Old Testament · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 24

The Good and Bad Figs

1The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon. 2The one basket had very good figs, like the first-ripe figs; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten from badness.

3And the LORD said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten from badness.

4And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard for good the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. 6And I will set my eye upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; and I will build them, and not tear them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8And like the bad figs, which cannot be eaten from badness; surely thus says the LORD: So will I make Zedekiah king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt; 9and I will make them a horror for evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I drive them. 10And I will send among them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until they are consumed from off the ground^a which I gave to them and to their fathers.