1Yahweh showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had exiled Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2One basket had very good figs, like the figs that ripen first; but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
3Then Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs. The good figs are very good, but the bad ones are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”
4And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying:
5“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard the exiles of Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, for good.
6I will set my eye upon them for 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 Yahweh; and 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, so bad they cannot be eaten—for thus says Yahweh—so I will treat Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those dwelling in the land of Egypt.
9I will make them a horror, an evil, to all the kingdoms of the earth—a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I drive them.
10And I will send against them the sword, the famine, and the plague, until they are wiped out from upon the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.”
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