Jeremiah 24

1 [The army of] King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and his officials, and all his skilled workers [DOU] and took them to Babylon. After that happened, Yahweh gave me a vision. [In the vision] I saw two baskets of figs that had been placed in front of the temple.

Yahweh showed me something. Behold, two baskets of figs were placed before Yahweh's temple. (This vision happened after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took into exile Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, the officials of Judah, the craftsmen and the metalworkers from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon.)

2 One basket was full of good figs, like the kind that ripen first. The other basket was filled with figs that were bad/rotten, with the result that they could not be eaten.

One basket of figs was very good, like first ripe figs, but the other basket of figs was so very bad that they could not be eaten.

3 Then Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I replied, “[I see some] figs. Some are very good ones, but some are very bad, with the result that no one would eat them.”

Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs. Figs that are very good and figs that are so very bad they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then Yahweh gave me this message:

Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

5 “This is what [I], Yahweh, the God whom the Israeli people [say that they worship], say: ‘The good figs represent [SIM] the people of Judah whom I exiled to Babylonia.

“Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: I will look on the exiles of Judah for their benefit, just like these good figs, the exiles whom I have sent out from this place to the land of Chaldea.

6 I [SYN] will (watch over/take care of) them well, and [some day] I will bring them back here [to Judah]. I will establish them and cause them to be strong. I will cause them to be prosperous [MET], and I will not exile them [again].

I will set my eyes on them for good and restore them to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down. I will plant them, and not uproot them.

7 I will enable them to desire to know [IDM] that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me sincerely.’

Then I will give them a heart to know me, for I am Yahweh. They will be my people and I will be their God, so they will turn to me with all their heart.

8 But [I], Yahweh, [also] say, ‘The bad figs represent [SIM] Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his officials, and all the [other] people who remain in Jerusalem, and those who have gone to Egypt. I will do to them like people do to rotten figs.

But like the bad figs that are too bad to be eaten—this is what Yahweh says—I will act in this way with Zedekiah, king of Judah, with his officials, and with the rest of Jerusalem who remain in this land or go to stay in the land of Egypt.

9 I will [get rid of them], with the result that people in every nation on the earth will be horrified, and will hate them because they are evil people. Wherever I scatter them, people will make fun of them, and say that they are disgraced, and ridicule them, and curse them.

I will turn them into a frightening thing, a disaster, in the sight of all the kingdoms on earth, a disgrace and a subject for proverbs, taunts, and curses in every place where I will have driven them.

10 And I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases, until they have disappeared from this land which I gave to them and to their ancestors.’”

I will send out sword, famine, and plague against them, until they are destroyed from the land that I gave them and their ancestors.”