jeremiah

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

24 
(A)After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem (B)Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ©the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, (D)two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, (E)like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had (F)very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, (G)whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. (H)I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. (I)I will build them up, and not tear them down; (J)I will plant them, and not pluck them up. (K)I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, (L)and they shall be my people (M)and I will be their God, (N)for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

“But thus says the Lord: Like (O)the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat (P)Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who (Q)dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them ®a horror[a] to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be (S)a reproach, (T)a byword, (U)a taunt, and (V)a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send (W)sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 24:9 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil