Jeremiah 24 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Jeremiah 24

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

24:1 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. 2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

8 “But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them a horror¹ to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

Footnotes

[1] 24:9 Compare Septuagint; Hebrew horror for evil

Commentary

v1: See 2 Kings 24.13-14; Nebuchadnezzar carried away many people; and these people were pictured as the good figs. In 21.9 the good figs refer to those who defected to Babylon, for by this means their lives would be saved. The Babylonian exile was no holiday; it was a deeply painful and humbling experience, bringing many into repentance and purging.

Jeremiah picks up a common theme of the fig tree, and its fruit; see also Prov 27.18; Matt 21.19-20; Luke 21.29-30).

v2-4: As elsewhere, Jeremiah saw the picture before God revealed His word to him. Notice too that the vision was placed in an exact historical context, of many being carried away from Judah.

v5: The Lord would acknowledge those who were carried away from Judah; they would maintain their identity as His people, as in Esth 3.8, and He would continue to care for them.

v6: They would enjoy God's blessing. Importantly, they would return to Jerusalem. The experiences in Babylon, painful though they would be, would be for their profit. This verse picks up themes from Jeremiah’s call (1.10).

v7: A heart to know the Lord; no more idolatry. Instead, a renewed love for the true God.

v8: The bad figs, the remnant in Jerusalem, including Zedekiah, and also including those who would flee to Egypt. They were the residue in Jerusalem, as dross left behind; undesirable and useless.

v9-10: Very different promises for those left behind, the bad figs; destruction and judgment. They is no reference to any later return to Jerusalem.