Jeremiah 24:8

8 "But like the rotten figs, so rotten they can't be eaten, is Zedekiah king of Judah. Rotten figs - that's how I'll treat him and his leaders, along with the survivors here and those down in Egypt.

Jeremiah 24:8 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 24:8

And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil,
&c.] Here follows an explication of the evil figs, and an application of them to the wicked Jews: surely thus saith the Lord, so will I give Zedekiah the king of
Judah;
who was then the reigning king of Judah, Jeconiah's father's brother; whom the king of Babylon had made king in his stead, and changed his name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah, ( 2 Kings 24:17 ) ; him the Lord threatens to give up to ruin and destruction, or to deliver into the hands of the enemy: and his princes, and the residue of them, that remain in this land;
the rest of the inhabitants of Jerusalem that continued in the land of Judea, and were not carried captive: and them that dwell in the land of Egypt;
who had fled thither for safety upon the invasion of their land, and besieging their city; all these being like to the bad figs, exceeding evil and wicked, are threatened to be delivered into the hands of their enemies, though they might think themselves safe and secure where they were.

Jeremiah 24:8 In-Context

6 I'll keep my eye on them so that their lives are good, and I'll bring them back to this land. I'll build them up, not tear them down; I'll plant them, not uproot them.

7 "And I'll give them a heart to know me, God. They'll be my people and I'll be their God, for they'll have returned to me with all their hearts.

8 "But like the rotten figs, so rotten they can't be eaten, is Zedekiah king of Judah. Rotten figs - that's how I'll treat him and his leaders, along with the survivors here and those down in Egypt.

9 I'll make them something that the whole world will look on as disgusting - repugnant outcasts, their names used as curse words wherever in the world I drive them.

10 And I'll make sure they die like flies - from war, starvation, disease, whatever - until the land I once gave to them and their ancestors is completely rid of them."