After giving the historical setting for this incident, Jeremiah says, The Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs were placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.
The phrase, The Lord showed me
is used elsewhere to describe the Lord revealing a message to his prophets (Amos 7:1, Amos 7:4, Amos 7:7; Amos 8:1; Zechariah 1:20; Zechariah 3:1). The vision is of two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. The word placed
is from the Hebrew word yaad. This word is used elsewhere to speak of the Lord meeting with his people at the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:22; Exodus 29:42; Exodus 30:6). The two baskets of figs symbolize the people of Judah meeting with the Lord.1 The Lord’s explanation of the vision in Jeremiah 24:4–10 will make this clear.
One of the baskets has good figs, the other bad. The word bad
comes from the Hebrew word ra, which means evil.
It refers here, first to the quality of the fruit, but it is also a word that is used to describe moral evil. This prepares the way for the Lord’s explanation of the vision which follows in Jeremiah 24:4–10.2
1 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.