Jeremiah 24:2

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. FIGS THAT ARE FIRST RIPE - the boccora, or early fig (note, ). Baskets of figs used to be offered as first-fruits in the temple. The good figs represent Jeconiah and the exiles in Babylon; the bad, Zedekiah and the obstinate Jews in Judea. They are called good and bad respectively, not in an absolute, but a comparative sense, and in reference to the punishment of the latter. This prophecy was designed to encourage the despairing exiles, and to reprove the people at home, who prided themselves as superior to those in Babylon, and abused the forbearance of God (cf. for the fulfillment of the prophecy)....

He now adds, that one _basket _had _very good figs, _and that the other had _very bad figs. _If it be asked whether Jeconiah was in himself approved by God, the answer is easy, — that he was suffering punishment for his sins. Then the Prophet speaks here comparatively, when he calls some good and others bad. We must also notice, that he speaks not here of persons but of punishment; as though he had said, “ye feel a dread when those exiles are mentioned, who have been deprived of the inheritance promised them by God: this seems hard to you; but this is moderate when ye consider what end awaits you.” He then does not call Jeconiah and other captives good in themselves; but he calls them good figs, because God had chastened them more gently than he intended to chastise Zedekiah and the rest. Thus he calls the Jews who remained bad figs, not only for this reason, because they were more wicke...

Verse Jeremiah 24:2. _VERY GOOD FIGS_] Or, figs of the _early sort_. The fig-trees in Palestine, says Dr. _Shaw_, produce fruit thrice each year. The first sort, called _boccore_, those here mentioned, come to perfection about the middle or end of June. The _second_ sort, called _kermez_, or summer fig, is seldom ripe before August. And the _third_, which is called the _winter_ fig, which is larger, and of a darker complexion than the preceding, hangs all the winter on the tree, ripening even when the leaves are shed, and is fit for gathering in the beginning of _spring_. _COULD NOT BE EATEN_] The _winter fig_, - then in its _crude_ or unripe state; the spring not being yet come....

Fig-trees bear three crops of figs, of which the first is regarded as a great delicacy....

EXPOSITION Again Jeremiah's ungrateful task is to take up an attitude of direct opposition to the king (comp. Jeremiah 22:13), though, indeed, Zedekiah personally is so weak and dependent on others that he neither deserves nor receives a special rebuke. He and all the people that are left are likened to very bad figs, the good figs—the exiles—having been picked out and sent to Babylon, whence they will one day be restored. The vision is purely an interior process. This is indicated, not only by the phrase, "Jehovah showed me" (comp. Amos 7:1, Amos 7:4, Amos 7:7; Amos 8:1

ONE BASKET [HAD] VERY GOOD FIGS, [EVEN] LIKE THE FIGS [THAT ARE] FIRST RIPE,.... As there are some figs that are ripe sooner than others, and which are always the most desirable and acceptable; and such were they that were presented to the Lord, Micah 7:1; these signified those that were carried captive into Babylon with Jeconiah, among whom were some very good men, as Ezekiel, and others; and all might be said to be so, in comparison of those that were at Jerusalem, who were very wicked, and grew worse and worse: AND THE OTHER BASKET [HAD] VERY NAUGHTY FIGS, WHICH COULD NOT BE EATEN, THEY WERE SO BAD; as nothing is more sweet and luscious, and agreeable to the taste than a sound ripe fig, and especially a first ripe one; so nothing is more nauseous than a naughty rotten one: these signified the wicked Jews at Jerusalem indulging themselves in all manner of sin; so those who seem

CHAPTER 24 The Two Baskets of Figs _ 1. The vision of the two baskets of figs (Jeremiah 24:1) _ 2. The vision interpreted (Jeremiah 24:4) Jeremiah 24:1. Jeconiah, with the choicest of the nation, had been carried away into captivity. A large portion remained, and were not taken away, and these attributed their escape from exile to some goodness in them. At that time the prophet had a vision. He saw set before the temple two baskets of figs. The one basket was filled with good figs, the second basket with bad figs. Jeremiah 24:4. The good figs are symbolical of those who were carried away

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;...

NAUGHTY. worth naught....

_the figs that are first ripe_ The proper time for gathering figs in Palestine is in August. Certain kinds of trees, however, bear twice in the year, in which case the first crop, ripening in June, are esteemed a special delicacy. See Isaiah 28:4; Hosea 9:10; Micah 7:1; Nahum 3:12. "The bad figs may have been such either from having decayed and thus been reduced to a rotten condition, or as being the fruit of the sycamore, which contains a bitter juice." Tristram, _op. cit_. p. 399....