World English Bible, British Edition
Jeremiah • Chapter 24
1
The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the
LORD’s temple, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought
them to Babylon.
2
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, they were so bad.
3
Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
I said, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad are very bad, so bad that they can’t be
eaten.”
4
The LORD’s word came to me, saying,
5
“The LORD, the God (Elohim) of Israel says: ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard
the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, as good.
6
For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again
to this land. I will build them, and not pull them down. I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be
my people, and I will be their God (Elohim); for they will return to me with their whole heart.
8
“‘As the bad figs, which can’t be eaten, they are so bad,’ surely
the LORD says, ‘So I will give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem
who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.
9
I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth amongst all the
kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where
I will drive them.
10
I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence amongst them,
until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.’”