Jeremiah 24

1 [The army of] King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and his officials, and all his skilled workers [DOU] and took them to Babylon. After that happened, Yahweh gave me a vision. [In the vision] I saw two baskets of figs that had been placed in front of the temple.

Jehovah showed me this vision. Behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of Jehovah. This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, and the artificers, and the smiths, from Jerusalem, and had led them to Babylon.

2 One basket was full of good figs, like the kind that ripen first. The other basket was filled with figs that were bad/rotten, with the result that they could not be eaten.

One of the baskets contained very good figs, like those which are first ripe. The other contained very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.

3 Then Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I replied, “[I see some] figs. Some are very good ones, but some are very bad, with the result that no one would eat them.”

And Jehovah said to me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said: Figs; the good figs, exceedingly good; and the bad, exceedingly bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.

4 Then Yahweh gave me this message:

Then came the word of Jehovah to me, saying:

5 “This is what [I], Yahweh, the God whom the Israeli people [say that they worship], say: ‘The good figs represent [SIM] the people of Judah whom I exiled to Babylonia.

Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: As these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of Chaldaea for their good;

6 I [SYN] will (watch over/take care of) them well, and [some day] I will bring them back here [to Judah]. I will establish them and cause them to be strong. I will cause them to be prosperous [MET], and I will not exile them [again].

yea, I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them 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.

7 I will enable them to desire to know [IDM] that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me sincerely.’

And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8 But [I], Yahweh, [also] say, ‘The bad figs represent [SIM] Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his officials, and all the [other] people who remain in Jerusalem, and those who have gone to Egypt. I will do to them like people do to rotten figs.

And as the bad figs, which are so bad that they cannot be eaten, saith Jehovah, so will I make Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, those that are left in this land, and those that dwell in the land of Egypt;

9 I will [get rid of them], with the result that people in every nation on the earth will be horrified, and will hate them because they are evil people. Wherever I scatter them, people will make fun of them, and say that they are disgraced, and ridicule them, and curse them.

and I will give them up to oppression and affliction in all the kingdoms of the earth; yea, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

10 And I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases, until they have disappeared from this land which I gave to them and to their ancestors.’”

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