The Sign of Two Baskets of Figs

24 The aLord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar bking of Babylon had carried away captive cJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so dbad. 3 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”

4 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I 1acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and eI will bring them back to this land; fI will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then I will give them ga heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be hMy people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me iwith their whole heart.

8 ‘And as the bad jfigs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the kresidue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and lthose who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will deliver them to mtrouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, nto be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are 2consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”