¹ After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah¹ 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,² the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD.

1. Jeconiah is a variant of Jehoiachin; see 2 Kings 24:12.
2. Or metalsmiths, and had brought them from Jerusalem to Babylon

² One 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.

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.”

⁴ Then 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.¹

1. That is, the Babylonians

⁶ I 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.

⁷ I 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.

⁸ But 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.

⁹ I 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.

¹⁰ And 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.’”