Chapter 24

Baskets of Figs and the Returnees

1 After aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me: behold, two bbaskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord!

2 One basket had very good figs, like afirst-ripe figs, and the other basket had bvery bad figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness.

3 Then the Lord said to me, “aWhat do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

5 “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard aas good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

6 ‘For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will abring them again to this land; and I will bbuild them up and not overthrow them, and I will cplant them and not pluck them up.

7 ‘I will give them a aheart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be bMy people, and I will be their God, for they will creturn to Me with their whole heart.

8 ‘But like the abad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness—indeed, thus says the Lord—so I will 1abandon bZedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the cremnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of dEgypt.

9 ‘I will amake them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a breproach and a proverb, a taunt and a ccurse in all places where I will scatter them.

10 ‘I will send the asword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.’ ”