Jeremiah 24:1-5

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  24:2 One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. ²  The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten. 24:3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

24:4 The Lord said to me, ³  24:5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon ⁴  are like those good figs. I consider them to be good.

[24:1]  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.

[24:2]  ² sn See Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10.

[24:4]  ³ tn Heb “The word of the Lord came to me.”

[24:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.