Giê-rê-mi 24

Two baskets set before the temple

¹The LORD showed me two baskets of figs set in front of the temple of the LORD. This was after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen and the smiths, and had brought them to Babylon. ²One basket held very good figs, like figs that ripen first; the other basket held very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.

³Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad ones are very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to me: ⁵“The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: Like these good figs, so I will regard with favor the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶I will keep my eyes on them for their good and bring them back to this land. I will build them, not tear them down; I will plant them, not uproot them. ⁷I will give them a heart to know me, to know that I am the LORD; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will turn back to me with their whole heart.

⁸But as for the bad figs, so bad that they cannot be eaten, the LORD says this: In the same way I will treat Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, the rest of Jerusalem who are left in this land, and those who are living in the land of Egypt. ⁹I will make them a horror and a disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth. In all the places where I drive them, they will be a disgrace and a proverb, a byword and a curse.^{a 10}I will send sword, famine and plague against them until they are wiped out from the land I gave to them and to their ancestors.”