1. After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the craftsmen of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.
2. One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.
3. Then the Lord asked me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’‘Figs,’ I answered. ‘The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad that they cannot be eaten.’
4. Then the word of the Lord came to me:
5. ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.
6. My eyes will watch over them for their 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.