Jeremiah 24

1 Yahweh showed me something. Behold, two baskets of figs were placed before Yahweh's temple. (This vision happened after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took into exile Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, the officials of Judah, the craftsmen and the metalworkers from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon.)

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.

2 One basket of figs was very good, like first ripe figs, but the other basket of figs was so very bad that they could not be eaten.

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.

3 Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs. Figs that are very good and figs that are so very bad they cannot be eaten.”

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.

4 Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

5 “Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: I will look on the exiles of Judah for their benefit, just like these good figs, the exiles whom I have sent out from this place to the land of Chaldea.

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.

6 I will set my eyes on them for good and restore them to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down. I will plant them, and not uproot them.

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.

7 Then I will give them a heart to know me, for I am Yahweh. They will be my people and I will be their God, so they will turn to me with all their heart.

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.

8 But like the bad figs that are too bad to be eaten—this is what Yahweh says—I will act in this way with Zedekiah, king of Judah, with his officials, and with the rest of Jerusalem who remain in this land or go to stay in the land of Egypt.

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;

9 I will turn them into a frightening thing, a disaster, in the sight of all the kingdoms on earth, a disgrace and a subject for proverbs, taunts, and curses in every place where I will have driven them.

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.

10 I will send out sword, famine, and plague against them, until they are destroyed from the land that I gave them and their ancestors.”

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.