Jeremiah 24

1Yahweh showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of Yahweh, after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

2One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, and one basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten because of their badness.

3Then Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs—the good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

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

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 uproot them.

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

8But like the bad figs that cannot be eaten because they are so bad, thus says Yahweh: so I will make Zedekiah 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, a calamity, to all the kingdoms of the earth—a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I drive them.

10And I will send against them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.