Jeremiah
Chapter 24
Who Is the Remnant?
The Lord showed me two baskets of figs in front of the temple. It was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had deported Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, along with the princes of Judah, the blacksmiths, and the metalworkers, and had taken them to Babylon.
One of the baskets contained choice figs that ripen early; the other had bad ones—so bad they couldn’t be eaten.
The Lord asked me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I replied: “Figs. The good figs are excellent, but the bad figs are so rotten they cannot be eaten!”
Then the word of the Lord came to me:
“Just as these figs are good, so do I consider good those who have been deported from Judah to the land of the Chaldeans.
I will look kindly on them and bring them back to this land. I will restore and not destroy them; I will plant and not uproot them.
I will give them a new heart to know me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.
But as far as King Zedekiah of Judah is concerned, I will treat him like rotten figs—so decayed they are inedible. I will also deal with his princes and the remnants of Jerusalem—those who have remained in the land and those who have migrated to Egypt.
I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and a byword, an object of ridicule, a curse in all the countries to which I will drive them.
I will also bring a sword, famine, and plague upon them until they are completely erased from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.
Commentaries
Who Is the Remnant?.
After the humiliating invasion of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who deported the young king Jeconiah (also known as Jehoiachin) and the prominent and valuable members of society, those who remained in Judea could hardly see themselves as God’s blessed ones and true bearers of the covenant. This vision completely shifts the interpretation of history. According to God’s plan, the Lord will remember the deportees, purify them, renew their hearts, and establish a new covenant with that “remnant.” King Zedekiah (son of King Josiah and uncle of Jeconiah), his court, and everyone who stayed in Judea are described as rotten figs, cursed by God.