Old/New Testament
The Good and Bad Figs
24 I saw a vision after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim as a prisoner. Jehoiachin king of Judah and his officers were taken away from Jerusalem. They were taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took away all the craftsmen and metalworkers of Judah. It was then that the Lord showed me these things: I saw two baskets of figs. They were arranged in front of the Temple of the Lord. 2 One of the baskets had very good figs in it. They were like figs that ripen early in the season. But the other basket had rotten figs. They were too rotten to eat.
3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
I answered, “I see figs. The good figs are very good. But the rotten figs are too rotten to eat.”
4 Then the Lord spoke his word to me. 5 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said: “I sent the people of Judah out of their country into Babylon. Those people will be like these good figs. I think of them as good. 6 I will look after them. I will bring them back to the land of Judah. I will not tear them down. I will build them up. I will not pull them up. I will plant them so they can grow. 7 I will make them want to know me. They will know that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God. This is because they will return to me with their whole hearts.
8 “But the bad figs are too rotten to eat,” says the Lord. “Zedekiah king of Judah and his officers will be like those rotten figs. All the people from Jerusalem who are left alive will be like that. This will be true even if those people now live in Egypt. 9 I will make those people hated as an evil people by all the kingdoms of the earth. People will make fun of the people from Judah and tell jokes about them. People will point fingers at them. They will curse them everywhere I scatter them. 10 I will send war, hunger and disease against them. I will attack them until they have all been killed. Then they will no longer be in the land I gave to them and their ancestors.”
A Summary of Jeremiah’s Preaching
25 This is the message that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah. It came in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. This was the first year Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. 2 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
3 The Lord has spoken his word to me again and again for these past 23 years. I have been a prophet since the thirteenth year of Josiah. Josiah was the son of Amon king of Judah. I have spoken messages from the Lord to you from that time until today. But you have not listened.
4 The Lord has sent his servants the prophets to you over and over again. But you have not listened to them. You have not paid any attention to them. 5 They have said, “Stop your evil ways. Stop doing what is wrong. Do this so you can stay in the land. This is the land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors long ago. He gave it to you to live in forever. 6 Don’t follow other gods to serve them or to worship them. You must not worship idols that are the work of someone’s hands. That makes the Lord angry, and he will punish you.”
7 “But you did not listen to me,” says the Lord. “You worshiped idols that were the work of someone’s hands. That made me angry. So I punished you.”
8 So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says: “You have not listened to my messages. 9 So I will soon send for all the peoples of the north,” says the Lord. “I will soon send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will bring them all against Judah and all the nations around you, too. I will completely destroy all those countries. I will leave them in ruins forever. People will be shocked when they see how badly they will be destroyed. 10 I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and happiness. There will be no more happy sounds of brides and bridegrooms. I will take away the sound of people grinding meal. And I will take away the light of the lamp. 11 That whole area will be an empty desert. And these nations will be slaves of the king of Babylon for 70 years.
12 “But when the 70 years have passed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation,” says the Lord. “I will punish the Babylonians for their evil. I will make that land a desert forever. 13 I have said many terrible things will happen to Babylonia. All of them will happen. Jeremiah prophesied about those foreign nations. And the warnings are written in this book. 14 The Babylonians will have to serve many nations and many great kings. I will give them the punishment they deserve. They will be punished for all the things they do.”
Judgment on the Nations
15 The Lord, the God of Israel, said this to me: “My anger is like the wine in a cup. Take it from my hand. I am sending you to all the nations. Make them drink all of my anger from this cup. 16 They will drink my anger like wine. Then they will not be able to walk straight. They will act like madmen. They will do this because of the war that I am going to send among them.”
17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand. I went to those nations. And I made them drink from the cup. 18 I poured this wine for the people of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. I made the kings and officers of Judah drink from the cup. I did it so that they would become a ruin. People would be shocked when they saw how badly they were destroyed. People would insult them and speak evil of them. And it happened. Judah is like that now. 19 I also made these people drink from that cup of my anger: the king of Egypt, his servants, his officers and all his people; 20 all the Arabs, and all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (the kings of the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the people left at Ashdod); 21 the people of Edom, Moab and Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; all the kings of the faraway countries; 23 the people of Dedan and Tema and Buz; all who cut their hair short; 24 all the kings of Arabia; and the kings of the people who live in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other. I made all the kingdoms on earth drink from the cup of the Lord’s anger. But the king of Babylon will drink from this cup after all the others.
27 “Then say this to them: ‘This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink this cup of my anger. Get drunk from it and vomit. Fall down and don’t get up. Don’t get up because I am sending a war to kill you!’
28 “They will refuse to take the cup from your hand. They will refuse to drink it. Then say this to them: ‘The Lord of heaven’s armies says this: You must drink from this cup. 29 I am already bringing disaster on Jerusalem. And it is the city that is called by my name. And do you think you will not be punished? You will be punished! I am sending war on all the people of the earth, says the Lord of heaven’s armies.’
30 “You will prophesy against them with these words. Say to them:
‘The Lord roars from heaven.
He shouts from his Holy Temple.
He roars against his land.
He will shout like people who walk on grapes to make wine.
He will shout against all who live on the earth.
31 The noise will spread all over the earth.
This is because the Lord is punishing all the nations.
He judges and tells what is wrong with all people.
And he is killing the evil people with a sword,’” says the Lord.
32 This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:
“Disasters will soon spread
from nation to nation.
They will come like a powerful storm
to all the faraway places on earth.”
33 At that time the dead bodies will reach from one end of the earth to the other. No one will cry for them. No one will gather up their bodies and bury them. They will be left lying on the ground like dung.
34 Cry, you leaders! Cry out loud!
Roll around in the dust, leaders of the people!
It is now time for you to be killed.
