Jer 24 | ESV | STEP | After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim , king of Judah , together with the officials of Judah , the craftsmen , and the metal workers , and had brought them to Babylon , the Lord showed me this vision: behold , two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord .

‏ Jeremiah 24

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

1 ^aAfter Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem ^bJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ^cthe officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, ^dtwo baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. 2 One basket had very good figs, ^elike first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ^fvery 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, ^gwhom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 ^hI will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ⁱI will build them up, and not tear them down; ^jI will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 ^kI will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^land they shall be my people ^mand I will be their God, ⁿfor they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8 “But thus says the Lord: Like ^othe bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ^pZedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who ^qdwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them ^ra horror ^{▼▼Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil} to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ^ta reproach, ^ua byword, ^va taunt, and ^wa curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send ^xsword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”