Jeremiah 24

24 ¹ Our Father showed me, and there before me were two baskets of figs set in front of the temple of our Father — this was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into exile Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers, taking them from Jerusalem to Babylon. ² One basket had very good figs, like figs that ripen early; but the other basket had figs so bad they could not be eaten.

³ Then our Father asked me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "Figs," I said. "The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten."

⁴ Then the word of our Father came to me:

⁵ "This is what our Father of Israel says: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ I will keep my eyes on 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. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know me, that I am their Father; and they will be my children, and I will be their Father, for they will return to me with all their heart.

⁸ "But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten — this is what our Father says — so I will deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land or who live in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them a horror and a disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth — a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse in every place where I drive them. ¹⁰ I will send sword, famine, and plague against them until they are wiped from the land I gave to them and to their ancestors."