Jeremiah 24

¹After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim , king of Judah , together with the officials of Judah , the craftsmen , and the metal workers , and had brought them to Babylon , the Lord showed me this vision: behold , two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord.

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

³And the Lord said to me, What do you see , Jeremiah ? I said , Figs , the good figs very good , and the bad figs very bad , so bad that they cannot be eaten .

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to me:

⁵Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel : Like these good figs , so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah , whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans .

⁶I will set my eyes on them for good , and I will bring them back to this land . I will build them up , and not tear them down ; I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

⁷I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God , for they shall return to me with their whole heart .

⁸But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten , so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah , his officials , the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land , and those who dwell in the land of Egypt .

⁹I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth , to be a reproach , a byword , a taunt , and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them.

¹⁰And I will send sword , famine , and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers .