Jeremiah 24:8

REGARDING THE BAD FIGS

"And as the bad figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus saith Jehovah, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in the land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt, I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers."

"The bad figs ..." (Jeremiah 24:8) These are identified here as Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes, along with all of the rest of the people who remained behind in Judah after the deportation of the first wave of captives. Note also that even the Jews who had fled to Egypt or other nations are also included among the bad figs. Only the people who suffered the discipline of the captivity would be used by God in his future plans for Israel, and not all of them, but only those who with a whole heart would repent and turn to the true God.

"Green's word on the bad figs: They were the self-righteous remainder of the people in Jerusalem and Judah who had a spirit of arrogant superiority, scorn for their less fortunate countrymen in captivity, and a superstitious reliance on such sanctified shams as the inviolability of Jerusalem and the Temple, and a trust in the efficacy of empty, formalistic worship."[7]

These verses, of course, prophecy another invasion and destruction of Jerusalem, which indeed came to pass about a decade after the first invasion. There would be other captives to join their countrymen in Babylon; and the Jews would be totally rooted out of the land that God had given to them and to their fathers.

"Among all the kingdoms of the earth ..." (Jeremiah 24:9) This is a reiteration of the Mosaic curse of Deuteronomy 28:25,37, the fulfillment of which is witnessed by a Jewish settlement in practically every city on the face of the earth.

There is, of course, far more in this prophecy than the transport of Jews to Babylon. "The prophecy of Jeremiah 24:10 was partly fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, but more so in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans under Vespasian and Titus in A.D. 70."[8] It was upon that occasion that the status of racial Israel, already long reduced, was at last terminated, as regards any racial consideration whatever having any bearing whatever upon who is saved or not saved.