Jeremiah 24:2

2 One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

Jeremiah 24:2 in Other Translations

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.

2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.

2 One basket was filled with fresh, ripe figs, while the other was filled with bad figs that were too rotten to eat.

2 In one basket the figs were of the finest quality, ripe and ready to eat. In the other basket the figs were rotten, so rotten they couldn't be eaten.

2 One basket [contained] very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they were inedible.

Jeremiah 24:2 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 24:2

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 ) ( Deuteronomy 26:2 ) ; 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 seemed to be the worst, through their being carried captive, were the best; and those who, seemed to be the best, by their prosperity, were the worst. This is to be understood in a comparative sense, as Calvin observes; though this does not so much design the quality of persons, as the issue of things, with respect unto them. The captivity of the one would issue in their good, and so are compared to good figs; when the sins of the other would bring upon them utter ruin and destruction without recovery, and therefore compared to bad figs that cannot be eaten.

Jeremiah 24:2 In-Context

1 After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD.

2 One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

3 Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then the word of the LORD came to me:

5 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.

Cross References

• 1. S Song of Songs 2:13
• 2. S Isaiah 5:4