4 Then the Lord said to me:
5 The Lord, the God of Israel, proclaims: Just as with these good figs, I will treat kindly the Judean exiles that I have sent from this place to Babylon.
6 I regard them as good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not pull them down; I will plant them and not dig them up.
7 I will give them a heart to know me, for I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
8 And just like the rotten figs that are so bad that they can’t be eaten, the Lord says, I will do to Judah’s King Zedekiah and his officials, as well as the remaining few in Jerusalem and those who are living in Egypt.
9 I will make them an object of horror and evil to all the kingdoms of the earth. Wherever I scatter them, they will be disgraced and insulted, mocked and cursed.
10 I will send the sword, famine, and disease against them until they vanish from the fertile land that I gave to their ancestors.