Jeremiah 24:2-3
24:2 One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. 1 The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.
24:3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”
Jeremiah 29:17
29:17 The Lord who rules over all 2 says, ‘I will bring war, 3 starvation, and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten 4 they cannot be eaten.
1 sn See Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10.
2 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.
3 tn Heb “the sword.”
4 tn The meaning of this word is somewhat uncertain. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. BDB 1045 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the noun “horrible thing” (translated “something shocking”) in Jer 5:30; 23:14 and defines it as “horrid, disgusting.” HALOT 1495 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the same noun and define it as “rotten; corrupt.” That nuance is accepted here.
sn Compare Jer 24:8-10 in its context for the figure here.