After king Nabuchodonosor, of Babylon, had carried off the king of Juda, Jechonias the son of Joachim, and taken him away to Babylon with all his nobles, and all the carpenters and smiths in Jerusalem, the Lord shewed me a vision. I saw two baskets of figs, set down at the gate of the Lord’s temple.

The figs in one basket were of excellent nature, like those which first ripen; in the other, most foul, so foul there was no eating them.

What seest thou, Jeremias? the Lord asked, and I told him, Figs, the good ones excellent good, the foul ones very foul, too foul for eating.

Then the Lord’s word came to me,

A message from the Lord God of Israel: This meaning the good figs have, that good will of mine goes with the men of Juda I have banished from their homes, and sent away into the country of Chaldaea.

I will smile on them once more, and bring them back home, and all will be building now, not pulling down, planting now, not uprooting.

And I will give them a heart to know me, know me by my divine name; they my people, and I their God, once in good earnest they have retraced their steps, and come back to me.

And this meaning the foul figs have, that could not be eaten, they were so foul. Doom like theirs I have in store for Sedecias, king of Juda, the Lord says, and for his nobles, and for all those other men of Jerusalem that have either stayed in the city or taken up their abode in Egypt.

Trouble✻ and conflict their destiny shall be in every kingdom of the world; they shall be a laughing-stock and a warning, a by-word and a name to curse by, in all the countries I have appointed for their banishment.

Sword and famine and pestilence I will let loose upon them, till none of them is left in this land, my gift to them and to their fathers.