Bible Commentaries

This prophecy Jeremiah 24:1-10 is the final outcome of what has gone before. Never perhaps has a reigning king been addressed in such contemptuous terms. When Jeconiah was carried to Babylon, Zedekiah, the priests, prophets, and people of Jerusalem congratulated themselves upon being saved from such a fate: really all that was good among them was then culled out, and placed in safety; and they were left behind because they were not worth the taking.

Omit “were.” “Set before,” i. e put in the appointed place for offerings of firstfruits in the forecourt of the temple.

Carpenters - “Craftsmen” (see the marginal reference).

Fig-trees bear three crops of figs, of which the first is regarded as a great delicacy.

The complete fulfillment of this prophecy belongs to the Christian Church. There is a close analogy between Jeremiah at the first destruction of Jerusalem and our Lord at the second. There the good figs were those converts picked out by the preaching of Christ and the Apostles; the bad figs were the mass of the people left for Titus and the Romans to destroy.

Jeremiah 24:5

Acknowledge … for their good - Specially their spiritual good. Put a comma after Chaldaeans.

Jeremiah 24:8

That dwell in the land of Egypt - Neither those carried captive with Jehoahaz into Egypt, nor those who fled there, are to share in these blessings. The new life of the Jewish nation is to be the work only of the exiles in Babylon.