1After Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, had carried Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, other officials of Judah, craftsmen, and smiths away from Jerusalem, and taken them to Babylon as captives, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs set before the Temple of the LORD. 2One basket had very good figs, much like the first ripe figs; and the other basket had figs that were so bad (rotten) they could not be eaten. 3Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4And then another word of the LORD came to me, that said, 5”Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge the exiles who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their own good. 6I will watch over them for good, and I will bring them back again to this land; and I will build them, and not tear them down; and I will plant, and not uproot them. 7And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. 8But of the figs that are so bad (rotten) they cannot be eaten, thus says the LORD, “Surely so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, his officials, like bad figs, too rotten to eat, whether those that remain in Jerusalem and in this land, or those who dwell in Egypt, 9And I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, where they will be despised and an object of ridicule, a taunt and a curse, in all places to which I shall drive them. 10And I will send the sword, famine, and plague among them, till they are no longer a presence in the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.”’”