Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here begins the third book of Jeremiah's oracles, which comprises the prophecies after the deportation of Jeconiah, under Zedekiah, over eleven years. In this chapter, therefore, the Prophet sees two baskets, one of very good figs, the other of very bad figs. The bad figs signify Zedekiah and his people, because he refused to surrender to the Chaldeans as God commanded through Jeremiah, and was therefore to be destroyed. The good figs signify Jehoiachin and his people, who had surrendered to the Chaldeans at God's command, and would prosper both in Babylon and when they returned to their homeland after seventy years. So St. Jerome and Theodoret, and this is clear from verses 5 and 8. For in Babylon, Evil-merodach raised Jehoiachin's royal throne above the other kings, 4 Kings 25:28.
Note: This vision was either corporeal or rather imaginary. So St. Thomas and Hugo.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 24:1-10
1. The Lord showed me: and behold, two baskets full of figs, set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and his princes, and the craftsmen, and the engravers, from 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, they were so bad. 3. And the Lord said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said: Figs; good figs, very good; and bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad. 4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good. 6. And I will set My eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land: and I will build them up, and not tear 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, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. 8. And like the very bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad: thus says the Lord, so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remained in this city, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9. And I will give them over to vexation and affliction in all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a byword, and a proverb, and a curse in all the places to which I have driven them. 10. And I will send among them the sword, and famine, and pestilence, until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and their fathers.
Verse 1
1. TWO BASKETS. — Symmachus: two hampers; Vatablus: two wicker baskets; Pagninus: two panniers, which in Hebrew are called dudaim, because they are similar to breasts; for dodim means breasts.
SET BEFORE THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD. — Note: These two baskets were before the temple; because the first, containing good figs, signified that the people joined to God and to His worship, as it were His household — even those who had gone captive to Babylon at God's command — were present to God, in His eyes and His care, and through this tribulation offered a sweet fruit of patience, as if ripened by the heat of tribulation, and pleasing to God. The other basket, containing bad figs, signified that those who had remained in Jerusalem, disobedient to God — even though closer to the temple and living in luxuries — were hateful to God and would be cut off by Him because of this disobedience.
the best, that is, the most flavorful, because ripe and early; but the figs of the other basket, which were bad, were the worst, that is, the most tasteless, because unripe, or because wild and bitter, or because shriveled by heat, or because dried out and juiceless from being beaten by the wind, or because gnawed by worms, so as to cause nausea, etc. The Prophet recognized this difference in the figs, both from the form and appearance of the figs, and from the indication of the Lord, who perhaps also gave them to him to taste. For properly the goodness or badness of figs is discerned by flavor and taste. Nor does it matter that he says: "What do you see? And I said: Figs, good figs." For "you see" does not exclude tasting — both because sight is often taken generally for any sense, and because "you see" only means that these figs were presented to the Prophet, not in reality but through vision and imagination, in which the Prophet seemed to himself partly to see them and partly to taste them. The first basket signified the happiness of those who had emigrated, the second the destruction of those who had remained, as I have already said. So Homer says that Jupiter has two casks, one of gall and misfortune, the other of honey and happiness; and now from this one, now from that one he serves drink to men. Plutarch cites this passage of Homer in his Letter to Apollonius.
Note the catachresis: "good," meaning sweet and honeyed. Aptly and truly, a certain Transalpine man coming to Italy, who had never before seen fresh figs, when he first tasted them among other fruits, pointed them out as purses full of honey. Truly Passerat writes of the fig: The fig has the taste of snowy milk and ruddy honey, / And juices like ambrosia blended with nectar.
Tropologically, some authors cited by St. Jerome and the Glossa: These two baskets are the two cities, one of God, the other of the devil; second, they are Christians and Jews; third, they are the elect and the reprobate, that is, hell and heaven; fourth, as Lyranus says, they are good and bad Religious: for these are, as it were, in the temple of the Lord and in the earthly paradise of God, as Blessed Peter Damian says in his sermon On St. Nicholas, so that they may bring forth and offer to God celestial figs and fruits. Hence St. Augustine rightly says, epistle 137, volume II: "Just as I have found none better than those who have progressed in the monastery, so neither have I found any worse than those who have fallen in the monastery." Thus Pelagius, Eutyches, Nestorius, Jovinian, Luther, Bucer, and Peter Martyr were monks; but by apostatizing they became heresiarchs. Plutarch said something similar about the Athenians, among whom wisdom and probity flourished, in the Life of Dionysius: "They are either the best or the worst," and he adds: "Just as Attica produces the finest honey, so also it produces deadly poison."
