Study Desk

The Lord shewed mee, and behold, two baskets of figges were set before the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchad-rezzar king of Babylon had caried away captiue Ieconiah the sonne of Iehoiakim king of Iudah, and the princes of Iudah, with the carpenters and smiths from Ierusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

One basket had very good figges, euen like the figges that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figges, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then said the Lord vnto me; What seest thou Ieremiah? and I said: Figges: the good figges, very good and the euill, very euill, that cannot be eaten, they are so euill.

Againe, the word of the Lord came vnto me, saying;

Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Like these good figges, so will I acknowledge them that are caried away captiue of Iudah, whom I haue sent out of this place into the land of the Caldeans for their good.

For I will set mine eyes vpon them for good, and I will bring them againe to this land, and I will build them, and not pull them downe, and I will plant them, and not plucke them vp.

And I will giue them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall returne vnto me with their whole heart.

And as the euill figges which cannot be eaten, they are so euill; (Surely thus saith the Lord) so will I giue Zedekiah the king of Iudah, and his princes, and the residue of Ierusalem, that remaine in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt.

And I will deliuer them to be remoued into all the kingdomes of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproch and a prouerbe, a taunt and a curse in all places whither I shall driue them.

And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they be consumed from off the land, that I gaue vnto them, and to their fathers.