Verse 1
JEREMIAH 24
TWO BASKETS OF FIGS
The approximate date of this vision is shortly after the deportation of Jeconiah and the nobles and craftsmen to Babylon following the first capture of Jerusalem by Babylon in 597 B.C.
Keil considered the vision recounted here as symbolical of "the future of Judah's people."[1] Jamieson stated the purpose of the chapter a little more fully. "This chapter was designed to encourage the despairing exiles, and to reprove the people left in Jerusalem, who prided themselves as superior and more highly favored than the exiles."[2] The ones remaining in Judah had appropriated all of the possessions left behind by the exiles; and they were no doubt congratulating themselves on how lucky they were. The approximate date of this vision is shortly after the deportation of This little parable of the two baskets of figs was designed to show them how wrong they were.
"Jehovah showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiachim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, and the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said Jehovah unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad."
"Baskets of figs set before the temple ..." (Jeremiah 24:1) The great lesson here, which is missed by many of the commentators, has nothing whatever to do with "first-fruits"[3] The lesson that thunders from the parable is that "proximity to the temple" is no sign whatever of the holiness or acceptability of the people living in the vicinity of the Jewish temple. The people in Jerusalem were close to the temple, all right, but they were not close to God! They were exactly like that basket of rotten figs on the very steps of the temple.
"The king ... the princes ... the craftsmen and smiths ..." (Jeremiah 24:1). The cream of the nation had already been deported. All of the skilled artisans and craftsmen and presumably all of the people with special skills. The meaning of "smiths" is uncertain; but the general import of the verse is plain enough. Both Ezekiel and Daniel were also in that first group of captives. See 2 Kings 24:10-17 of the Biblical record of who went to Babylon. The teaching of the parable is that the people left in Judah were inferior to the captives who went to Babylon. Barnes stated that, "Those left behind were not worth taking."[4]
This estimate proved to be correct. Zedekiah surrounded himself with a group of citizens who persuaded him to form an alliance with Egypt and to resist any further submission to Babylon. That policy, of course, brought on the second siege of Jerusalem, the murder of the vast majority of the population, the destruction of the temple, and the reduction of the whole city to a ruin. In the long ran, the ones remaining in Judah would have by far the worst fate. The one and one half year siege they endured was one of the worst in history, the inhabitants even being reduced to cannibalism.
"The good figs ... the bad figs ..." (Jeremiah 24:2-3) It seems that so simple a vision should not need much comment; but commentators always find something to write about. We are told that the good figs came from the early crop of a variety that produced two or three crops a year, the first one being far superior to the other two. The bad figs were described as "rotten" by Harrison, and probably the "sycamore fig" by Smith. That variety needed to be pricked during the ripening process; and the failure to provide that treatment made the figs inedible!
This little parable is very much like that of the basket of summer fruit in Amos 8:1-3. We refer the reader to our exegesis of that parable in Vol. 1 of the Minor Prophets Series.
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