One may ask, why are men understood by figs? St. Augustine responds, sermon 31 On the Words of the Lord according to Luke: From that time, he says, when the first man after his sin covered himself with fig leaves, the human race put on a kinship of likeness with the fig tree. Therefore St. Ambrose as well, in his book On Paradise, chapter 13, weighing the fact that Adam girded his loins with fig leaves, mystically interprets this as the garment of sin being transmitted from the fig tree to his posterity, so that they would be born clothed, as it were, in the fig tree, that is, in sin, or born as sinners.
But why did these figs appear to the Prophet before the temple? Antonius Fernandius responds, in his book On the Visions of the Old Testament, vision 12, that the literal reason is that in the courtyard of the temple various kinds of fruits were sold, so that the people might have ready at hand what to offer to the Lord, before whom no one could appear empty-handed, according to the law of Exodus 23:15. A more proper reason is that the Jews attributed all their glory, strength, and happiness to the temple, and that Zedekiah and his people refused to surrender to the Chaldeans, so as not to deprive themselves of these goods of the temple: whence they also mocked Jeconiah, who had surrendered himself and his people to the Chaldeans, as if banished and exiled from the temple, and consequently from God, as is clear from Ezekiel 11:15-16. Wherefore God there refutes this, promising that He would be to Jeconiah in Babylon as a sanctuary, that is, as a holy temple.
Mystically, it is signified that the wicked as well as the good are present to God, and that God from His temple continually beholds them, but for different outcomes and destinies.
THE ENGRAVER — namely, of gems. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyranus — that is, one who sets gems in gold or silver. Otherwise Vatablus and Angelomus on 4 Kings 24: By "engraver," they say, understand one skilled in camps, that is, in laying out and fortifying camps, and enclosing them with a rampart — as if to say: Nebuchadnezzar transported all craftsmen and artisans, especially those who could fortify the city like a camp and enclose it with ramparts; lest these again help the Jews if they wished to rebel, as the Philistines did, in 1 Kings chapter 13, verse 19.
for these would infect the rest, and bring great harm or ruin to the Religious life. This must be observed especially in Novices, upon whom, as upon a root, the progress or decline of the Religious life depends: in admitting or rejecting them, therefore, great discernment and great care must be employed, as Blessed Teresa used to say. These must then be especially exercised in the practice of both mortification and prayer, so that they may always think of themselves as living in religious life as in a temple, indeed as in a kind of earthly heaven (as Climacus says) in the presence of God and the angels. This is what St. Peter taught with his golden instruction, as St. Clement reports, epistle 1 to James the brother of the Lord: "He taught (Peter, says Clement) to guard the actions of one's life every hour, and to look to God in every place; to know firmly that when evil thoughts come to one's heart, they must immediately be dashed against Christ." Again, most fittingly and properly, the best figs are those who willingly submit themselves with Christ to the discipline and cross sent by God; the worst are those who refuse and shake off discipline and the cross.
It should be noted that Columella writes in Book III that figs which do not ripen or grow sweet must be shaken off the tree, lest the tree be corrupted or dry up: so from religious life those must be removed who do not draw in its genuine spirit, who do not absorb the warmth of its devotion so as to ripen and grow sweet in perfection — otherwise...
Verse 2
2. ONE BASKET HAD VERY GOOD FIGS — as if to say: The figs of one basket which were good, were the best, that is, the most flavorful, because they were ripe and early.
AS FIGS OF THE FIRST SEASON USUALLY ARE — not of spring: for spring does not produce ripe figs. The figs "of the first season," therefore, are those which the tree first produces ripe, and the warm air, namely summer, brings to maturity; these are called early figs, and are the sweetest, because they are firstborn, into which the tree pours its sap and strength; so that, as if growing old and exhausted, it gives late figs that are languid, tasteless, and imperfect, as we see and taste here in Italy.
