Jeremiah 24
1 The LORD showed me two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD. This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the leaders of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths.
2 One basket held very good figs, like the early figs; the other held very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
3 The LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”
4 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
5 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I will look favorably on the exiles of Judah, whom I sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.
6 I will look after them for their good and bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.
7 I will give them a heart to know me, to know that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart.
8 “But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten, this is what the LORD says: ‘That is how I will treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, his leaders, and the rest of Jerusalem—the survivors left in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.
9 I will make them a horror and a disgrace to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse in every place where I drive them.
10 I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they are wiped out from the soil I gave them and their ancestors.’”
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