Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 24:2
One 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.
2. the figs that are first ripe ] The proper time for gathering figs in Palestine is in August. Certain kinds of trees, however, bear twice in the year, in which case the first crop, ripening in June, are esteemed a special delicacy. See Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10; Mic 7:1; Nah 3:12.
“The bad figs may have been such either from having decayed and thus been reduced to a rotten condition, or as being the fruit of the sycamore, which contains a bitter juice.” Tristram, op. cit. p. 399.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fig-trees bear three crops of figs, of which the first is regarded as a great delicacy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 24:2-3
One basket had very good figs.
Two baskets of figs
I. The same nation may contain two distinct characters, yet both may be equally involved in a national visitation. There are laws of retribution m operation in relation to nations which, so far as the outward condition is concerned-, are no respecters of persons.
II. Submission to Divine chastisement will lead, in time, to deliverance from it, while resistance will bring ruin. Two members of a family may be suffering from the same disease; the physician will insist upon submission to his treatment from both his patients. If one refuses, he must not complain of the physician, supposing he grows worse. God desired to heal the Jewish nation of its idolatrous tendencies; for this purpose He had decreed that it should go into captivity. Those who submitted willingly are hem promised that the discipline should be for their good, and that they should be brought again to their own land; while those who resisted, would be consumed from off the land that He gave unto them and their fathers.
III. Lessons,
1. In this life retribution to nations is more certain than to individuals. God can deal with individual characters in any world, therefore we sometimes find the greatest villains apparently unmarked by Him now.
2. Outward circumstance is no standard by which to judge Gods estimate of character. Jobs friends were not afflicted as he was, but God esteemed him far more highly than He did them.
3. Moral crime is commercial ruin to a nation. Israel lost God first, and then her national prosperity and greatness. A body soon decays when the life has departed, and a putrid carcase will soon be visited by the birds of prey. (A London Minister.)
What seest thou, Jeremiah?—
Reflections on some of the characteristics of the age we live in
It is not difficult to see the force and application of this homely but sententious little allegory. Jeremiah lived in those days of declension and disaster in which the invasion of Judea by the King of Babylon was not only threatened, but actually took place. He saw the departure of the King of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and these were all carried away captive to Babylon. Nevertheless, many of every class were left behind, and these were placed under the government of that weak and wicked king, Zedekiah. Those who were carried away comprised the best of the population with regard to intelligence, religious feeling, and patriotism. Their sorrows and afflictions humbled them, so that they repented of their idolatries and obtained mercy of the Lord. In due time the way was prepared for the return of the exiles to their own land; and there, under the leadership of such men as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel, they founded afresh a pious commonwealth, in which the worship of the true God was ever afterwards main-rained down to the time of the coming of Christ. In them was fulfilled the promise contained in verses 4-7. On the other hand, the Jews who remained at home with Zedekiah and his princes revolted against God more and more. They abandoned themselves openly to licentiousness and idolatry. Their temper fiery and mutinous, their language blasphemous, their whole conduct infamous. (See verses 8-13.) These were the evil figs, so evil that they could not be eaten. The point suggested to us by Jeremiahs vision is, that there occur periods, or special circumstances, in the religious life of nations, which tend to develop and force the maturation of character with unusual energy and astonishing rapidity. In such times, you do not find people merely good or bad; but the good are very good, and the evil very evil. Now, it is evident that no parallel whatever can be drawn between our position and circumstances in England at the present time and those of Judea in the days of Jeremiah. We are not, as a nation, suffering either from internal anarchy or from external assault. But still it may be, that other influences and conditions of society are at work, producing an exactly analogous result to that at the time referred to in the text.
I. Certain peculiarities of our times and position my be noted.
1. This is an age of extraordinary intellectual and social activity. The most absolute liberty of speech exists, and men shrink from the utterance of no opinion, the broaching of no speculation. This unusual activity and daring of thought produces rapid and extraordinary changes in both political and ecclesiastical affairs. Amid the astonishment and whirl of such events, it requires a great effort to keep the mind calm, and hold fast in our judgments, utterances, and actions to the sober requirements of sound principle and acknowledged truth (Pro 17:27, margin).
