Jeremiah 24:1-6

Good and bad figs

1 After Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar had deported Judah's King Jeconiah, King Jehoiakim's son, and the Judean officials, as well as the craftsmen and metalworkers from Jerusalem to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs set in front of the LORD's temple.
2 One basket was filled with fresh and ripe figs; the other basket was filled with rotten figs—too rotten to eat.
3 And the LORD asked me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I replied: "Figs! Some good ones and others very bad—so bad that they can't be eaten."
4 Then the LORD said to me:
5 The LORD, the God of Israel, proclaims: Just as with these good figs, I will treat kindly the Judean exiles that I have sent from this place to Babylon.
6 I regard them as good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not pull them down; I will plant them and not dig them up.

Jeremiah 24:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 24

This chapter contains a vision of two baskets of figs, representing the Jews both in captivity, and at Jerusalem. The vision is declared, Jer 24:1-3; where both time and place are pointed at, in which the vision was seen, and the nature of the figs described, and what passed between the Lord and the prophet concerning them. The explication of the vision begins, Jer 24:4; and continues to the end of the chapter. The good figs were an emblem of the good people that were carried captive with Jeconiah into Babylon, which the Lord says was for their good; and he promises to own them, and set his eyes upon them for good, and that they should return to their own land, and have a heart to know him as their God, and return unto him, Jer 24:5-7; the bad figs signify the people that were with Zedekiah at Jerusalem, and those that were in Egypt, who are threatened to be carried captive into all lands, and there live under the greatest reproach and disgrace; or be destroyed in their own land by the sword, famine, or pestilence, Jer 24:8-10.

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