3 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”^(A)

⁹ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll, and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.”^{(A) 10} So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.^(B)

¹⁷ Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.^{(A) 18} When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give them no warning and do not speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way in order to save their lives, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(B) 19} But if you warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.^{(C) 20} Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(D) 21} If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin and they do not sin, they shall surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved your life.^(E)

⁸ “But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”^{(A) 9} I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^(B)

¹⁵ Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress.

¹⁵ I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.^[a] And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.^(A)

The Good and the Bad Figs

24 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. This was after King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the artisans, and the smiths, and had brought them to Babylon.^{(A) 2} One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.^{(B) 3} And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs—the good figs very good and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”^(C)

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁵ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not pluck them up.^{(D) 7} I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with their whole heart.^(E)

¹⁰ He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(A)

³ He said to me, “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation^[a] of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day.^(A)