Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 24

Verses 1-10

Jeremiah 24:2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Jeremiah 24:2 “even like the figs that are first ripe” - Comments - This phrase refers to the fact that a fig tree produces fruit twice a year, the first harvest being the most desirable, as noted in Micah 7:1.

Micah 7:1, “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit .”

E. W. G. Masterman says, “In Palestine and other warm climates the fig yields two crops annually--an earlier one, ripe about June, growing from the “old wood,” i.e. from the midsummer sprouts of the previous year, and a second, more important one, ripe about August, which grows upon the “new wood,” i.e. upon the spring shoots.” [21]

[21] E. W. G. Masterman, “Fig, fig tree,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).

Note another use of the word “firstripe” in Hosea 9:10, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.”