Jer 24.1-10 contains a vison of two baskets of figs representing the Jewish people in exile, and those who stayed in Jerusalem or fled to Egypt.
v 1…After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Yeconiah the son of Yehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and the smiths (these were taken to deprive Jerusalem of their abilities to build and construct in case of another siege-2 Kings 24.16) from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon (weakening the Jewish people in the land), the Lord (Yehovah) showed me ; behold (see), two baskets of figs set before the temple (heichal) of the Lord (these figs symbolized the first fruits of the people-Jer 8.13; 9.26, 29.15-20; Mic 7.1-2; Matt 21.19; Mark 11.13-14; Job 14.7; Hos 9.10; Luke 13.6, 21.19)!
v 2…One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs (those exiles in Babylon with Yeconiah like Ezekiel and others) and the other basket had very bad figs (like Zedekiah and those who were obstinate in Jerusalem and Judah, or fled to Egypt), which could not be eaten due to rottenness.
v 3…The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs (good remnant), the good figs, very good; and the bad figs (bad remnant), very bad; which cannot be eaten due to rottenness.”
v 4…Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
v 5…”Thus says the Lord God (Yehovah Elohay) of Israel, ‘Like these good figs (a good fig is one who goes as a captive in obedience to Jeremiah’s words to Babylon-Jer 38.2), so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.
v 6…For I will set my eyes on them for good (well treated), and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them (like a condemned building), and I will plant them and not pluck them up (as a poisonous plant).
v 7…And I will give them a heart (desire, intentions) to know me, for I am the Lord (Yehovah); and they will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with their whole heart (desire).
v 8…But like the bad figs (the ones who stayed in the land or went to Egypt and doesn’t believe in Jeremiah’s prophecies) which cannot be eaten due to rottenness-for thus says the Lord,- so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials (princes), and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt (they fled there refusing to submit to Babylon as the Yehovah required. This is a type of the people who refuse to submit to Yehovah today and stay in the world);
v 9…And I will make them a terror (horror) and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth (the exiles were taken to Babylon for their own good and protection, but these will be scattered to several parts of the earth), as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse (they will be used as an example because of their love of money, their falsehood and trickery, being under the curse of Deut 28.15-68) in all the places where I shall scatter them (this is still going on today).
v 10…And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers (none will be left to inhabit the land, which was a gift to their fathers and passed down to them as an inheritance).'”
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