Chapter 24.
The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the
temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried
away captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes
of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to
Babylon.
One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe,
and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten,
they were so bad.
Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah?
And I said, Figs, the good figs, very good, and the evil, very evil,
that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of
Israel, Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away
captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans
for their good.
For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this
land, and I will build them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not
pluck them up.
And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my
people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with their
whole heart.
And as the evil figs which cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah and his
princes, and the residue of Jerusalem that remain in this land, and them that dwell
in the land of Egypt.
And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth,
for their hurt to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all
places whither I shall drive them.
And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them,
till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.