Jeremiah 24

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Yahweh gave me a vision: set out in front of the Temple of Yahweh were two baskets of figs. This wasafter Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had led Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, away into exile fromJerusalem, with the chief men of Judah, the blacksmiths and metalworkers, and had taken them to Babylon.	1 The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.--This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled from Jerusalem Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, the artisans and the skilled workers, and brought them to Babylon.--
2 One basket contained excellent figs, like those that ripen first; the other contained very bad figs, so badthey were uneatable.	2 One basket contained excellent figs, the early-ripening kind. But the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
3 Yahweh said to me, 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' 'Figs,' I answered, 'the good ones excel ent, the badones very bad, so bad as to be uneatable.'	3 Then the LORD said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? "Figs," I replied; "the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten."
4 Then the word of Yahweh was addressed to me,	4 Thereupon this word of the LORD came to me:
5 'Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this, "As these figs are good, so I mean to concern myself with thewelfare of the exiles of Judah whom I have sent from this place to the country of the Chaldaeans.	5 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, even so will I regard with favor Judah's exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.
6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, to bring them back to this country, to build them up andnot to break them down, to plant them and not to uproot them.	6 I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out.
7 I shal give them a heart to acknowledge that I am Yahweh. They wil be my people and I shal be theirGod, for they will return to me with all their heart.	7 I will give them a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8 As for the bad figs, the figs so bad as to be uneatable-yes, Yahweh says this -- that is how I shal treatZedekiah king of Judah, his chief men and what is left of Jerusalem, those who remain in this country and thoseliving in Egypt.	8 And like the figs that are bad, so bad they cannot be eaten--yes, thus says the LORD--even so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the land of Egypt.
9 I shal make them an object of horror, a disaster, to all the kingdoms of the earth, a thing of shame, abyword, a laughing-stock, a curse, wherever I shal drive them.	9 I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I will drive them.
10 Sword, famine and plague I shall send against them until they have vanished from the soil I gave tothem and to their ancestors." '	10 I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have disappeared from the land which I gave them and their fathers.