Jeremiah 24:3

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

In the last Lecture we began to explain the meaning of the vision which the Prophet relates. We said that the miserable exiles whose condition might have appeared to be the worst, are yet compared to good figs, and that those who still remained in the country are compared to bad and bitter figs. We have explained why God shewed this vision to his servant Jeremiah, even because the captives might have otherwise been driven to despair, especially through the weariness of delay, for they saw that their brethren were still in possession of the inheritance granted them by God, while they were driven into a far country, and as it were disinherited, so that no one could regard them as God’s people. As then despair might have overwhelmed their minds, God designed to give them some comfort. On the other hand, those who remained in the land not only exulted over the miserable exiles, but also abus...

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

THEN SAID THE LORD UNTO ME, WHAT SEEST THOU, JEREMIAH?.... This question is put, in order that, upon his answer to it, he might have an explication of the vision: AND I SAID, FIGS; THE GOOD FIGS, VERY GOOD; AND THE EVIL, VERY EVIL, THAT CANNOT BE EATEN, THEY ARE SO EVIL; or "so bad", or "because of badness" b; which may be applied to mankind in general; who may be distinguished into good and bad: those that are good, who are made so by the grace of God; for none are so by nature, or of themselves; they are very good: they have many good things in them; they have a good heart, a new and a clean heart, and a right spirit created in them; they have a good understanding of spiritual things; they have a good will to that which is good, and good affections for God and Christ, and divine things; they have the good Spirit of God and his graces in them, and Christ and his word dwelling in them:...

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;...

EVIL. Hebrew. _raa'._ App-44. Compare Jeremiah 29:17....

F. The Vision of the Fig Baskets Jeremiah 24:1-10 The terminology the Lord showed me or caused me to see introduces a prophetic vision. Chapter 24 contains such a vision. There are two types of prophetic visions in the Old Testament, the subjective and the objective. In the subjective vision only the prophet sees the object in question. In the objective vision the object is visible to the physical eyesight. The revelation consists of the significance of the object, not what the prophet _sees_ but what the prophet _sees in_ an object. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether a vision is subjective or objective. In the opinion of the present writer the vision of the two fig baskets falls into the category of objective vision. Chapter 24 describes the experience of the prophet in having his attention drawn to the two baskets ...

THE TWO BASKETS OF FIGS The evil figs were such of the people as had not been carried away with Jehoiachin to Babylon after the first siege of Jerusalem, 597 b.c., but had failed to draw any warning from the fate that had overtaken their brethren. Those who had been made captives, on the other hand, should yet be the subjects of God's love and grace. The ripening time for both baskets was over, but here the likeness between them ceased....

WHAT SEEST THOU, JEREMIAH? — The question is asked as if to force the symbol as strongly as possible on the prophet’s mind, leaving him to wait till another word of the Lord should come and reveal its true interpretation. We are reminded, as he must have been, of the vision and the question which had first called him to his work as a prophet (Jeremiah 1:11)....