¹The LORD showed me , and behold , two baskets of figs were set before the LORD ’s temple , after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim , king of Judah , and the princes of Judah , with the craftsmen and smiths , from Jerusalem , and had brought them to Babylon.

²One basket had very good figs , like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs , which could not be eaten, they were so bad .

³Then the LORD asked me , “What do you see , Jeremiah ?”

I said, “Figs . The good figs are very good , and the bad are very bad , so bad that they can ’t be eaten.”

⁴The LORD ’s word came to me , saying ,

⁵“The LORD , the God of Israel says : ‘Like these good figs , so I will regard the captives of Judah , whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans , as good .

⁶For I will set my eyes on them for good , and I will bring them again to this land. I will build them , and not pull them down . I will plant them , and not pluck them up .

⁷I will give them a heart to know me , that I am the LORD . They will be my people , and I will be their God ; for they will return to me with their whole heart .

⁸“‘As the bad figs , which can ’t be eaten, they are so bad ,’ surely the LORD says , ‘So I will give up Zedekiah the king of Judah , and his princes , and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt .

⁹I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth amongst all the kingdoms of the earth for evil , to be a reproach and a proverb , a taunt and a curse , in all places where I will drive them .

¹⁰I will send the sword , the famine , and the pestilence amongst them , until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.’”