1. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon captured Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim and king of Judah, his officers, and all the craftsmen and metalworkers of Judah. He took them away from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon. It was then that the Lord showed me two baskets of figs arranged in front of the Temple of the Lord.
2. One of the baskets had very good figs in it, like figs that ripen early in the season. But the other basket had figs too rotten to eat.
3. The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”I answered, “I see figs. The good figs are very good, but the rotten figs are too rotten to eat.”
4. Then the Lord spoke his word to me:
5. “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I sent the people of Judah out of their country to live in the country of Babylon. I think of those people as good, like these good figs.