Two Baskets of Figs

1After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken Jehoiakim’s son Jeconiah,a king of Judah, along with the officialsb of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths from Jerusalem into exile, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed right in front of the Temple of the LORD. 2One basket contained very good figs like the first figs that ripen on the tree. The other basket contained very bad figs that were too bad to be eaten. 3The LORD told me, “What do you see?”

I replied, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad. They’re too bad to be eaten.”

4Then this message from the LORD came to me: 5“This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘Like these good figs, so I’ll regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6I’ll look at them with good intentions, and I’ll bring them back to this land. I’ll build them up. I won’t tear them down; I’ll plant them and not rip them up. 7I’ll give them the abilityc to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.

8“‘Like the bad figs that are too bad to be eaten—for this is what the LORD says—so I’ll give up on Zedekiah king of Judah, along with his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem that is left in this land, and those living in the land of Egypt. 9I’ll make them into a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth; into a cause for contempt, into a byword, into a taunt, and into a curse in all the places to which I drive them. 10I’ll send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they’re completely destroyed from the land which I gave them and their ancestors.’”