelsome wife, the book's finale is a eulogy to a character referred to as "the Wife of Noble Character". This woman is a striking example of smartness, industry, economy, care and moral support, and also provides a fascinating insight into the independence of ancient Ne...