3 Then the Lord said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? “Figs,” I replied; “the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”
4 Thereupon this word of the Lord came to me:
5 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, I will also regard with favor Judah’s exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.
6 I will look after them for good and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not tear them down; to plant them, not uproot them.
7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8 But like the figs that are bad, so bad they cannot be eaten—yes, thus says the Lord—even so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the land of Egypt.
9 I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I will drive them.