Jeremiah 24:4

_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....

The complete fulfillment of this prophecy belongs to the Christian Church. There is a close analogy between Jeremiah at the first destruction of Jerusalem and our Lord at the second. There the good figs were those converts picked out by the preaching of Christ and the Apostles; the bad figs were the mass of the people left for Titus and the Romans to destroy. Jeremiah 24:5 ACKNOWLEDGE ... FOR THEIR GOOD - Specially their spiritual good. Put a comma after Chaldaeans. Jeremiah 24:8 THAT DWELL IN THE LAND OF EGYPT - Neither those carried captive with Jehoahaz into Egypt, nor those who fled there, are to share in these blessings. The new life of the Jewish nation is to be the work only

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

AGAIN THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO ME, SAYING. As follows; where an explanation is given of the above vision, to which this is a transition....

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;...

See introd. summary to section....

_2. The meaning of the good figs_ (Jeremiah 24:4-7) TRANSLATION (4) Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: As these good figs, thus will I regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I sent out from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. (6) And I will set My eye on them for good, and I will cause them to return unto this land; and I will build them up and not tear them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. (7) And I will give to them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD. They shall be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return unto Me with all their heart. COMMENTS The good figs represent those who had been taken captive in 597 B.C. God is smiling upon those who have been carried away to Babylon. One might think just the opposite, that those who were allowed to remain in t

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....

AGAIN THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO ME. — The words seem to imply an interval, during which the prophet was left to ponder over the symbols that he had thus seen. At last “the word of the Lord came” and made their meaning clear....