The Good Figs and the Bad Figs
1 2 Kgs. 24:12;2 Chr. 36:10After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Matt. 1:11;[ch. 22:18,24,28] Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ch. 29:2;2 Kgs. 24:12,14the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, Amos 8:1,2two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. 2 One basket had very good figs, [Isa. 28:4] like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ch. 29:17very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And 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."
4 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5 "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, ch. 29:20whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 [Amos 9:4] I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ch. 12:15;29:10I will build them up, and not tear them down; ch. 31:28;42:10;[ch. 1:10;Amos 9:15]I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 ch. 32:39;Deut. 30:6;Ezek. 11:19;36:26,27I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, See ch. 30:22;31:33and they shall be my people See ch. 30:22;31:33and I will be their God, ch. 29:13;Joel 2:12,13for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8 "But thus says the Lord: Like ver. 2;ch. 29:17the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ch. 21:1Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who See ch. 43–44dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them See ch. 15:4a horror24:9 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ch. 29:18;49:13;Neh. 2:17;Isa. 43:28a reproach, Deut. 28:37;2 Chr. 7:20a byword, ch. 29:18;49:13;Neh. 2:17;Isa. 43:28a taunt, and ch. 25:18;26:6;29:22;2 Kgs. 22:19a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send See ch. 14:12sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers."