Untimely Fig

Potential that never matured — formed in the wrong season, it clings but never ripens, and is shed when the new season’s life arrives.

“And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty $[wind].” — Rev 6:13

The Key Insight

The fig tree in Israel produces two crops. The main harvest comes in summer. But in autumn, small figs also form on the current year’s wood — and these persist through winter. They cling to the bare branches through the cold months, but they never ripen. They are the olynthos — the winter fig. When spring arrives and the tree redirects its life to new buds, new leaves, and new fruit, the old unripe figs detach and fall.

The mechanism is precise. As long as a fruit is developing, a growth hormone called auxin flows from it through the abscission zone, keeping it attached. When the fruit stops developing — as with winter figs that never ripen — auxin flow decreases. In spring, the tree redirects auxin to new growth. The old fruit receives less and less of the tree’s life. The attachment zone weakens. And then the $wind comes and dislodges what was already internally disconnected.

The tree’s own new growth causes the old fruit to fall. The arrival of the new season is what severs the connection. The untimely fig is not torn off by external violence — it is shed because the tree’s life has moved on. The new season’s vitality is the agent of judgment on what never matured.

Symbolizes: Potential that formed in the wrong season, persisted without maturing, and falls when new life arrives

Opposite: The firstripe fig (H1063 bikkurah) — the precious first $fruit eagerly desired (Hos 9:10); and the green fig (H6291 pag) that appears in Song 2:13 heading toward ripeness

Defining verses: Rev 6:13, Isa 34:4, Song 2:13, Mk 11:13, Ps 58:8, Job 3:16

The surprise: Three separate Hebrew and Greek words converge on one concept — G3653 olynthos (winter fig), H6291 pag (unripe fig), and H5309 nephel (untimely birth). And nephel comes from H5307 naphal — “to fall” — the same verb used for the stars falling in Isaiah 34:4. The untimely birth IS “the fallen thing.” The word itself contains the fate.

Connected: $fig-tree, $almond, $wind, $sun-moon-stars, $harvest, $fruit, $light, $darkness

The Seasonal Calendar

The fig tree’s annual cycle maps directly onto the symbolic spectrum. Each stage has its own Hebrew or Greek word, its own scriptural appearance, and its own meaning:

Autumn–Winter: The Olynthos Forms and Clings

In autumn, small figs form on the current year’s wood. Through winter they persist on the bare branches — dark, hard, unripe. They had the entire cold season to develop and didn’t. This is the G3653 olynthos — the fig that is “unripe because out of season.” It clings, but it does not mature.

Late Winter: The $almond Wakes

While the olynthos still clings, the $almond tree blooms — January or February, white blossoms on bare wood, the first tree to wake in Israel. Its Hebrew name is H8247 shaqed, from H8245 shaqad — “to watch, to be wakeful.” The tree IS named for what it does: it wakes first.

“What seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.” — Jer 1:11–12

God holds up the waker-tree and says: I am the Watcher over my word. The $almond announces: someone is awake.

In the same late-winter landscape, two trees stand side by side. The $almond: dead wood blooming into life — the resurrection tree (Num 17:8, Aaron’s rod bore almonds overnight on dead wood). The olynthos: potential that clings but never ripens — the anti-resurrection. One is waking. The other is about to fall. The Watcher announces the season; the untimely fig is what the Watcher finds when He inspects.

Early Spring: The Leaves, the Green Fig, and the Fall

In early spring — around Nisan, before Passover — the fig tree puts forth leaves. At this moment, three things happen in the same tree:

1. Old olynthos detach. The tree redirects its life to new growth. The winter figs lose their connection and fall.
2. New H6291 pag (green figs) begin forming on the old wood — the same developmental stage as the olynthos, but heading toward ripeness.
3. Leaves appear — the visible signal that summer is approaching.

Song 2:13 captures this exact moment:

“The fig tree putteth forth her green figs (H6291 *pag), and the $[vine]s with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”* — Song 2:13

The pag appears in a summons. The bridegroom is calling the bride out of winter: “Rise up, my love, come away. The winter is past, the rain is over and gone” (Song 2:10–11). The green fig signals that the season has turned — and the response to that signal is to come away.

The olynthos and the pag are mirror images. Same stage of development. Opposite trajectories. The pag is heading toward ripeness; the olynthos never will.

Summer: The Harvest

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.” — Mat 24:32

The Greek word for summer is G2330 theros — and it shares its root with G2325 therizo (to reap) and G2326 therismos (harvest). In Greek, summer and harvest are the same word-family. “Summer is nigh” = “harvest-time is nigh.”

In Hebrew, the connection goes even deeper. God shows Amos a basket of H7019 qayits (summer fruit):

“What seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel.” — Amos 8:2

Qayits (summer) and H7093 qets (end) are near-homophones. The pun is enacted — God shows summer fruit and declares: the end has come. Summer IS the end. The harvest season IS the final reckoning.

When Jesus says “ye know that summer is nigh,” a Hebrew listener hears: the end is near. And the tragic counterpart:

“The $[harvest] is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” — Jer 8:20

The Cursed Fig Tree — Before Passover

“And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.” — Mk 11:13

Jesus approaches a leafy fig tree on Nisan 10–11. Nisan 10 is the triumphal entry — lamb selection day (Exodus 12:3) — when Jesus enters the temple and “looked round about upon all things” (Mark 11:11). The next morning (Nisan 11), on the way back from Bethany, He finds the fig tree with leaves but no fruit and curses it (Mark 11:12–14). By the following morning it is “dried up from the roots” (Mark 11:20) — withered overnight. The tree has leaves — it is broadcasting life. Mark notes: “the G2540 kairos (appointed time) of figs was not yet.”

At this season, a living tree with leaves should have at minimum the lingering winter figs — the olynthos — still on the branch. Finding NOTHING means not even the old-season holdover fruit remains. The leaves promise what the tree cannot deliver.

“And he said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.” — Mat 21:19

The tree was found “dried up from the roots” (Mk 11:20). Compare Aaron’s rod: dead wood that produced buds, blossoms, and $almond fruit overnight (Num 17:8). Opposite outcomes. One produces life from dead wood; the other produces death from living wood.

The word kairos (appointed time) appears again in Mat 24:45 — the faithful servant gives food in “due season” (kairos). The same word links the cursed fig tree to the faithful servant. Both are about whether you produce at the appointed time.

The Wind That Shakes the Tree

“Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty $[wind].” — Rev 6:13

The Greek uses G417 anemos (wind). But in Hebrew, $wind is H7307 ruach — the same word for spirit, breath, and wind. The existing $wind study establishes this as identity, not metaphor: the $wind IS the Spirit. Angels are winds; winds are angels (Ps 104:4, Zech 6:5, Heb 1:7).

The “mighty wind” that shakes the untimely figs is the Spirit. And the same ruach does two things simultaneously:

“Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” — Ezek 37:9

The Spirit that gives life to the dead (Ezek 37:9–10) is the same Spirit that dislodges the unripe (Rev 6:13). This maps exactly onto the biological mechanism: the tree’s own life force — redirected to new growth — is what causes the old fruit to detach. The vitality that produces new $fruit sheds the old failure.

The Untimely Birth — “The Fallen Thing”

H5309 nephel means “something fallen, i.e. an abortion” — from H5307 naphal, “to fall.” The word itself encodes the fate: the untimely birth IS the fallen thing.

H5307 naphal is the ordinary Hebrew word for “fall” — it appears roughly 400 times in the Old Testament. It is not a specialized term. But the derived noun nephel — “the fallen thing” — is rare (3× OT). And the doubled naphal — the same verb spoken twice as a prophetic declaration — is reserved for one subject:

“Babylon is fallen (H5307 *naphal), is fallen (H5307 naphal); and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.”* — Isa 21:9

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils.” — Rev 14:8, Rev 18:2 (quoting Isaiah 21:9)

In Hebrew, a word doubled intensifies. “Holy, holy, holy” is the supreme degree of holiness. “Fallen, fallen” is irrevocable, complete collapse. And every instance of the doubled naphal as a prophetic declaration in Scripture points to the same subject — Babylon the Great and its agents:

• Isaiah 21:9 — “Babylon is naphal, is naphal” — Babylon by name
• Jeremiah 51:49 — “As Babylon hath caused the slain to naphal, so at Babylon shall naphal the slain” — Babylon by name
• Ezekiel 30:6 — “They that uphold Egypt shall naphal… they shall naphal” — Egypt, the original model of the system that enslaves God’s people
• Esther 6:13 — “Thou hast begun to naphal… thou shalt surely naphal” — Haman, the man who decrees destruction of God’s people from within the empire
• Judges 5:27 — “He naphal, he naphal… there he naphal dead” — Sisera, military commander of the oppressing kingdom (tripled)

The doubled naphal is not a general sentence on ruling powers. It is the sentence reserved for $babylon — the system that oppresses God’s people — and for its agents across every era. The nephel derives from this root. Babylon IS the ultimate nephel: the system that had the appearance of life, the commerce of nations, the leaves of productivity — declared twice the fallen thing. No return. No reattachment. Like the untimely fig that detaches when the new season arrives, the doubled naphal seals what the “never again” curse enacts.

Three passages use nephel, each in a different context:

Corrupt Authority Removed — Psalm 58

“Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness.” — Ps 58:1–2

“Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the $[sun].” — Ps 58:8

David addresses rulers who do not judge uprightly. His prayer: let them be like the nephel — the authority that never reaches its full expression, that never “sees the sun.” The untimely birth appears in a passage about the removal of corrupt governing power.

Existence That Never Saw Light — Job 3

“Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw $[light].” — Job 3:16

Job wishes he had never been born. He envies the stillborn: “there the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest” (Job 3:17). The nephel never participated in the visible world — it was formed but never saw $light. Job finds this preferable to a life of suffering under oppression.

Abundance Without Fruit — Ecclesiastes 6

“If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years… and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.” — Ecc 6:3

A man with everything — riches, children, long life — but “his soul be not filled with good.” The nephel “cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. Moreover he hath not seen the $[sun]” (Ecc 6:4–5). Yet even the stillborn “hath more rest than the other.” Potential that never produced meaning is worse than potential that never existed.

The “Never Again” Curse — Fig Tree and Babylon

The curse Jesus speaks over the fig tree uses a specific formula:

“Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.” — Mat 21:19

“No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.” — Mk 11:14

Permanent cessation. Never again. Compare the curse over Babylon:

“The fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.” — Rev 18:14

“The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the $[light] of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.” — Rev 18:22–23

The same formula — never again — applied to the same thing: productive activity permanently ceased. The fig tree will never bear $fruit again. Babylon will never have music, craft, grinding, $light, or $marriage again. Jeremiah 25:10 is the Old Testament source Revelation draws from: “I will take from them the voice of mirth… the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride… the sound of the millstones… the light of the candle.”

Both curses describe something that had the appearance of life — leaves on the tree, commerce in the city — but produced nothing of substance. Both receive the same sentence: permanent cessation with no restoration.

The Falling Fig and the Falling Stars — Two Perspectives

The Hebrew: Withering From Within

In Isaiah 34:4, the verb for the falling fig is H5034 nabel — “to wilt, fall away, fade; figuratively, to be foolish.” The verse uses this root three times:

“And all their host shall fall down (H5034), as the leaf falleth (H5034) off from the $[vine], and as a falling (H5034) fig from the fig tree.” — Isa 34:4

Triple nabel in one verse — alliterative emphasis on withering, wilting, fading.

The Hebrew text of Revelation 6:13 (from the Hebrew Gospels tradition at hebrewgospels.com) quotes this verse almost verbatim:

וְכָל צְבָאָם יִבּוֹל כִּנְבֹל עָלֶה מִגֶּפֶן וּכְנֹבֶלֶת מִתְּאֵנָה “And all their host shall wither as a leaf withers from a vine, and as a withered-fig from a fig-tree.”

No mention of wind, shaking, stars, or earth. Just: they wither. The fig is called novelet — “a withered thing.” The emphasis is entirely on internal decay.

The Greek: Shaken Loose by Wind

The Greek text of the same verse tells it differently:

“And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs (G3653 olynthos), when she is shaken (G4579 seio) of a mighty wind (G417 anemos).” — Rev 6:13

Here the emphasis is external: violent shaking by a great wind dislodges unripe fruit. The word olynthos identifies the fig as out-of-season — a winter fig that never matured.

Two Angles, One Mechanism

Whether the Hebrew preserves the original text (with the Greek paraphrasing for a different audience) or a back-translator recognized the obvious Isaiah 34:4 allusion and chose the source text over a literal rendering — either way, both textual traditions now exist, and together they describe exactly what happens to a winter fig in spring:

• The Hebrew (nabel): The fig withers from within — internal vitality fades. This is the auxin decreasing, the tree withdrawing life from old fruit, the connection weakening from the inside. The cause.
• The Greek (olynthos + seio + anemos): The unripe fig is shaken loose by mighty wind. This is the external force dislodging what was already internally disconnected. The trigger.

Internal withering + external wind = the full biological mechanism. Neither text alone tells the whole story. The Hebrew gives the slow internal dying; the Greek gives the sudden external removal.

The Broader Context

“The burden of Babylon… For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their $[light]: the $[sun] shall be darkened in his going forth, and the $[moon] shall not cause her light to shine.” — Isa 13:1,10

“For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations… the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.” — Isa 34:2,8

Every Old Testament passage that uses the sun-darkened, moon-not-shining, stars-falling vocabulary is explicitly about the fall of a world empire — Babylon (Isa 13:1), Egypt (Ezek 32:7), the nations (Isa 34:2). In Amos 8, the qayits/qets pun (summer/end) is followed immediately by: “I will cause the sun to go down at noon” (Amos 8:9). The same chapter, the same event.

The untimely figs of Revelation 6:13 fall in the same verse sequence as the sun going black, the moon becoming blood, and heaven rolling up like a scroll. The figs do not fall in isolation. They fall when the governing $light goes dark — and that event, every time Scripture uses this language, is the collapse of an established order.

Patterns

1. The biological mechanism IS the meaning. The tree’s own new growth redirects life away from old fruit → attachment weakens → $wind dislodges. The new season’s vitality is what sheds the old season’s failure. Life itself judges what never matured.

2. Wind = Spirit. The ruach that shakes the untimely figs loose (Rev 6:13) is the same ruach that breathes life into dry bones (Ezek 37:9). The force that dislodges the failed fruit IS the force that raises the dead.

3. The $almond and the olynthos overlap. In the same late-winter landscape, the $almond blooms (God’s watchfulness waking) while the winter fig clings (potential that never matured). One is dead wood producing life. The other is living wood producing nothing. The Watcher wakes; the failed fruit falls.

4. Summer = the end = the $harvest. Theros (summer) shares its root with therizo (to reap). Qayits (summer) sounds like qets (the end). The fig tree’s leaves announce that harvest/end is approaching.

5. The untimely fig falls when the governing lights go dark. Rev 6:12–13, Isa 34:4, Amos 8:1–9 — the cosmic-sign vocabulary (sun darkened, moon not shining, stars falling) accompanies the untimely fig in every occurrence, and that vocabulary traces to the fall of empires.

6. The “never again” curse links the fig tree to Babylon. “No fruit… henceforward for ever” (Mat 21:19) parallels “no more at all” ×6 (Rev 18:21–23). Both are permanent cessation curses on systems that had the appearance of productivity. Rev 18:14 uses the word “fruits” directly — Babylon’s fruits “departed… no more at all.”

7. H5309 nephel = “the fallen thing.” From naphal (to fall). The untimely birth appears in three contexts: corrupt authority removed (Ps 58), existence that never saw $light (Job 3), abundance without $fruit (Ecc 6). In each case: potential that never matured is worse than potential that never existed.

8. G2540 kairos links the cursed fig to the faithful servant. Mk 11:13 — “the kairos of figs was not yet.” Mat 24:45 — the faithful servant gives food in kairos (due season). Both are about producing at the appointed time.

9. One season, one crop, one outcome. The olynthos formed in the old season never gets a second chance in the new season. “This G1074 genea (generation) shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Mat 24:34). Read in the fig tree parable’s own terms: one growing season’s crop either ripens or falls.

