Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859 edition.

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JEREMIAS - Chapter 24

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Jeremias xxiv.

Notes & Commentary:

Ver. 1. Engravers. Hebrew, "those who enclose," 4 Kings xxiv. 14., and 1 Kings xiii. 19.

Ver. 2. Season. Appearing in autumn and ripe in spring, Micheas vii. 1. (Calmet)

Ver. 5. Regard. Literally, "know," with love, Psalm i. 6. (Haydock) --- Jechonias was treated with honour, (4 Kings xxv. 27.) as well as Daniel (ii. 48.) and Zorobabel, of the same family, chap. xxix. 5. The captives, under Sedecias, (ver. 8.) were much more abused, chap. xxix. 17. (Calmet) --- This is the literal sense; the mystical shews that the good shall be rewarded. (Worthington)

Ver. 6. Up, till the Messias appear, and the true Israel of God, his disciples, to whom the promises chiefly pertain. They will continue for ever. If this answer does not give satisfaction, as it ought, we may say that the Jews did not comply with the condition, and were therefore abandoned to the Romans. (Calmet)

Ver. 8. Egypt, to which they fled contrary to the prophet's advice, 4 Kings xxv. 26.

 


Bible Text & Cross-references:

Under the type of good and bad figs, he foretells the restoration of the Jews that had been carried away captive with Jechonias, and the desolation of those that were left behind.

1 The Lord shewed me: and behold two baskets full of figs, set before the temple of the Lord, after that *Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, had carried away Jechonias, the son of Joakim, the king of Juda, and his chief men, and the craftsmen, and engravers of Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs of the first season: and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, because they were bad.

3 And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: Figs, the good figs, very good: and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten, because they are bad.

4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

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.

6 And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I will bring them again into this land: and I will build them up, and not pull them down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

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 return to me with their whole heart.

8 *And as the very bad figs, that cannot be eaten, because they are bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give Sedecias, the king of Juda, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that have remained in this city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt.

9 And I will deliver them up to vexation, and affliction, to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a bye-word, and a proverb, and to be a curse in all places to which I have cast them out.

10 And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them, and their fathers.

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*

1: Year of the World 3405, Year before Christ 599.

7: Jeremias vii. 23. and xviii. 6.

8: Jeremias xxix. 17.