Jeremiah 24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
8 But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt.(F) 9 I will make them a horror, an evil thing, to all the kingdoms of the earth—a disgrace, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them.(G) 10 And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them until they are utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their ancestors.(H)
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Romans 9:19-33
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
God’s Wrath and Mercy
19 You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”(A) 20 But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”(B) 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?(C) 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction,(D) 23 and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles? 25 As he also says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”(E)
26 “And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they shall be called children of the living God.”(F)
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,(G) 28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”[a] 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left descendants to us,
we would have fared like Sodom
and been made like Gomorrah.”(H)
Israel’s Unbelief
30 What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith,(I) 31 but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.(J) 32 Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,(K) 33 as it is written,
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall,
and whoever trusts in him[b] will not be put to shame.”(L)
John 9:1-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
A Man Born Blind Receives Sight
9 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.(A) 4 We[a] must work the works of him who sent me[b] while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.(B) 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”(C) 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes,(D) 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.(E) 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.(F) 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided.(G) 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”(H)
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.