Jeremiah 44

Jeremiah 44:1-30 . JEREMIAH REPROVES THE JEWS FOR THEIR IDOLATRY IN EGYPT, AND DENOUNCES GOD'S JUDGMENTS ON THEM AND EGYPT ALIKE.

1. Migdol--meaning a "tower." A city east of Egypt, towards the Red Sea ( Exodus 14:2 , Numbers 33:7 ).
Noph--Memphis, now Cairo ( Jeremiah 2:16 ).
Pathros--Upper Egypt ( Isaiah 11:11 ).

2. evil . . . upon Jerusalem--If I spared not My own sacred city, much less shall ye be safe in Egypt, which I loathe.

3. they went--implying perverse assiduity: they went out of their way to burn incense (one species of idolatry put for all kinds), &c.

4. ( 2 Chronicles 36:15 ).

7. now--after so many warnings.
commit . . . this . . . evil against your souls--( Jeremiah 7:19 , Numbers 16:38 , Proverbs 8:36 ). It is not God whom you injure, but yourselves.

8. in . . . Egypt--where they polluted themselves to ingratiate themselves with the Egyptians.
ye be gone--not compelled by fear, but of your own accord, when I forbade you, and when it was free to you to stay in Judea.
that ye might cut yourselves off--They, as it were, purposely courted their own ruin.

9. Have you forgotten how the wickednesses of your fathers were the source of the greatest calamities to you?
their wives--The Jews' worldly queens were great promoters of idolatry ( 1 Kings 11:1-8 , 15:13 , 16:31 ).
the land of Judah--They defiled the land which was holy unto God.

10. They . . . you--The third person puts them to a distance from God on account of their alienating themselves from Him. The second person implies that God formerly had directly addressed them.
humbled--literally, "contrite" ( Psalms 51:17 ).
neither . . . feared--( Proverbs 28:14 ).

14. none . . . shall escape . . . that they should return, &c.--The Jews had gone to Egypt with the idea that a return to Judea, which they thought hopeless to their brethren in Babylon, would be an easy matter to themselves in Egypt: the exact reverse should happen in the case of each respectively. The Jews whom God sent to Babylon were there weaned from idolatry, and were restored; those who went to Egypt by their perverse will were hardened in idolatry, and perished there.
have a desire--literally, "lift up (their) soul," that is, their hopes (compare Jeremiah 22:27 , Margin; Deuteronomy 24:15 , Margin).
none shall return but such as shall escape--namely, the "small number" ( Jeremiah 44:28 ) who were brought by force into Egypt, as Jeremiah and Baruch, and those who, in accordance with Jeremiah's advice, should flee from Egypt before the arrival of the Chaldeans CALVIN less probably refers the words to the return of the exiles in Babylon, which the Jews in Egypt regarded as hopeless.

15. their wives--The idolatry began with them ( 1 Kings 11:4 , 1 Timothy 2:14 ). Their husbands' connivance implicated them in the guilt.

16. we will not--( Jeremiah 6:16 ).