The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

1 ^jAfter Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem ^kJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ^lthe officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, ^mtwo baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. 2 One basket had very good figs, ⁿlike first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ^overy 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, ^pwhom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 ^qI will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^rI will build them up, and not tear them down; ^sI will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 ^tI will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^uand they shall be my people ^uand I will be their God, ^vfor they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8 “But thus says the Lord: Like ^wthe bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ^xZedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who ^ydwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them ^za horror¹ to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ^aa reproach, ^ba byword, ^aa taunt, and ^ca curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send ^dsword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For ^zwho can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, ^ato answer back to God? ^bWill what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 ^cHas the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump ^done vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience ^evessels of wrath ^fprepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known ^gthe riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he ^hhas prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he ⁱhas called, ^jnot from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ⁿ“Though the number of the sons of Israel¹ be as the sand of the sea, ^oonly a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

Israel’s Unbelief

30 What shall we say, then? ^sThat Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, ^ta righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel ^uwho pursued a law that would lead to righteousness^{2 v}did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the ^wstumbling stone, 33 as it is written,

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, ^c“Rabbi, ^dwho sinned, ^ethis man or ^fhis parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but ^gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must ^hwork the works of him who sent me ⁱwhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, ^jI am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, ^khe spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. ^lThen he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in ^mthe pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ⁿcame back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ^o“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, ^p“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 ^qNow it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 ^rSo the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not ^sfrom God, ^tfor he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, ^u“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And ^vthere was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, ^w“He is a prophet.”