1
AfterNebuchadnezzarking of Babylon had carriedawaycaptiveJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the LORDshowed me: behold, twobaskets of figssetbefore the temple of the LORD!
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Then the LORDsaid to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs, the goodfigs, verygood; and the bad figs, verybad, whichcannot be eatendue to rottenness."
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"Thussays the LORDGod of Israel, 'Like thesegoodfigs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of thisplace into the land of the Chaldeans.
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'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to thisland; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.
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'I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their wholeheart.
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'But like the badfigswhichcannot be eatendue to rottenness-indeed, thussays the LORD-so I will abandonZedekiahking of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in thisland and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt.
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'I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in allplaceswhere* I will scatter them.
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'I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the landwhich I gave to them and their forefathers.' "