4 Then the lord gave me this message:
5 “This is what the lord, the God of Israel, says: The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians.
6 I will watch over and care for them, and I will bring them back here again. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them.
7 I will give them hearts that recognize me as the lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.
8 “But the bad figs,” the lord said, “represent King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, all the people left in Jerusalem, and those who live in Egypt. I will treat them like bad figs, too rotten to eat.
9 I will make them an object of horror and a symbol of evil to every nation on earth. They will be disgraced and mocked, taunted and cursed, wherever I scatter them.
10 And I will send war, famine, and disease until they have vanished from the land of Israel, which I gave to them and their ancestors.”