We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it. We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror.

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people!

I will give them a single-minded purpose to live in a way that always shows respect for me. They will want to do that for their own good and the good of the children who descend from them.

The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

“I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon are like those good figs. I consider them to be good.

I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them firmly in the land.’

“You say, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets of good news for us here in Babylon.’

I will provide the priests with abundant provisions. My people will be filled to the full with the good things I provide.”

But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

What good will it do you then to go down to Egypt to seek help from the Egyptians? What good will it do you to go over to Assyria to seek help from the Assyrians?

Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf to keep you from venting your anger on them.

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots?

“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.”

One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.

I will make a lasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good to them. I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that they will never again turn away from me.

The Lord said, “Jerusalem, I will surely send you away for your own good. I will surely bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.

I, the Lord, once called you a thriving olive tree, one that produced beautiful fruit. But I will set you on fire, fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. Then all your branches will be good for nothing.

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two!

They will be like a shrub in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.

So I went to Perath and dug up the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.