Still speaking to Zedekiah, Jeremiah repeated three prophecies from the past, the first being a vision after Jeconiah's (Jehoiachin's) captivity, the second being a message delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the last a yet earlier one, delivered in the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign.
The vision after Jeconiah's captivity was two baskets of figs, the first containing very good, and the second very bad, figs. The basket of good figs symbolized the captives who had been taken to the land of the Chaldeans. From them in the future Jehovah would restore His own. The basket of bad figs represented Zedekiah and those who remained in the land under him. These in the economy of God were devoted to judgment. This reminder of the vision would serve to make plain to Zedekiah the burden which the prophet had to deliver to him.
False prophets were speaking both among the captives and in Jerusalem, and throughout the remainder of Jeremiah's message to Zedekiah, he denied the authority and inspiration of these false teachers, and insisted upon the accuracy of this vision of the baskets of figs.