Jeremiah 24:4-10

Then the LORD spoke his word to me: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I sent the people of Judah out of their country to live in the country of Babylon. I think of those people as good, like these good figs. I will look after them and bring them back to the land of Judah. I will not tear them down, but I will build them up. I will not pull them up, but I will plant them so they can grow. I will make them want to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with their whole hearts. “ ‘But the bad figs are too rotten to eat.’ So this is what the LORD says: ‘Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and all the people from Jerusalem who are left alive, even those who live in Egypt, will be like those rotten figs. I will make those people hated as an evil people by all the kingdoms of the earth. People will make fun of them and tell jokes about them and point fingers at them and curse them everywhere I scatter them. I will send war, hunger, and disease against them. I will attack them until they have all been killed. Then they will no longer be in the land I gave to them and their ancestors.’ ”