Jeremiah 24 explained: Two Baskets of Figs

The first exile (v. 1)

Around 597 BC Babylon's king took young King Jehoiachin, Judah's leaders and its skilled workers away to Babylon, and put Zedekiah on the throne. Many left behind seem to have assumed the exiles were the ones God had rejected.

Good figs, rotten figs (vv. 1-3)

Jeremiah sees two baskets by the temple, one of fine early figs and one too spoiled to eat. Baskets of first fruits were brought to the temple as gifts to God, so the scene may echo that custom, though the text does not say so.

Hope for the exiles (vv. 4-7)

The good figs stand for the exiles, and God promises to watch over them, bring them home, and 'plant' them rather than uproot them. He will also give them a heart to know him, a phrase Christians later connected with the new covenant Jeremiah describes in chapter 31 and with Jesus.

Doom for those who stayed (vv. 8-10)

The rotten figs stand for Zedekiah, his officials, those still in Jerusalem, and those who fled to Egypt. The words are blunt: they will become a byword and a curse among the nations, and sword, famine and disease will wipe them from the land.

Key verse: Jeremiah 24:7

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the promise of return and a new heart was fully kept when exiles came home from Babylon, or also points further ahead, whether to the church or to a future restoration of the Jewish people.

Something to think about

When hard times hit some people and spare others, how much do you think that really says about who they are?