Jeremiah 24:9

And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. I WILL DELIVER THEM TO BE REMOVED ... - (). Calvin translates, 'I will give them up to agitation, in all,' etc. This verse quotes the curse, ; . (Compare ; ; Psalms 44:13). Remarks: (1) The captives already in Babylon are compared to good fruit, such as is fit for use and swe...

Here the Prophet borrows his words from Moses, in order to secure authority to his prophecy; for the Jews were ashamed to reject Moses, as they believed that the Law came from God: it would at least have been deemed by them an abominable thing to deny credit to the Law. And yet they boldly rejected all the prophets, though they were but faithful interpreters of the Law, as the case is with the Papists of the present day, who, though they dare not deny but that the Scripture contains celestial truth, yet furiously reject what is alleged from it. Similar was the perverseness of the Jews. Hence the prophets, in order to gain more credit to their words, often borrowed their very words from Moses, as though they had recited from a written document what had been dictated to them. For in Deuteronomy and in other places Moses spoke a language of this kind, — that God would give up the people to...

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

AND I WILL DELIVER THEM TO BE REMOVED INTO ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH FOR [THEIR] HURT,.... Jeconiah and the captives with him were only carried into Babylon; but these should be scattered one from another into the several parts of the world. The former were carried captive for their good, and it issued in that; but these were carried away for their hurt, to the injury of their persons and properties, and without having any effect upon them to the good of their souls: though this might begin to be fulfilled by the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, yet it had a more complete fulfilment in the destruction of this people by the Romans; to which these and the following words seem more particularly to refer: [TO BE] A REPROACH AND A PROVERB, A TAUNT AND A CURSE, IN ALL PLACES WHITHER I SHALL DRIVE THEM; their names to be used as a proverb for their riches ill gotten, their falsehood an...

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;...

TO BE REMOVED INTO. to be tossed to and fro among. BE REMOVED. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 28:25). App-92. FOR THEIR HURT. Hebrew. _raa'._ App-44. Compare Jeremiah 25:6; Jeremiah 38:4. TO BE. REPROACH. [I will deliver them to be]. reproach. A TAUNT. Reference to Pentateuch. Some codices, with two early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulg, read "and a", thus completing the Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ (App-6)....

See introd. summary to section....

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