1The LORD showed me a vision. Look, two baskets of figs were set in front of the temple of the LORD. This was after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah away from Jerusalem as a prisoner, along with the princes of Judah and the carpenters and the metalworkers, and had brought them to Babylon.
2One basket had very good figs in it, like figs that ripen first. The other basket had very bad figs in it. They 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 are very good. The bad ones are very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten."
4Again the word of the LORD came to me. He said,
5"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I will look with favour on the people of Judah who were carried away as prisoners. I sent them out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good."
6For I will keep my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not pull them down. I will plant them and not pull them out.
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"But as for the bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad, this is what the LORD says: In the same way I will deal with Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who are left in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt."
9I will hand them over to be driven into all the kingdoms of the earth, to their harm. They will be a shame and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in every place where I drive them.
10"I will send the sword, the famine and the plague among them, until they are wiped off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers."