“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.”
God's word regarding those remaining in Jerusalem employs the famine, sword, and plague formula, threatening the non-exiled population with the same judgment vocabulary used throughout Jeremiah's prophecies. The comparison of the remaining population to bad figs unsuitable for eating uses agricultural imagery to suggest that those not yet exiled represent damaged remnant unfit for God's purposes. This verse establishes a theological hierarchy in which the exiles, though displaced, are more faithful and valuable than the remaining Jerusalem population.
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