For which note: There are two kinds of fig trees; some produce fruit once a year, namely in September, which is the proper season for figs; others produce them twice a year, namely the first crop in June, and the late crop in September. For every fig tree that produces fruit in June is a double-bearer; for it gives a second crop in September; but the earlier June figs are far better than the later September ones, and these are called early or first-season figs. Other fig trees, which only produce fruit in September, likewise give their first fruits better than their last. The reason is that, since the fig is a warm plant, it requires the heat of the sun: hence the hotter the sun, as at the beginning of September, the better the figs are; but as the sun declines in October, the figs are less good, because they are ripened by less solar heat. Finally, just as the first offspring of animals surpass later ones in beauty, strength, quality, and value, so the figs of early summer surpass those of late September in every respect — in appearance, size, novelty, and flavor, whether real or perceived due to the long and eager anticipation of them; hence they are also of greater value and fetch a higher price.
Furthermore, the just man is aptly compared to a good fig tree. First, just as the fig tree bears sweet fruit, so does the just man. Second, just as the fig tree grows little in height, so the just man is humble. Third, the fig tree instead of flowers gives fruit, and twice a year produces fruit, namely early figs and mature figs; so the just man is entirely occupied in the fruit of good works. Fourth, the fig tree makes shade with its broad leaves: so the just man by his charity helps and protects others. Fifth, the fig tree cannot be grafted onto another tree, because of its exceptional sweetness which it cannot leave: so the just man rests upon no man, but on God alone. Sixth, when stripped of its bark, the fig tree dries up and bears no fruit: so the just man, unless he is covered by an honest way of life, will bear no fruit with his neighbors. So our Salmeron, volume VII, treatise 21.
Finally, this vision was taken from the fig rather than the pear, apple, etc., because fig trees are common in Judea, and its happiness was "to sit under one's own vine and fig tree," as Scripture often says. And some think that figs are the first fruits of the year in Palestine. But I learned in Rome from Palestinians born in Jerusalem that this is false: for they asserted that there, before figs, plums, melons, cucumbers, etc., are produced.
Verse 5
5. I WILL REGARD FOR GOOD — I will favor, I will do good to, I will preserve and protect them as good, those who at My command went into exile in Babylon. Thus God not only exalted Jehoiachin in Babylon, but also appointed Daniel and his companions over kingdoms, and enriched other Jews with peace and goods, Jeremiah 29:4. See here what obedience accomplishes, even for the impious, such as Jehoiachin and the Jews were.
Verse 6
6. AND I WILL SET MY EYES UPON THEM FOR GOOD — so that I may show Myself to them as appeased and gracious. In Hebrew: I will look upon them for good. I WILL BUILD THEM UP — I will give them stable dwellings, first, in Jerusalem; second, in the Church of Christ; third, in the heavenly Jerusalem. For he ascends to the Church; whence he adds: "They shall be My people, and I will be their God."
Verse 8
8. WHO DWELL IN THE LAND OF EGYPT — those who out of fear of the Chaldeans fled from Judea to Egypt, against the warnings of Jeremiah — not after the death of Gedaliah and the captivity of Zedekiah, but before, under Jehoiachin: for these, just like the Jews who remained in Jerusalem, were devastated by the Chaldeans.
Verse 9
9. I WILL GIVE THEM OVER TO VEXATION. — The Chaldean: I will give them over to commotion; the Septuagint: I will give them over to dispersion, as if to say: I will scatter them through all the kingdoms, so that by so great a disaster upon the Jews all nations may be shaken with fear. AND AS A BYWORD (as a comparison, so that when people wish to call someone wretched, they will say: You are more wretched than a Jew), AND AS A PROVERB — that is, as a tale, so that all may speak and tell stories about the calamity of the Jews. The Septuagint translates: into hatred and into a curse — so that when men wish to curse someone, they will say: May what befell Zedekiah king of Judah, and his family and followers, befall him. May the plague of Zedekiah strike you. May you be a brother and companion of Zedekiah. So Vatablus, and it is clear from Jeremiah 29:22.