You will fall and be scattered everywhere, like pieces of a broken jar.
35 There will be no place for the leaders to hide.
These leaders will not escape.
36 I hear the leaders shouting.
I hear the leaders of the people crying loudly.
This is because the Lord is destroying their land.
37 Those peaceful pastures will be like an empty desert.
This happened because the Lord is very angry.
38 The Lord, like a lion, has left his den.
Their land has been destroyed.
It is because of his destroying anger.
It is because of his fierce anger.
Jeremiah’s Lesson at the Temple
26 This message came from the Lord. It was during the first year Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. 2 This is what the Lord said: “Jeremiah, stand in the courtyard of the Temple of the Lord. Give this message to all the people of the towns of Judah. They are coming to worship at the Temple of the Lord. Tell them everything I tell you to say. Don’t leave out any part of my message. 3 Maybe they will listen and stop their evil ways. I have plans to bring disaster on them because of the evil they have done. But if they change, I will change my mind about bringing disaster on them. 4 Say to them: ‘This is what the Lord says: I gave my teachings to you. You must obey me and follow my teachings. 5 You must listen to what my servants the prophets say to you. I have sent prophets to you again and again. But you did not listen to them. 6 If you don’t obey me, I will destroy my Temple in Jerusalem. I will destroy it as I destroyed my Holy Tent at Shiloh. People all over the world will curse Jerusalem.’”
7 The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah. He said all of these words in the Temple of the Lord. 8 Jeremiah finished speaking everything the Lord had commanded him to say. Then the priests, prophets and all the people grabbed Jeremiah. They said, “You must die! 9 How dare you prophesy such a thing in the name of the Lord! How dare you say that this Temple will be destroyed like the one at Shiloh! How dare you say that Jerusalem will become a desert without anyone to live in it!” All the people crowded around Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.
10 Now the officers of Judah heard about what was happening. So they came out of the king’s palace and went up to the Temple of the Lord. There they took their places at the entrance of the New Gate. 11 Then the priests and prophets spoke to the officers and all the other people. They said, “Jeremiah should be killed. He said bad things about Jerusalem! You heard him say it.”
12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officers of Judah and all the other people. He said, “The Lord sent me to say these things about this Temple and this city. Everything that you have heard is from the Lord. 13 Now change your lives! You must start doing good things. You must obey the Lord your God. If you do that, the Lord will change his mind. He will not bring on you the disaster he has told you about. 14 As for me, I am in your power. Do to me what you think is good and right. 15 But if you kill me, be sure of one thing. You will be guilty of killing an innocent person. You will make this city and everyone who lives in it guilty, too! The Lord sent me to you. The message you heard is from the Lord!”
16 Then the officers and all the people spoke. They said to the priests and the prophets, “Jeremiah must not be killed. What he told us comes from the Lord our God.”
17 Then some of the elders stood up. They spoke to all the people. 18 They said, “Micah the prophet was from the city of Moresheth. He was a prophet during the time Hezekiah was king of Judah. Micah said these things to all the people of Judah: ‘This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:
Jerusalem will be plowed like a field.
Jerusalem will become a pile of rocks.
The hill where the Temple stands will be covered with bushes.’
19 “Hezekiah was the king of Judah. And he did not kill Micah. No one else in Judah killed him. You know that Hezekiah feared the Lord. He wanted to please the Lord. So the Lord changed his mind. He did not bring on Judah the disaster he had promised. If we hurt Jeremiah, we will bring a terrible disaster on ourselves!”
20 (Now there was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord. His name was Uriah the son of Shemaiah. Uriah was from the city of Kiriath Jearim. He preached the same things against this city and land that Jeremiah did. 21 King Jehoiakim, all his army officers and all the leaders of Judah heard Uriah preach. King Jehoiakim wanted to kill Uriah. But Uriah heard about it and was afraid. So he escaped to Egypt. 22 But King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Acbor and some other men to Egypt. 23 They brought Uriah back from Egypt. Then they took him to King Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim ordered Uriah to be killed with a sword. His body was thrown into the burial place where poor people are buried.)
24 There was an important man named Ahikam son of Shaphan. Ahikam supported Jeremiah. So Ahikam kept Jeremiah from being killed by the people.
Following the True Teaching
2 You must tell everyone what they must do to follow the true teaching. 2 Teach older men to have self-control, to be serious, and to be wise. They should be strong in faith, strong in love, and strong in patience.
3 Also, teach older women to be holy in the way they live. Teach them not to speak against others or have the habit of drinking too much wine. They should teach what is good. 4 In that way they can teach younger women to love their husbands and children. 5 They can teach younger women to be wise and pure, to take care of their homes, to be kind, and to obey their husbands. Then no one will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us.
6 In the same way, tell young men to be wise. 7 You should do good deeds to be an example in every way for young men. When you teach, be honest and serious. 8 And when you speak, speak the truth so that you cannot be criticized. Then anyone who is against you will be ashamed because there is nothing bad that he can say against us.
9 And tell slaves to obey their masters at all times. They should try to please them and not argue with them. 10 They should not steal from them. And they should show their masters that they can be trusted. Slaves should do these things so that in everything they do, they will show that the teaching of God our Savior is good.
11 That is the way we should live, because God’s grace has come. That grace can save every person. 12 It teaches us not to live against God and not to do the evil things the world wants to do. That grace teaches us to live in the present age in a wise and right way—a way that shows that we serve God. 13 We should live like that while we are waiting for the coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. He is our great hope, and he will come with glory. 14 He gave himself for us; he died to free us from all evil. He died to make us pure people who belong only to him—people who are always wanting to do good things.
15 Tell everyone these things. You have full authority. So use that authority to strengthen the people and tell them what they should do. And do not let anyone treat you as if you were not important.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.