We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it. We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror. ¹ 

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people! ¹ 

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 ¹  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 ¹  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 ¹  firmly in the land.’

“You say, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets of good news ¹  for us here in Babylon.’

I will provide the priests with abundant provisions. ¹  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 ¹  then ²  to go down to Egypt to seek help from the Egyptians? ³  What good will it do you ⁴  to go over to Assyria to seek help from the Assyrians? ⁵ 

Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹  Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf ²  to keep you from venting your anger on them. ³ 

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian ¹  change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? ² 

“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.” ¹ 

One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. ¹  The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.

I will make a lasting covenant ¹  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ²  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ³  they will never again turn ⁴  away from me.

The Lord said, “Jerusalem, ¹  I will surely send you away for your own good. I will surely ²  bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.

I, the Lord, once called ¹  you a thriving olive tree, one that produced beautiful fruit. But I will set you ²  on fire, fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. ³  Then all your branches will be good for nothing. ⁴ 

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! ¹  Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two! ² 

They will be like a shrub ¹  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 ¹  the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found ²  that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.