1After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, as well as the officials of Judah and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.[ † ]Amos 7:1-4Amos 8:12 Kings 24:12-162 Chronicles 36:10Jeremiah 22:24-28Jeremiah 29:2 2One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early, but the other basket contained very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.[ † ]Isaiah 5:4-7Jeremiah 29:17
3“Jeremiah,” the Lord asked, “what do you see?” “Figs!” I replied. “The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”
4Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.[ † ]Jeremiah 12:15Jeremiah 29:10Ezekiel 11:17Jeremiah 32:41Jeremiah 33:7Jeremiah 42:10 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.[ † ]Deuteronomy 30:6Jeremiah 32:39Ezekiel 11:19Ezekiel 36:26-27Isaiah 51:16Jeremiah 30:22Jeremiah 31:33Jeremiah 32:38Ezekiel 14:11Zechariah 8:8Hebrews 8:101 Samuel 7:3Psalms 119:2Jeremiah 29:13
8But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem—those remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.[ † ]Jeremiah 29:17Jeremiah 39:9Jeremiah 44:1-26-30 9I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.[ † ]Deuteronomy 28:25-371 Kings 9:72 Chronicles 7:20Jeremiah 15:4Jeremiah 29:18Jeremiah 34:17Psalms 44:13-14 10And I will send against them sword and famine and plague, until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”