Jeremiah 24:8-10

3. The meaning of the bad figs (Jeremiah 24:8-10)

TRANSLATION

(8) But as the bad figs which were so bad they could not be eaten, surely thus says the LORD: Thus will I make Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and who dwell in the land of Egypt. (9) And I will give them over for trembling, for evil to all the kingdoms of the land; for reproach and for a proverb, for a by-word and for a curse in every place where I drive them. (10) And I will send against them the sword, the famine and the plague until they are utterly consumed from upon the ground which I gave to them and to their fathers.

COMMENTS

The basket of bad figs is symbolic of those who had not been taken into captivity in 597 B.C., those to whom Jeremiah was to proclaim the word of God for yet a decade. God would make Zedekiah the king, his princes, and those who remained in Jerusalem like the basket of bad figs. This probably means that in His permissive will God would allow these hardened sinners to continue in their course of obstinacy and rebellion until they finally were fit for nothing but destruction. The phrase who dwell in the land of Egypt (Jeremiah 24:8) refers to those who were taken captive by Pharaoh Necho in 609 B.C. when king Jehoahaz was deported and sent to Egypt in chains. It may well be that other Jews fled to Egypt during the Babylonian invasions of 605 B.C. and 597 B.C.

The future of those rotten figs, those who remained in Judah, was far from bright. God will give them over to all kingdoms of the earth i.e., they will be scattered far and near. But wherever they flee they will be in constant fear of being delivered into the hands of their enemies. These fugitives would be ridiculed and mistreated by foreigners. They would be so low and despicable that wherever they go men will refer to these Jews in their reproaches, proverbs, by-words and curses. Whenever one might wish to pronounce a curse against another he would say, May you become like the accused Jews (Jeremiah 24:9). Those who were not able to flee the doomed land would die by the sword of the enemy and by the famine and plague which were the direct results of enemy invasion. Thus by one means or another the nation Judah would be utterly consumed from upon the land which God had given to their fathers (Jeremiah 24:10).