Jeremiah 24

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

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. 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. 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.”

Then the word of the  Lord came to me: 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. 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. 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.

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. I will make them r a horror
Compare Septuagint; Hebrew  horror for evil
to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be t a reproach, u a byword, v a taunt, and w a curse in all the places where I shall drive them.
10 And I will send x sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

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