The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[3] Jeremiah 24 is a part of the Eighth prophecy (Jeremiah 21-24) in the section of Prophecies of Destruction (Jeremiah 1-25). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
{P} 24:1-2 {P} 24:3 {P} 24:4-7 {S} 24:8-10 {P}
Verse 1
The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.[4]
The time of the vision is after 597 BCE.[5] This vision is "reminiscent of that of Amos" in Amos 8:1–2.[6]
Verse 5
"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.'"[7]
"Good figs": While the people at that time assumed those sent to the exile are the objects of God's wrath, God says that He favors them, and will return them back to Israel to become a faithful nation.[5]
Verse 8
'And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.'[8]
"Bad figs": Those remained in Jerusalem thought they were favored by God, but God declared that He would destroy every one of them, including king Zedekiah.[5]
^ abcThe New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. pp. 1116-1117 Hebrew Bible. ISBN978-0195288810
^Jerusalem Bible (1966), Footnote a at Jeremiah 24