Jeremiah 24  Contemporary English Version

Jeremiah Has a Vision of Two Baskets of Figs

24 ^(A) The Lord spoke to me in a vision after King Nebuchadnezzar^[a] of Babylonia had come to Judah and taken King Jehoiachin,^[b] his officials, and all the skilled workers back to Babylonia. In this vision I saw two baskets of figs in front of the Lord's temple. ² One basket was full of very good figs that ripened early, and the other was full of rotten figs that were not fit to eat.

³ “Jeremiah,” the Lord asked, “what do you see?”

“Figs,” I said. “Some are very good, but the others are too rotten to eat.”

⁴ Then the Lord told me to say:

⁵ People of Judah, the good figs stand for those of you I sent away as exiles to Babylonia, ⁶ where I am watching over them. Then someday I will bring them back to this land. I will plant them, instead of uprooting them, and I will build them up, rather than tearing them down. ⁷ I will give them a desire to know me and to be my people. They will want me to be their God, and they will turn back to me with all their heart.

⁸ The rotten figs stand for King Zedekiah^[c] of Judah, his officials, and all the others who were not taken away to Babylonia, whether they stayed here in Judah or went to live in Egypt. ⁹ I will punish them with a terrible disaster, and everyone on earth will tremble when they hear about it. I will force the people of Judah to go to foreign countries, where they will be cursed and insulted. ¹⁰ War and hunger and disease will strike them, until they finally disappear from the land that I gave them and their ancestors.