2. The very full and clear religious light which we enjoy.
3. The corresponding increase of activity in the Church. All manner of special devices are being tried and carried out vigorously whereby to reach all classes, to instruct the most ignorant and reform the most vicious, whilst ancient and ordinary means of grace are sustained with unprecedented interest and efficiency.
II. What do all these things import? and what do they necessitate on our part individually? Truly we find here divers potent and stimulating agencies in operation, calculated to arouse us up to repentance and godly solicitude, and then to prompt us on to vigorous Christian life and action. If we yield to them, how fast and far may we soon be carried in the path of faith, in a career of usefulness! What bold, what firm, what fruitful Christians we must become if we enter fully into the spirit of the times, considered as engaged on the side of Christ and His Gospel! But if we refuse to do so, if we set ourselves to resist these powerful influences, how strenuous must that resistance be! how determined and how self-conscious that action of the will which still fights against God and clings to worldliness and sin! Facts are in harmony with these reasonings. Illustrations abound on every side. In this earnest age you find earnest men both for good and evil. Was ever war conducted on so fearful a scale as we have lately witnessed? In our day, we have also seen such specimens of commercial roguery and robbery, conceived on so magnificent a scale, and executed under so clever and admirable a cloak of hypocrisy, as no previous age has ever presented to the world. On the other hand, look at the men who stand foremost in the van of religion and philanthropy. These are Gods heroes; men are still living amongst us worthy of comparison with the spiritual heroes of ancient times, in regard to all that is noble in faith, self-denying in zeal, munificent in giving, or abundant in labours. These, indeed, are among the good figs, which by Gods grace are very good: and to the production of such instances of exalted and matured piety, the present times are not in the least unfavourable. One might speak of books, as well as men. And if, on the other hand, it be true that infidelity and immorality were never so speciously or so boldly advocated as now, in sensational novels, in shallow critiques, or in vulgar serials; so, again, we defy any age to show such noble and masterly treatises as are now written by men of sanctified learning and genius, either in exposition of the Scriptures, or in vindication of their contents. Then there are public institutions and societies to be looked at. If chapels are multiplied, so are theatres. Look at the state of our large towns and cities. Were ever such facilities for evil doing? such criminal attractions for the young? so many places where vice is seductive and sin made easy? The kingdom of Satan is as active and roused up to new exertions as is the kingdom of Christ. It is said that, in the early colonisation of Van Diemens Land, one man took a hive of bees, and soon the island was filled with swarms, and both the trees and rocks dropped with honey; another took a handful of thistle-down, and ere long the country was overrun with prickly and gigantic weeds. Like such actions, are the deeds of all men now. Shall we, then, multiply honey-hives, or scatter thistles in the earth? Let us seek to be good, and do good: and then, behold what glorious possibilities belong to us, of being pre-eminently holy, blest and useful! (T. G. Horon.)
Figs good and bad
Events are divided. What seest thou? I see two kinds of events, one good, and the other vile: and there they are in life. It is so in families: how do you account for it that one son prays, and the other never saw the need of prayer? The one is filial; the other has a heart of stone. Look at life broadly. What seest thou, O prophet, O man of the piercing eyes, what seest thou? Two events, or series of events, one excellent, the other vile; one leading upward, the other downward. What seest thou? Heaven—hell. The vision is still before us; we need to have our attention called to it. He who deals in singularities, in isolations, never enters into the philosophy of Providence, the method of the sublime organisation which is denominated the universe. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Very good figs] Or, figs of the early sort. The fig-trees in Palestine, says Dr. Shaw, produce fruit thrice each year. The first sort, called boccore, those here mentioned, come to perfection about the middle or end of June. The second sort, called kermez, or summer fig, is seldom ripe before August. And the third, which is called the winter fig, which is larger, and of a darker complexion than the preceding, hangs all the winter on the tree, ripening even when the leaves are shed, and is fit for gathering in the beginning of spring.
Could not be eaten] The winter fig, – then in its crude or unripe state; the spring not being yet come.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God afterwards explaineth to the prophet, and he to the kings house, the significancy of this vision. The figs first ripe are usually best. By these
good figs, as will appear by the following verses, are intended Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, with the ten thousand mentioned 2Ki 24:14, and the seven thousand mentioned 2Ki 24:16, which went with him into captivity. By the other figs which were very bad, not to be eaten, are signified Zedekiah and the residue of the people carried with him into captivity. Some may object that Jeconiah and the people then carried away were wicked enough, why else were they carried away? and being so, how are they compared to good figs?
