1 The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the princes of Judah with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem, and had taken them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very evil figs, which could not be eaten, they were so evil. 3 Then the LORD said unto me, What dost thou see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, so evil that they cannot be eaten.
4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5 Thus hath the LORD God of Israel said: Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will return them to this land, and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them a heart that they might know me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil, surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes and the residue of Jerusalem that remained in this land and that dwell in the land of Egypt: 9 And I give them to be removed, for evil unto all the kingdoms of the earth, for infamy, and for reproach and for a proverb, and for a curse unto all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence upon them until they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.