Jeremiah 24-26
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 24
The Two Baskets of Figs.[a] 1 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord.(A) This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled from Jerusalem Jeconiah,[b] son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, the artisans and smiths, and brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket contained excellent figs, those that ripen early. But the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. 3 Then the Lord said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah?(B) “Figs,” I replied; “the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.” 4 Thereupon this word of the Lord came to me: 5 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, I will also regard with favor Judah’s exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.(C) 6 I will look after them for good and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not tear them down; to plant them, not uproot them.(D) 7 I will give them a heart to know me, 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.(E) 8 But 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.(F) 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.(G) 10 I will send upon them sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have disappeared from the land which I gave them and their ancestors.(H)
Chapter 25
Seventy Years of Exile. 1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,[c] son of Josiah, king of Judah (the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).(I) 2 This word the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 3 Since the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day—that is, twenty-three years—the word of the Lord has come to me and I spoke to you untiringly, but you would not listen.(J) 4 The Lord kept sending you all his servants the prophets,(K) but you refused to listen or pay attention 5 to this message: Turn back, each of you, from your evil way and from your evil deeds; then you shall remain in the land which the Lord gave you and your ancestors, from of old and forever. 6 Do not follow other gods to serve and bow down to them; do not provoke me with the works of your hands, or I will bring evil upon you.(L) 7 But you would not listen to me—oracle of the Lord—and so you provoked me with the works of your hands to your own harm.(M) 8 Hence, thus says the Lord of hosts: Since you would not listen to my words, 9 I am about to send for and fetch all the tribes from the north—oracle of the Lord—and I will send for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; I will bring them against this land, its inhabitants, and all these neighboring nations. I will doom them, making them an object of horror, of hissing, of everlasting reproach.(N) 10 Among them I will put to an end the song of joy and the song of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole land shall be a ruin and a waste. Seventy years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon;(O) 12 but when the seventy years have elapsed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their guilt—oracle of the Lord. Their land I will turn into everlasting waste.(P) 13 Against that land I will fulfill all the words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14 They also shall serve many nations and great kings, and thus I will repay them according to their own deeds and according to the works of their hands.(Q)
The Cup of Judgment on the Nations. 15 [d]For thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath[e] from my hand and have all the nations to whom I will send you drink it.(R) 16 They shall drink, and retch, and go mad, because of the sword I will send among them.(S) 17 I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and gave it as drink to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me: 18 to Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, its kings and princes, to make them a ruin and a waste, an object of hissing and cursing, as they are today; 19 to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, princes, all his people 20 and those of mixed ancestry; all the kings of the land of Uz;[f] all the kings of the land of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; 22 all the kings of Tyre, of Sidon, and of the shores beyond the sea;[g] 23 Dedan and Tema and Buz,[h] all the desert dwellers who shave their temples; 24 all the kings of Arabia; 25 all the kings of Zimri, of Elam, of the Medes; 26 all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other; all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth and after them the king of Sheshach[i] shall drink.
27 Tell them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! Get drunk and vomit! Fall, never to rise, before the sword that I will send among you!(T) 28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink!(U) 29 Now that I am inflicting evil on this city, called by my name, how can you possibly escape? You shall not escape! I am calling down the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth—oracle of the Lord of hosts. 30 As for you, prophesy against them all these words and say to them:
The Lord roars from on high,
from his holy dwelling he raises his voice;
Mightily he roars over his sheepfold,
a shout like that of vintagers echoes(V)
over all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 The uproar spreads
to the end of the earth;
For the Lord has an indictment against the nations,
he enters into judgment against all flesh:
The wicked shall be given to the sword—
oracle of the Lord.
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Look! disaster stalks
nation after nation;
A violent storm surges
from the recesses of the earth.
33 On that day, those whom the Lord has slain will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, they will not be gathered, they will not be buried; they shall lie like dung upon the ground.(W)
34 Howl, you shepherds, and wail!
roll on the ground, leaders of the flock!
The time for your slaughter has come;
like choice rams you shall fall.
35 There is no flight for the shepherds,
no escape for the leaders of the flock.(X)
36 Listen! Wailing from the shepherds,
howling from the leaders of the flock!
For the Lord lays waste their grazing place;
37 desolate are the peaceful pastures,
from the burning wrath of the Lord.
38 Like a lion he leaves his lair,
and their land is made desolate
By the sweeping sword,
and the burning wrath of the Lord.(Y)
IV. The Temple Sermon
Chapter 26
Jeremiah Threatened with Death. 1 In the beginning of the reign[j] of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2 Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord and speak to the inhabitants of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord; whatever I command you, tell them, and hold nothing back.(Z) 3 Perhaps they will listen and turn, all of them from their evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I plan to inflict upon them for their evil deeds.(AA) 4 Say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you do not obey me, by walking according to the law I set before you 5 and listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I kept sending you, even though you do not listen to them,(AB) 6 I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.(AC)
7 Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people laid hold of him, crying, “You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord: ‘This house shall become like Shiloh,’ and ‘This city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
10 When the princes of Judah heard about these things, they came up from the house of the king to the house of the Lord and convened at the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 The priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, “Sentence this man to death! He has prophesied against this city! You heard it with your own ears.”(AD) 12 Jeremiah said to the princes and all the people: “It was the Lord who sent me to prophesy against this house and city everything you have heard. 13 Now, therefore, reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so that the Lord will have a change of heart regarding the evil he has spoken against you.(AE) 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what is good and right in your eyes. 15 But you should certainly know that by putting me to death, you bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and its inhabitants. For in truth it was the Lord who sent me to you, to speak all these words for you to hear.”
16 Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve a death sentence; it is in the name of the Lord, our God, that he speaks to us.” 17 At this, some of the elders of the land arose and said to the whole assembly of the people, 18 “Micah of Moresheth[k] used to prophesy in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Zion shall be plowed as a field,
Jerusalem, a heap of ruins,
and the temple mount,
a forest ridge.(AF)
19 Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah condemn him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, so that the Lord had a change of heart regarding the evil he had spoken against them? We, however, are about to do great evil against ourselves.”(AG)
The Fate of Uriah. 20 There was another man who used to prophesy in the name of the Lord, Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim; he prophesied against this city and this land the same message as Jeremiah. 21 When King Jehoiakim and all his officers and princes heard his words, the king sought to have him killed. But Uriah heard of it and fled in fear to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan, son of Achbor, and others with him into Egypt, 23 and they brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to Jehoiakim the king, who struck him down with the sword and threw his corpse into the common burial ground. 24 But the hand of Ahikam, son of Shaphan,[l] protected Jeremiah, so they did not hand him over to the people to be put to death.
Footnotes
- 24:1–10 For Jeremiah, as for Ezekiel, no good could be expected from the people who had been left in Judah under Zedekiah or who had fled into Egypt; a future might be expected only for those who would pass through the purifying experience of the exile to form the new Israel.
- 24:1 Jeconiah: alternative form of Jehoiachin (cf. note on 22:24).
- 25:1–14 The fourth year of Jehoiakim: 605 B.C. Officially, the first year of Nebuchadnezzar began the following year; but as early as his victory over Egypt at Carchemish in 605, Nebuchadnezzar wielded dominant power in the Near East. Jeremiah saw in him the fulfillment of his prophecy of the enemy to come from the north (cf. 1:13; 6:22–24). In vv. 11–12 the prophecy of the seventy years’ exile occurs for the first time; cf. 29:10. This number signifies that the present generation must die out; cf. forty in the exodus tradition (Nm 14:20–23).
- 25:15–17 Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations (cf. 1:5) as well as to his own people. All the nations mentioned here appear again in the more extensive collection of Jeremiah’s oracles against the nations in chaps. 46–51.
- 25:15 Cup…wrath: a metaphor for destruction that occurs often in the Old Testament (cf. Ps 11:6; 75:9; Hb 2:15–16; Ez 23:31–33, etc.).
- 25:20 Uz: the homeland of legendary Job, in Edomite or Arabian territory.
- 25:22 The shores beyond the sea: Phoenician commercial colonies located throughout the Mediterranean world.
- 25:23 Dedan and Tema and Buz: North Arabian tribes.
- 25:26 Sheshach: a contrived word from the Hebrew letters of Babylon.
- 26:1 The beginning of the reign: a technical expression for the time between a king’s accession to the throne and the beginning of his first official (calendar) year as king. Jehoiakim’s first regnal year was 608 B.C.
- 26:18 Micah of Moresheth: the prophet Micah, who appears among the canonical minor prophets (cf. Mi 1:1).
- 26:24 Ahikam, son of Shaphan: one of Josiah’s officials (2 Kgs 22:12) and Jeremiah’s friend. He was the father of Gedaliah, who was governor of Judah after Zedekiah’s deportation (cf. Jer 39:14; 40:5–7).
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.