Jeremiah, 24

¹ Then Jehovah showed me two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah, after King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar^*1 of Babylon had carried into exile Jec·o·niʹah^*2 son of Je·hoiʹa·kim, the king of Judah, along with the princes of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers;^*3 he took them from Jerusalem to Babylon.

² One basket had very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.

³ Jehovah then asked me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” So I said: “Figs; the good figs are very good, but the bad ones are very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

⁴ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying:

⁵ “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard in a good way the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chal·deʹans.

⁶ I will keep my eye on them for their good, and I will cause them to return to this land. I will build them up, and I will not tear down; I will plant them, and I will not uproot.

⁷ And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah. They will become my people, and I will become their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

⁸ “‘But concerning the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, this is what Jehovah says: “So I will regard King Zed·e·kiʹah of Judah, his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem who are left in this land, and those who are dwelling in the land of Egypt.

⁹ I will make them an object of horror and calamity to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach, a proverbial saying, a cause for ridicule, and a curse in all the places to which I disperse them.

¹⁰ And I will send against them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence,^*1 until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and to their forefathers.”’”