Answ. 1. Though they were bad, yet they might be comparatively good; this people, for the eleven years they continued in their own land, after that their brethren were carried away, not only continuing in their former courses, but still growing worse and worse.
2. They seem not to be called good or bad figs with respect to their manners or quality, but in respect to what God intended to do to them, viz. to use them as bad figs are used, not fit to: be eaten.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. figs . . . first ripethe”boccora,” or early fig (see on Isa28:4). Baskets of figs used to be offered as first-fruits in thetemple. The good figs represent Jeconiah and the exiles inBabylon; the bad, Zedekiah and the obstinate Jews in Judea.They are called good and bad respectively, not in anabsolute, but a comparative sense, and in reference to the punishmentof the latter. This prophecy was designed to encourage the despairingexiles, and to reprove the people at home, who prided themselves assuperior to those in Babylon and abused the forbearance of God(compare Jer 52:31-34).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
One basket [had] very good figs, [even] like the figs [that are] first ripe,…. As there are some figs that are ripe sooner than others, and which are always the most desirable and acceptable; and such were they that were presented to the Lord, Mic 7:1; these signified those that were carried captive into Babylon with Jeconiah, among whom were some very good men, as Ezekiel, and others; and all might be said to be so, in comparison of those that were at Jerusalem, who were very wicked, and grew worse and worse:
and the other basket [had] very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad; as nothing is more sweet and luscious, and agreeable to the taste than a sound ripe fig, and especially a first ripe one; so nothing is more nauseous than a naughty rotten one: these signified the wicked Jews at Jerusalem indulging themselves in all manner of sin; so those who seemed to be the worst, through their being carried captive, were the best; and those who, seemed to be the best, by their prosperity, were the worst. This is to be understood in a comparative sense, as Calvin observes; though this does not so much design the quality of persons, as the issue of things, with respect unto them. The captivity of the one would issue in their good, and so are compared to good figs; when the sins of the other would bring upon them utter ruin and destruction without recovery, and therefore compared to bad figs that cannot be eaten.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“The one basket very good figs” is short for: the basket was quite full of very good figs; cf. Friedr. W. M. Philippi, on the Nature and Origin of the Status constr. in Hebrew (1871), p. 93. The comparison to early figs serves simply to heighten the idea of very good; for the first figs, those ripened at the end of June, before the fruit season in August, were highly prized dainties. Cf. Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
He now adds, that one basket had very good figs, and that the other had very bad figs. If it be asked whether Jeconiah was in himself approved by God, the answer is easy, — that he was suffering punishment for his sins. Then the Prophet speaks here comparatively, when he calls some good and others bad. We must also notice, that he speaks not here of persons but of punishment; as though he had said, “ye feel a dread when those exiles are mentioned, who have been deprived of the inheritance promised them by God: this seems hard to you; but this is moderate when ye consider what end awaits you.” He then does not call Jeconiah and other captives good in themselves; but he calls them good figs, because God had chastened them more gently than he intended to chastise Zedekiah and the rest. Thus he calls the Jews who remained bad figs, not only for this reason, because they were more wicked, though this was in part the reason, but he had regard to the punishment that was nigh at hand; for the severity of God was to be greater towards those whom he had spared, and against whom he had not immediately executed his vengeance. We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet. The rest we shall defer to the next Lecture.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Like the figs that are first ripe.Figs were usually gathered in August. The first ripe, the summer fruits of Mic. 7:1, the hasty fruit before the summer (Isa. 28:4; Hos. 9:10) were looked upon as a choice delicacy. The naughty (i.e., worthless) fruits were those that had been left behind on the tree, bruised and decayed. The word was not confined in the 16th century to the language of the nursery, and was applied freely to things as well as persons. So Norths translation of Plutarch speaks of men fighting on naughty ground.
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
SHAKESPEARE, Merchant of Venice, v. 1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. First ripe The fig-tree bears three crops: the first, which ripened in June, being considered specially choice. (Compare Isa 28:4, and Hos 9:10.)
