Jeremiah 24:1-10
1 The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7 And I will give 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 return unto me with their whole heart.
8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
9 And I will deliver them to be removeda into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
The Good and Bad Figs. The prophet sees (either in vision or actuality; see on Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 1:13; cf. Amos 7:1, etc.) baskets of good and bad figs respectively; Yahweh tells him that the former represent the first body of exiles under Jeconiah (Jehoiachin, 2 Kings 24:15 f.) who shall be restored, and the latter the people remaining under Zedekiah, together with those in Egypt. For Ezekiel's similar judgment of the Palestinian and Babylonian sections of Judah, see Ezekiel 17:11 ff; Ezekiel 11:17 ff.; the opinion was justified, those deported having been the picked men of the nation; moreover, the future of Judaism, as matter of history, was committed to their charge.
Jeremiah 24:2. For the firstripe fig as a delicacy, see Isaiah 28:4; Micah 7:1.
Jeremiah 24:5. Chaldeans: i.e. Babylonians, as often; the Kaldu, SE. of Babylonia, became supreme there, c. 626 (pp. 58- 60).
Jeremiah 24:8. Egypt: see 2 Kings 23:34, for the exile thither of Jehoahaz. The Elephantine papyri (p. 79) show the existence of a Jewish community in Egypt, possessing a temple, before 525, possibly from the seventh century, cf. Deuteronomy 17:16.
Jeremiah 24:9. Read mg.; omit for evil with LXX.