< Jeremiah 24 >
1 The Lord caused me to see, and, behold, there were two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon had carried away into exile Yechonyahu the son of Yehoyakim the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and the locksmiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒將猶大王約雅敬的兒子耶哥尼雅和猶大的首領,並工匠、鐵匠從耶路撒冷擄去,帶到巴比倫。這事以後,耶和華指給我看,有兩筐無花果放在耶和華的殿前。
2 The one basket [had] very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket [had] very bad figs, which could not be eaten, from being so bad.
一筐是極好的無花果,好像是初熟的;一筐是極壞的無花果,壞得不可吃。
3 Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs: the good figs, are very good; and the bad ones, are very bad, which cannot be eaten, from being so bad.
於是耶和華問我說:「耶利米你看見甚麼?」我說:「我看見無花果,好的極好,壞的極壞,壞得不可吃。」
4 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
耶和華的話臨到我說:「
5 Thus hath said the Lord, the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good.
耶和華-以色列的上帝如此說:被擄去的猶大人,就是我打發離開這地到迦勒底人之地去的,我必看顧他們如這好無花果,使他們得好處。
6 And I will set my eye upon them for good, and I will cause them to return again to this land; and I will build them up, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
我要眷顧他們,使他們得好處,領他們歸回這地。我也要建立他們,必不拆毀;栽植他們,並不拔出。
7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be unto me for a people, and I will be unto them for God! for they will return unto me with all their heart.
我要賜他們認識我的心,知道我是耶和華。他們要作我的子民,我要作他們的上帝,因為他們要一心歸向我。」
8 And like the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, from being so bad, surely thus hath said the Lord, So I will render Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and those that dwell in the land of Egypt;
耶和華如此說:「我必將猶大王西底家和他的首領,以及剩在這地耶路撒冷的餘民,並住在埃及地的猶大人都交出來,好像那極壞、壞得不可吃的無花果。
9 And I will make them a horror because of [their] mishaps unto all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and a proverb, a byword and a curse, in all the places whither I will drive them.
我必使他們交出來,在天下萬國中拋來拋去,遭遇災禍;在我趕逐他們到的各處成為凌辱、笑談、譏刺、咒詛。
10 And I will send out against them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, till they be destroyed from off the land that I had given unto them and to their fathers.
我必使刀劍、饑荒、瘟疫臨到他們,直到他們從我所賜給他們和他們列祖之地滅絕。」