¹⁸ Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow.

⁸ ‘And as the bad ^(A)figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the ^(B)residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and ^(C)those who dwell in the land of Egypt.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I ^[a]acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.

The Sign of Two Baskets of Figs

24 The ^(A)Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar ^(B)king of Babylon had carried away captive ^(C)Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. ² One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so ^(D)bad. ³ Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”