1After Jehoiachin⚓ son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord. 2One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. 3Then the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.” 4Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.⚓6My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 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 all their heart. 8“ ‘But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. 9I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse⚓ and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them. 10I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.’ ”
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The Sign of Two Baskets of Figs
1The ⚓Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, 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 thatare first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so ⚓bad. 3Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” 4Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for theirown good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6For I will set My eyes on them for good, and ⚓I will bring them back to this land; ⚓I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7Then 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. 8‘And as the bad ⚓figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the ⚓residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and ⚓those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9I will deliver them to ⚓trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, ⚓tobe a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 10And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”