Yesaya 28:4

28:4 The withering flower, its beautiful splendor,

situated at the head of a rich valley,

will be like an early fig before harvest –

as soon as someone notices it,

he grabs it and swallows it. ¹ 

Yeremia 24:2

24:2 One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. ²  The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.

Hosea 9:10

9:10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness.

I viewed your ancestors ³  like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season.

Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame –

they became as detestable as what they loved.

Mikha 7:1

Micah Laments Judah’s Sin

7:1 I am depressed! ⁴ 

Indeed, ⁵  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,

and the grapes have been harvested. ⁶ 

There is no grape cluster to eat,

no fresh figs that I crave so much. ⁷ 

Nahum 3:12

The Assyrian Defenses Will Fail

3:12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees ⁸  with first-ripe fruit: ⁹ 

If they are shaken, ¹⁰  their figs ¹¹  will fall ¹²  into the mouth of the eater! ¹³ 

[28:4]  ¹ tn Heb “which the one seeing sees, while still it is in his hand he swallows it.”

[24:2]  ² sn See Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10.

[9:10]  ³ tn Heb “fathers”; a number of more recent English versions use the more general “ancestors” here.

[7:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”

[7:1]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[7:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “I am like the gathering of the summer fruit, like the gleanings of the harvest.” Micah is not comparing himself to the harvested fruit. There is an ellipsis here, as the second half of the verse makes clear. The idea is, “I am like [one at the time] the summer fruit is gathered and the grapes are harvested.”

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “my appetite craves.”

[3:12]  ⁸ sn Ironically, Sennacherib had recently planted fig trees along all the major avenues in Nineveh to help beautify the city, and had encouraged the citizens of Nineveh to eat from these fruit trees. How appropriate that Nineveh’s defenses would now be compared to fig trees whose fruit would be eaten by its enemies.

[3:12]  ⁹ sn This extended simile compares the siege of Nineveh with reapers shaking a tree to harvest the “first-ripe fruit.” Fruit that matured quickly and ripened early in the season dropped from the trees more easily than the later crop which developed more slowly (Isa 28:4). To harvest the later crop the worker had to climb the tree (sixteen to twenty feet tall) and pick the figs by hand from each branch. On the other hand, the fruit from the early harvest could be gathered quickly and with a minimum of effort by simply shaking the trunk of the tree (G. Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte in Palestina, 1:378-80). The point of this simile is that Nineveh would fall easily and quickly.

[3:12]  ¹⁰ tn This conditional sentence expresses a real anticipated situation expected to occur in the future, rather than an unreal completely hypothetical situation. The particle אִם (’im, “if”) introduces real conditions (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 75, §453). The imperfect tense verb יִנּוֹעוּ (yinno’u, “they are shaken”) depicts a future-time action conceived as a real situation expected to occur (see Joüon 2:629 §167.c; IBHS 510-11 §31.6.1).

[3:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the first ripe fruit of the previous line, rendered here as “their figs”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:12]  ¹² tn The syntax of the concluding clause (apodosis) emphasizes that this action is expected and certain to occur. This clause is introduced by vav conjunction and the perfect tense verb וְנָפְלוּ (vÿnoflu, “they will fall”) which emphasizes the expected certainty of the action (see Joüon 2:627-33 §167; IBHS 526-29 §32.2.1).

[3:12]  ¹³ sn This is appropriate imagery and highly ironic. After defeating their enemies, the Assyrian kings often encouraged their troops to consume the fruit of the conquered city’s fruit trees.