Jeremiah 24

1 The Lord shewed me: and behold two baskets full of figs, set before the temple of the Lord: after that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, and his chief men, and the craftsmen, and engravers of Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

バビロンの王ネブカデレザルがユダの王エホヤキムの子エコニヤおよびユダの君たちと工匠と鍛冶をエルサレムからバビロンに移して後、主はわたしにこの幻をお示しになった。見よ、主の宮の前に置かれているいちじくを盛った二つのかごがあった。

2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs of the first season: and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, because they were bad.

その一つのかごには、はじめて熟したような非常に良いいちじくがあり、ほかのかごには非常に悪くて食べられないほどの悪いいちじくが入れてあった。

3 And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: Figs, the good figs, very good: and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten because they are bad.

主はわたしに、「エレミヤよ、何を見るか」と言われた。わたしは、「いちじくです。その良いいちじくは非常によく、悪いほうのいちじくは非常に悪くて、食べられません」と答えた。

4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

主の言葉がまたわたしに臨んだ、

5 Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Juda, whom I have sent forth out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their own good.

「イスラエルの神、主はこう仰せられる、この所からカルデヤびとの地に追いやったユダの捕われ人を、わたしはこの良いいちじくのように顧みて恵もう。

6 And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I will bring them again into this land: and I will be their God: and I will build them up, and not pull them down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

わたしは彼らに目をかけてこれを恵み、彼らをこの地に返し、彼らを建てて倒さず、植えて抜かない。

7 And 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: because they shall return to me with their whole heart.

わたしは彼らにわたしが主であることを知る心を与えよう。彼らはわたしの民となり、わたしは彼らの神となる。彼らは一心にわたしのもとに帰ってくる。

8 And as the very bad figs, that cannot be eaten, because they are bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that have remained in this city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt.

主はこう仰せられる、わたしはユダの王ゼデキヤとそのつかさたち、およびエルサレムの人の残ってこの地にいる者、ならびにエジプトの地に住んでいる者を、この悪くて食べられない悪いいちじくのようにしよう。

9 And I will deliver them up to vexation, and affliction, to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a byword, and a proverb, and to be a curse in all places, to which I have cast them out.

わたしは彼らを地のもろもろの国で、忌みきらわれるものとし、またわたしの追いやるすべての所で、はずかしめに会わせ、ことわざとなり、あざけりと、のろいに会わせる。

10 And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them, and their fathers.

わたしはつるぎと、ききんと、疫病を彼らのうちに送って、ついに彼らをわたしが彼らとその先祖とに与えた地から絶えさせる」。