CHAPTER 24

Je 24:1–10. The Restoration of the Captives in Babylon and the Destruction of the Refractory Party in Judea and in Egypt, Represented under the Type of a Basket of Good, and One of Bad, Figs.

1. Lord showed me—Am 7:1, 4, 7; 8:1, contains the same formula, with the addition of “thus” prefixed.

carried … captive Jeconiah—(Je 22:24; 2 Ki 24:12, &c. 2 Ch 36:10).

carpenters, &c.—One thousand artisans were carried to Babylon, both to work for the king there, and to deprive Jerusalem of their services in the event of a future siege (2 Ki 24:16).

2. figs … first ripe—the “boccora,” or early fig (see on Is 28:4). Baskets of figs used to be offered as first-fruits in the temple. The good figs represent Jeconiah and the exiles in Babylon; the bad, Zedekiah and the obstinate Jews in Judea. They are called good and bad respectively, not in an absolute, but a comparative sense, and in reference to the punishment of the latter. This prophecy was designed to encourage the despairing exiles, and to reprove the people at home, who prided themselves as superior to those in Babylon and abused the forbearance of God (compare Je 52:31–34).

5. acknowledge—regard with favor, like as thou lookest on the good figs favorably.

for their good—Their removal to Babylon saved them from the calamities which befell the rest of the nation and led them to repentance there: so God bettered their condition (2 Ki 25:27–30). Daniel and Ezekiel were among these captives.

6. (Je 12:15).

not pull … down … not pluck … up—only partially fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon; antitypically and fully to be fulfilled hereafter (Je 32:41; 33:7).

7. (Je 30:22; 31:33; 32:38). Their conversion from idolatry to the one true God, through the chastening effect of the Babylonish captivity, is here expressed in language which, in its fulness, applies to the more complete conversion hereafter of the Jews, “with their whole heart” (Je 29:13), through the painful discipline of their present dispersion. The source of their conversion is here stated to be God’s prevenient grace.

for they shall return—Repentance, though not the cause of pardon, is its invariable accompaniment: it is the effect of God’s giving a heart to know Him.

8. in … Egypt—Many Jews had fled for refuge to Egypt, which was leagued with Judea against Babylon.

9. removed, &c.—(Je 15:4). Calvin translates, “I will give them up to agitation, in all,” &c.; This verse quotes the curse (De 28:25, 37). Compare Je 29:18, 22; Je 29:18, 22, Ps 44:13, 14.