Jeremiah 24  Living Bible

24 After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had captured and enslaved Jeconiah (son of Jehoiakim), king of Judah, and exiled him to Babylon along with the princes of Judah and the skilled tradesmen—the carpenters and blacksmiths—the Lord gave me this vision. ² I saw two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple in Jerusalem. In one basket there were fresh, just-ripened figs, but in the other the figs were spoiled and moldy—too rotten to eat. ³ Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

I replied, “Figs, some very good and some very bad.”

^4-5 Then the Lord said: “The good figs represent the exiles sent to Babylon. I have done it for their good. ⁶ I will see that they are well treated, and I will bring them back here again. I will help them and not hurt them; I will plant them and not pull them up. ⁷ I will give them hearts that respond to me. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with great joy.

⁸ “But the rotten figs represent Zedekiah, king of Judah, his officials, and all the others of Jerusalem left here in this land; those too who live in Egypt. I will treat them like spoiled figs, too bad to use. ⁹ I will make them repulsive to every nation of the earth, and they shall be mocked and taunted and cursed wherever I compel them to go. ¹⁰ And I will send massacre and famine and disease among them until they are destroyed from the land of Israel, which I gave to them and to their fathers.”