Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

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

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, ^(G)whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ^6 (H)I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^(I)I will build them up, and not tear them down; ^(J)I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ^7 (K)I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^(L)and they shall be my people ^(M)and I will be their God, ^(N)for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

⁸ “But thus says the Lord: Like ^(O)the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ^(P)Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who ^(Q)dwell in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them ^(R)a horror^[a] to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ^(S)a reproach, ^(T)a byword, ^(U)a taunt, and ^(V)a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. ¹⁰ And I will send ^(W)sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For ^(A)who can resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, O man, ^(B)to answer back to God? ^(C)Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ^21 (D)Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump ^(E)one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? ²² What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience ^(F)vessels of wrath ^(G)prepared for destruction, ²³ in order to make known ^(H)the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he ^(I)has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ even us whom he ^(J)has called, ^(K)not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As indeed he says in Hosea,

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ^(O)“Though the number of the sons of Israel^[a] be as the sand of the sea, ^(P)only a remnant of them will be saved, ²⁸ for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” ²⁹ And as Isaiah predicted,

Israel's Unbelief

³⁰ What shall we say, then? ^(T)That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, ^(U)a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but that Israel ^(V)who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness^{[b] (W)}did not succeed in reaching that law. ³² Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the ^(X)stumbling stone, ³³ as it is written,

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ² And his disciples asked him, ^(A)“Rabbi, ^(B)who sinned, ^(C)this man or ^(D)his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but ^(E)that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ We must ^(F)work the works of him who sent me ^(G)while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, ^(H)I am the light of the world.” ⁶ Having said these things, ^(I)he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. ^(J)Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud ⁷ and said to him, “Go, wash in ^(K)the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ^(L)came back seeing.

⁸ The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ^(M)“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰ So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹ He answered, ^(N)“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹² They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ^14 (O)Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ^15 (P)So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not ^(Q)from God, ^(R)for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, ^(S)“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And ^(T)there was a division among them. ¹⁷ So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, ^(U)“He is a prophet.”