Chapter XXIV · Location 24 of 52
Chapter 24 · Open to readFrom Jeremias · Douay–Rheims / Challoner (1749–1752)
What does Jeremias Chapter 24 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?
Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary
Good and bad figs are shown after named deportations. Captives receive promised return and a heart to know the Lord. Sedecias and the specified residue receive announced affliction.
Chapter breakdown
Jeremias 24's vision follows Nabuchodonosor's deportation of Jechonias son of Joakim, chief men, craftsmen and engravers to Babylon. Two baskets before the temple contain very good first-season figs and very bad inedible figs. Jeremias answers the Lord's question with that contrast; size, season month, smell, rot and the prophet's precise standing location are not supplied.
The Lord likens Juda's captives sent to Chaldea for their good to the good figs. He sets eyes on them to be pacified and promises return, building without pulling down and planting without plucking up. He gives a heart to know him; reciprocal belonging accompanies return with the whole heart. No appointed date, displacement-based separation mechanism or general rule about all exile is added.
The bad figs are compared to Sedecias, princes, Jerusalem's remaining residue and those dwelling in Egypt. Vexation and affliction throughout kingdoms make them reproach, byword, proverb and curse where cast out. Sword, famine and pestilence consume them from the land given to fathers. The chapter does not narrate subsequent asylum journeys, alliances, their inward motives or a selective exception for individual rebels.
The story inside
Opening: Good and bad figs are shown after named deportations. Development: Captives receive promised return and a heart to know the Lord. Conclusion: Sedecias and the specified residue receive announced affliction.
Lessons worth keeping
- 1Good and bad figs are shown after named deportations.
- 2Captives receive promised return and a heart to know the Lord.
- 3Sedecias and the specified residue receive announced affliction.
Test your recall
Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?
Source edition and notes
Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.
Lines 86468–86470
24:5. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Juda, whom I have sent forth out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.
Lines 86475–86477
24:7. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: because they shall