Naughty figs Possibly because decayed, or, more suitably to the scope of the passage, fruit essentially poor, such, for instance, as the sycamore figs, which, unless they are punctured as they ripen, cannot be eaten.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 24:2. Like the figs that are first ripe Dr. Shaw speaks of three sorts of figs; the first of which he calls the boccore, (being those here spoken of) which comes to maturity towards the middle or latter end of June; the second the kermez, or summer fig, which seldom ripens before August; and the third, which he calls the winter fig: this is usually of a much longer shape and darker complexion than the kermez, hanging and ripening upon the tree even after the leaves are shed; and provided the winter proves temperate, is gathered as a delicious morsel in the spring. Shaw’s Travels, p. 370 fol.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 24:2 One 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.
Ver. 2. One basket had very good figs. ] Maturas et praecoquas, ripe and ready early, bursas melle plenas, as one once called such good figs, purses full of honey.
“ Ficus habet lactis nivei, rutilique saporem
Mellis, et ambrosiae similes cum nectare succos. ”
– Passerat.
The other basket had very naughty figs. ] Sour and ill-tasted, because blasted, haply, or worm eaten, &c. Of the Athenians Plutarch a saith, that they were all very good or stark naught; no middle men: like as that country also produceth both the most excellent honey and the most deadly poison. Sure it is that non sunt media coram Deo, neque placet tepiditas, before God every man is either a good tree yielding good fruit, or an evil tree bearing evil fruit. He that is not with Christ is against him. He acknowledgeth not a mediocrity, he detesteth an indifference in religion; hot or cold he wisheth men, and threateneth to “spue the lukewarm out of his mouth.” Rev 3:15-16 The best that can be said of such neuter passives is that which Tacitus saith of Galba, Magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus, that they are rather not vicious than virtuous; their goodness is merely negative. The world crieth them up for right honest men, but God decrieth them for naught, stark naught; they may not be endured, they are so naught. See Luk 16:15 .
a In Vit. Dion.
naughty = worth naught.
One basket: Jer 24:5-7, Hos 9:10, Mic 7:1
first ripe: The boccore or figs of the early sort; perhaps those which are ripe about six weeks before the full season, which are reckoned a great dainty. See note on Isa 28:4.
naughty: The winter fig, probably, then in its crude or unripe state. Jer 24:8-10, Isa 5:4, Isa 5:7, Eze 15:2-5, Mal 1:12-14, Mat 5:13
they were so bad: Heb. for badness
Reciprocal: Num 18:13 – whatsoever Psa 81:6 – from the pots Pro 6:12 – naughty Jer 29:16 – General Mat 25:2 – General
Jer 24:2. This verse only describes the character of the figs in the basket. The. good ones are said to be so because they are ripe or mature and useful, which means the others are the opposite and hence not useful.
Jer 24:2. One basket had very good figs Dr. Shaw speaks of three sorts of figs; the first of which he calls boccore, (being those here spoken of,) which come to maturity toward the middle or latter end of June; the second, the kermez, or summer fig, which ripens seldom before August; and the third, the winter fig. This is usually of a much longer shape, and dark complexion than the kermez, hanging and ripening upon the tree even after the leaves are shed; and, provided the winter proves temperate, is gathered as a delicious morsel in the spring. Shaws Travels, p. 370, fol. The doctor thinks that the latter sort were those which our Saviour expected to find on the fig-tree at the time of the passover in March, Mat 21:19; Mar 11:13. See Blaney.
In one basket there were very good figs, like the highly valued figs that matured in June (cf. Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10), and in the other there were such bad figs that no one could eat them. In Jeremiah’s day it was not uncommon for people to bring less than the best to the Lord. Jeremiah explained to the Lord what he saw, in answer to the Lord’s question.
