Jeremiah 24:1

Good Figs and Bad Figs

24:1 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim’s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon. ¹ 

Jeremiah 25:9

25:9 So I, the Lord, affirm that ²  I will send for all the peoples of the north ³  and my servant, ⁴  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy ⁵  this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it ⁶  and make them everlasting ruins. ⁷  I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 32:8

32:8 Now it happened just as the Lord had said! My cousin Hanamel ⁹  came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, ‘Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.’ When this happened, I recognized that the Lord had indeed spoken to me.

Jeremiah 35:17

35:17 So I, the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, say: ¹⁰  “I will soon bring on Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem all the disaster that I threatened to bring on them. I will do this because I spoke to them but they did not listen. I called out to them but they did not answer.”’”

Jeremiah 40:4

40:4 But now, Jeremiah, today I will set you free ¹¹  from the chains on your wrists. If you would like to come to Babylon with me, come along and I will take care of you. ¹²  But if you prefer not to come to Babylon with me, you are not required to do so. ¹³  You are free to go anywhere in the land you want to go. ¹⁴  Go wherever you choose.” ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 42:18

42:18 For ¹⁶  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁷  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ¹⁸  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹⁹  You will never see this place again.’ ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 44:12

44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ²¹  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ²²  or perish from starvation. People of every class ²³  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 44:17

44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ²⁵  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ²⁶  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ²⁷ 

¹ sn See 2 Kgs 24:10-17 (especially vv. 14-16). Nebuchadnezzar left behind the poorest people of the land under the puppet king Zedekiah. Jeconiah has already been referred to earlier in 13:18; 22:25-26. The deportation referred to here occurred in 597 b.c. and included the priest Ezekiel.

² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

³ sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon which included within it contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20 for earlier allusions.

⁴ sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the Lord’s servant also in Jer 27:6; 43:10. He was the Lord’s servant in that he was the agent used by the Lord to punish his disobedient people. Assyria was earlier referred to as the Lord’s “rod” (Isa 10:5-6) and Cyrus is called his “shepherd” and his “anointed” (Isa 44:28; 45:1). P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, and J. F. Drinkard (Jeremiah 1-25 [WBC], 364) make the interesting observation that the terms here are very similar to the terms in v. 4. The people of Judah ignored the servants, the prophets, he sent to turn them away from evil. So he will send other servants whom they cannot ignore.

⁵ tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah see 50:21, 26; 51:3.

⁶ tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (this land, its inhabitants, and the nations surrounding it) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.

⁷ sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).

⁸ tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the latter.

³ tn Heb “And according to the word of the Lord my cousin Hanamel came to me to the courtyard of the guardhouse and said, ‘…’” The sentence has been broken down to conform better with contemporary English style.

⁴ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” For the title see 7:13 and the study note on 2:19. The first person address is again used in the translation because this whole section is a speech from the Lord (see vv. 12-13).

⁵ tn The verb here is an example of the perfect of resolve where the speaker announces his intention to do something according to IBHS 488-89 §30.5.1d. The word “Jeremiah” is supplied in the translation to avoid the possible misunderstanding that the you is still plural.

⁶ tn Or “look out for you.” See 39:12 and the translator’s note there.

⁷ tn Or “Stay here”; Heb “Forbear.” The imperative is used in a permissive sense; “you may forbear.” See GKC 324 §110.b and compare usage in Gen 50:6.

⁸ tn Heb “See all the land [or the whole land] is before you.” For this idiom see BDB 817 s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a(f) and compare the usage in Gen 20:15; 47:6.

⁹ tn Heb “Unto the good and the right in your eyes to go, go there.”

⁶ tn Or “Indeed.”

⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.

⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

¹⁰ tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.

⁷ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

⁸ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

⁹ tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

¹⁰ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

⁸ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

⁹ tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

¹⁰ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”