1The word which came to Jeremiah from YHVH when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2“Please inquire of YHVH on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us; perhaps YHVH will deal with us according to all His wonderful acts, so that the enemy will withdraw from us.”
3Then Jeremiah said to them, “You shall say to Zedekiah as follows: 4‘Thus says YHVH God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands, with which you are warring against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the wall; and I will gather them into the center of this city. 5“I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation. 6“I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. 7“Then afterwards,” declares YHVH, “I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even those who survive in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their foes and into the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion.”’
8“You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says YHVH, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9“He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. 10“For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,” declares YHVH. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.”’
11“Then say to the household of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the word of YHVH,
12O house of David, thus says YHVH:
“Administer justice every morning;
And deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor,
That My wrath may not go forth like fire
And burn with none to extinguish it,
Because of the evil of their deeds.
13“Behold, I am against you, O valley dweller,
O rocky plain,” declares YHVH,
“You men who say, ‘Who will come down against us?
Or who will enter into our habitations?’
14“But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds,” declares YHVH,
“And I will kindle a fire in its forest
That it may devour all its environs.”’”
Jeremiah 21:1-14
Baskets of Figs and the Returnees
1After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, YHVH showed me: behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of YHVH! 2One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness. 3Then YHVH said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness.”
4Then the word of YHVH came to me, saying, 5“Thus says YHVH God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. 6‘For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am YHVH; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.
8‘But like the bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness—indeed, thus says YHVH—so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9‘I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. 10‘I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.’”