Jeremiah 24

₁The Lord showed me something. There were 2 baskets of figs in front of the temple that people had brought. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Jehoiachin, king_of_Judah, with his officials and artisans from Jerusalem to Babylon. King Jehoiachin was the son of Jehoiakim. ₂There were very good figs in one basket. They were like early figs. But the figs in the other basket were very bad. They were so bad that no one could eat them. ₃The Lord asked me: ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’

I said: ‘I see figs. The good figs are very good and the bad figs are very bad, so bad that no one can eat them.’

₄Then the Lord said to me: ₅‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The people of Judah will be like these good figs to Me. I sent them away from this land when the enemies defeated them and took them away to the land of Babylon. ₆I will look after them and bring them back to the land_of_Judah. I will build them and make them strong. I will not break them down or destroy them. I will plant them, and I will not pull them out. ₇I will change their hearts so that they will know Me because I am the Lord. They will be my people and I will be their God, because they will come back to Me with all their hearts.

₈But like the bad figs that no one can eat, that is how Zedekiah, king_of_Judah, will be to Me, he and his officials, and the people who are still_alive here in Jerusalem and in this land, and the people who live in Egypt. ₉Zedekiah will suffer, he and all his people, where I will send them, in all the lands where I will chase them. The other nations will do to them as they want. They will mock them, curse them and use their names when they want to say bad things to other people. ₁₀But before Zedekiah and his people go away from here, I will send war, famine and disease until there are no more people in the land that I gave them and their forefathers.’