CHAPTER XXVI
INTRODUCTORY
“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”- Jer 31:1
IN this third book an attempt is made to present a general view of Jeremiahs teaching on the subject with which he was most preoccupied-the political and religious fortunes of Judah. Certain (30, 31, and, in part, 33) chapters detach themselves from the rest, and stand in no obvious connection with any special incident of the prophets life. These are the main theme of this book, and have been dealt with in the ordinary method of detailed exposition. They have been treated separately, and not woven into the continuous narrative, partly because we thus obtain a more adequate emphasis upon important aspects of their teaching, but chiefly because their date and occasion cannot be certainly determined. With them other sections have been associated, on account of the connection of subject. Further material for a synopsis of Jeremiahs teaching has been collected from chapters 21-49, generally, supplemented by brief references to the previous chapters. Inasmuch as the prophecies of our book do not form an ordered treatise on dogmatic theology, but were uttered with regard to individual conduct and critical events, topics are not exclusively dealt with in a single section, but are referred to at intervals throughout. Moreover, as both the individuals and the crises were very much alike, ideas and phrases are constantly reappearing, so that there is an exceptionally large amount of repetition in the Book of Jeremiah. The method we have adopted avoids some of the difficulties which would arise if we attempted to deal with these doctrines in our continuous exposition.
Our general sketch of the prophets teaching is naturally arranged under categories suggested by the book itself, and not according to the sections of a modern treatise on Systematic Theology. No doubt much may legitimately be extracted or deduced concerning Anthropology, Soteriology, and the like; but true proportion is as important in exposition as accurate interpretation. If we wish to understand Jeremiah, we must be content to dwell longest upon what he emphasised most, and to adopt the standpoint of time and race which was his own. Accordingly in our treatment we have followed the cycle of sin, punishment, and restoration, so familiar to students of Hebrew prophecy.
NOTE SOME CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF JEREMIAH
This note is added partly for convenience of reference, and partly to illustrate the repetition just mentioned as characteristic of Jeremiah. The instances are chosen from expressions occurring in chapters 21-52. The reader will find fuller lists dealing with the whole book in the “Speakers Commentary” and the “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.” The Hebrew student is referred to the list in Drivers “Introduction,” upon which the following is partly based.
1. “Rising up early”: Jer 7:13; Jer 7:25; Jer 11:7; Jer 25:3-4; Jer 26:5; Jer 29:19; Jer 32:33; Jer 35:14-15; Jer 44:4. This phrase, familiar to us in the narratives of Genesis and in the historical books, is used here, as in 2Ch 36:15, of God addressing His people on sending the prophets.
2. “Stubbornness of heart” (A.V. imagination of heart): Jer 3:17; Jer 7:24; Jer 9:14; Jer 11:8; Jer 13:10; Jer 16:12; Jer 18:12; Jer 23:17; also found Deu 29:19 and Psa 81:15.
3. “The evil of your doings”: Jer 4:4; Jer 21:12; Jer 23:2; Jer 23:22; Jer 25:5; Jer 26:3; Jer 44:22; also Deu 28:20; 1Sa 25:3; Isa 1:16; Hos 9:15; Psa 28:4; and in slightly different form in Jer 11:18 and Zec 1:4.
“The fruit of your doings”: Jer 17:10; Jer 21:14; Jer 32:19; also found in Mic 7:13.
“Doings, your doings,” etc., are also found in Jeremiah and elsewhere.
4. “The sword, the pestilence, and the famine,” in various orders, and either as a phrase or each word ocurring in one of three successive clauses: Jer 14:12; Jer 15:2; Jer 21:7; Jer 21:9; Jer 24:10; Jer 27:8; Jer 27:13; Jer 29:17-18; Jer 32:24; Jer 32:36; Jer 34:17; Jer 38:2; Jer 42:17; Jer 42:22; Jer 44:13.
“The sword and the famime,” with similar variations: Jer 5:12; Jer 11:22; Jer 14:13; Jer 14:15-16; Jer 14:18; Jer 16:4; Jer 18:21; Jer 42:16; Jer 44:12; Jer 44:18; Jer 44:27. Cf. similar lists, etc., “death . . . sword . . . captivity,” in Jer 43:11 : “war . . . evil . . . pestilence,” Jer 28:8.
5. “Kings . . . princes . . . priests . . . prophets,” in various orders and combinations: Jer 2:26; Jer 4:9; Jer 8:1; Jer 13:13; Jer 24:8; Jer 32:32.
Cf. “Prophet . . . priest . . . people,” Jer 23:33-34. “Prophets . . . diviners . . . dreamers . . . enchanters . . . sorcerers,” Jer 27:9.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary