5. “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: The captives of Judah, whom I sent away from here to Babylon, are like these good figs. I will look kindly on them.
6. I will watch over them for their own good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them.
7. I will give them the desire to know that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will wholeheartedly come back to me.
8. “But this is what the Lord says about the bad figs that are so bad that they can’t be eaten. The Lord says, ‘Like these bad figs, I will abandon King Zedekiah of Judah, his princes, the remaining few in Jerusalem who stayed behind in this land, and those who are living in Egypt.
9. I will make them a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth. They will be a disgrace and an example. They will become something ridiculed and cursed wherever I scatter them.