Jeremiah 24:1-10
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Good figs and bad figs (1-10)
24 Then Jehovah showed me two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah, after King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar* of Babylon had carried into exile Jec·o·niʹah*+ son of Je·hoiʹa·kim,+ the king of Judah, along with the princes of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers;* he took them from Jerusalem to Babylon.+
2 One basket had very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.
3 Jehovah then asked me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” So I said: “Figs; the good figs are very good, but the bad ones are very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”+
4 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying:
5 “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard in a good way the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chal·deʹans.
6 I will keep my eye on them for their good, and I will cause them to return to this land.+ I will build them up, and I will not tear down; I will plant them, and I will not uproot.+
7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah.+ They will become my people, and I will become their God,+ for they will return to me with all their heart.+
8 “‘But concerning the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten,+ this is what Jehovah says: “So I will regard King Zed·e·kiʹah+ of Judah, his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem who are left in this land, and those who are dwelling in the land of Egypt.+
9 I will make them an object of horror and calamity to all the kingdoms of the earth,+ a reproach, a proverbial saying, a cause for ridicule, and a curse+ in all the places to which I disperse them.+
10 And I will send against them the sword,+ the famine, and the pestilence,*+ until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and to their forefathers.”’”
