Jeremiah 23:29-24:7

English Standard Version

²⁹^(A)Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and ^(B)like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ³⁰^(C)Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the Lord.’ ³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and ^(D)lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when ^(E)I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.

³³^(F)“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,^[a] and ^(G)I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ ³⁴And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ ^(H)I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and ^(I)you pervert the words of ^(J)the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’” ³⁹therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up^[b] and ^(K)cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰^(L)And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and ^(M)perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

24 ^(N)After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem ^(O)Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ^(P)the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, ^(Q)two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. ²One basket had very good figs, ^(R)like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ^(S)very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. ³And 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.”

⁴Then 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, ^(T)whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶^(U)I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^(V)I will build them up, and not tear them down; ^(W)I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ⁷^(X)I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, ^(Y)and they shall be my people ^(Z)and I will be their God, ^(AA)for they shall return to me with their whole heart.