Connections

• $fig-tree — The untimely fig is a specific stage within the $fig-tree’s broader symbolic range. The $fig-tree study covers the full spectrum: leaves without $fruit (Gen 3:7), good figs and bad figs (Jer 24), the covenant peace formula (Mic 4:4), the season indicator (Mat 24:32). The untimely fig focuses specifically on the olynthos — the fruit of the wrong season that falls when the new season arrives.

• $almond — The $almond blooms in the same late-winter window when the olynthos still clings. One is dead wood producing life (Num 17:8); the other is living wood producing nothing. The $almond announces God’s watchfulness (shaqed = shaqad); the untimely fig is what the Watcher finds when He comes. The $almond = resurrection; the olynthos = anti-resurrection.

• $wind — $wind = Spirit = God’s invisible executing power. The mighty $wind that shakes the untimely figs (Rev 6:13) IS the ruach that gives life to the dead (Ezek 37:9). The same Spirit-force that resurrects also dislodges. The biological parallel: the tree’s own life force, redirected to new growth, is what weakens the old fruit’s attachment.

• $sun-moon-stars — The governing authority hierarchy. In Rev 6:12–13, the darkening of $sun-moon-stars and the falling of untimely figs occur in the same event sequence. Every OT passage with this cosmic-sign vocabulary (Isa 13:10, Ezek 32:7, Amos 8:9) describes the fall of a world empire. The figs fall when the governing lights go dark.

• $harvest — The $harvest is the appointed separation when accumulated works reach fullness. The fig tree signals when $harvest is near (Mat 24:32: theros = summer = harvest-time). The untimely fig is what falls before the harvest — the fruit that never reached the appointed time.

• $fruit — The untimely fig is the anti-$fruit. $fruit = works/deeds that mature and are gathered. The olynthos is the work that was started but never completed — formed but never ripened, present but never productive.

• $light — The nephel (untimely birth) “never saw light” (Job 3:16) and “hath not seen the sun” (Ecc 6:5). The untimely birth and the untimely fig share this quality: they existed in the dark, formed during the wrong season, and fell before the light of the new day.

Occurrences by Sense

Winter Fig Shaken Loose — Authority Falling (~2 verses)

Rev 6:13, Isa 34:4

Green Fig as Season Signal — Bridegroom’s Call (~1 verse)

Song 2:13

Cursed Fig Tree — Leaves Without Fruit (~4 verses)

Mk 11:13, Mk 11:14, Mk 11:20, Mat 21:19

Fig Tree Parable — Recognizing the Season (~3 verses)

Mat 24:32, Mk 13:28, Lk 21:29

Untimely Birth — Corrupt Authority Removed (~1 verse)

Ps 58:8

Untimely Birth — Existence That Never Saw Light (~1 verse)

Job 3:16

Untimely Birth — Abundance Without Fruit (~1 verse)

Ecc 6:3

Firstripe Fig — Impressive But Fragile (~1 verse)

Nah 3:12

Firstripe Fig — Precious Start That Collapsed (~1 verse)

Hos 9:10

Summer Fruit = The End (~2 verses)

Amos 8:1, Amos 8:2

Hebrew & Greek Reference

For Further Study

• $fig-tree — The full symbolic range of the fig tree, from Eden’s leaves to the Olivet Discourse. How does the untimely fig relate to the good figs and bad figs of Jeremiah 24, and to the vine-and-fig covenant peace formula of Micah 4:4?

• $almond — The tree that wakes first blooms in the same season the untimely fig falls. How does God’s watchfulness (shaqed/shaqad) relate to the inspection that finds the fig tree fruitless? What does it mean that Aaron’s dead rod bore almonds overnight while the cursed fig tree withered overnight?

• $wind — The invisible executing power of God. How does the Spirit’s dual action — giving life to the dead AND dislodging the unripe — operate across Scripture? What does it mean that the same ruach resurrects and judges?

• $harvest — The appointed separation when accumulated works reach fullness. Summer (theros/qayits) is harvest-time, and the fig tree’s leaves announce its approach. What happens when the harvest passes and summer ends — and “we are not saved” (Jer 8:20)?