Jeremiah 24

The LORD showed me something. I saw two baskets of figs set in front of the LORD's temple. This was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah away as a prisoner, along with the officials of Judah and the skilled workers and metalworkers, carrying them off from Jerusalem to Babylon.

1The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

NoteThe deportation described here took place in 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar (spelled "Nebuchadrezzar" in the King James, closer to the Babylonian form of the name) captured Jerusalem and took its young king Jeconiah (also called Jehoiachin, and elsewhere Coniah) to Babylon after a reign of only three months, along with the royal household and the leading men. The "carpenters and smiths" of the King James are craftsmen and metalworkers; removing them stripped the city of the people who could manufacture weapons and fortifications, as well as of its wealth-producing skills. Baskets of produce set down in front of the temple was a familiar sight: that was how the first-picked share of a harvest was formally presented at the sanctuary.

2One basket had very good figs, like the ones that ripen first in the season. The other basket had very bad figs, so rotten that no one could eat them.

2One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

NoteFig trees in Judah bore twice. The early crop, ripening around June, was small and prized as a delicacy; the main crop came in late summer. "Figs that are first ripe" means the best fruit of the year. Where the King James calls the others "naughty figs," the word has since weakened: in 1611 "naughty" meant worthless or good-for-nothing, not mischievous.

3Then the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I said, "Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad ones are very bad, so bad that no one can eat them."

3Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

4Then the word of the LORD came to me again. He said:

4Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

5"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I look on the people of Judah who were taken away as prisoners the same way I look on these good figs. I sent them away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, and it was for their good.

5Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

Note"Chaldeans" is the King James term for the people who ruled the Babylonian empire in this period; in Jeremiah it is used interchangeably with "Babylonians."

6I will keep my eyes on them to do them good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pull them up.

6For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

Note"Build and not pull down, plant and not pluck up" reverses the words spoken when Jeremiah was first commissioned as a prophet, where he was set over nations "to root out, and to pull down... to build, and to plant." A reader hearing this in Hebrew would recognize the pairing.

7I will give them a heart that knows me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will come back to me with their whole heart.

7And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

NoteIn Hebrew the "heart" is the seat of thinking, willing and deciding, closer to what modern English calls the mind, rather than the seat of feeling alone. A heart that knows God means an understanding and a loyalty, not a mood.

8"But there are also the bad figs, so rotten that no one can eat them. This is what the LORD says: that is how I will treat Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who are still left in this land, along with those living in the land of Egypt.

8And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

NoteZedekiah was Jeconiah's uncle, installed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar as a client king after Jeconiah was deported. The people "in the land of Egypt" are Judeans who had fled south to escape Babylonian control rather than submit to it, a group Jeremiah returns to repeatedly.

9I will make them a horror and a disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth. People will look down on them and make a saying out of them. They will be mocked and cursed in every place where I drive them.

9And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

NoteThese are the terms of public disgrace. To become "a proverb" or "a curse" means the nation's name turns into a stock phrase used by others: a byword quoted as the standard example of ruin, and a formula spoken when cursing someone, "may you end up like Judah." The point is not that people will insult them but that their fate will become a fixed expression in other people's speech.

10I will send war, hunger, and disease against them, until they are wiped out of the land I gave to them and to their ancestors."

10And 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.

NoteSword, famine and pestilence appear together throughout Jeremiah as a set phrase for the three deaths of a besieged city: killed by the attacking army, starved while the walls hold, or carried off by the disease that spread among people penned inside with no clean water. "Pestilence" means epidemic disease, not vermin.