Jeremiah 44:7

7 And now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil ¹against yourselves, to cut off from you ²man and woman, ³infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant?

Jeremiah 44:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 44:7

Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of
Israel
The same epithets as before, ( Jeremiah 44:2 ) ; with an addition, that his words might carry more weight with them: wherefore commit ye [this] great evil against your souls;
the sin of idolatry, which is a great evil; a sin against God; a giving the glory to another, that belongs to him and not only so, but is against the souls of men; pernicious and ruinous to them, which brings destruction, even eternal wrath and damnation, on them; and this is an interesting argument why it should not be committed; nay, it was not only against God, and against themselves, but against their families, and the interest of them: to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to
leave you none to remain;
not that they did this great evil or committed idolatry with this intention, to ruin their families and posterity; but so it was eventually; hereby they provoked the Lord to anger, to cut off the men that offered incense to idols; and the women their wives, whom they allowed so to do; and their children, who were brought up in the same practices; so that they would have none to succeed them, to bear their name, and inherit their land; unless God should be merciful, and not deal according to their deserts; for such was the nature of their crime, as to deserve an utter extirpation of them.

Jeremiah 44:7 In-Context

5 But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.

6 Therefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day.

7 And now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant?

8 Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become a curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth?

9 Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, the evil of the kings of Judah, the evil of their wives, your own evil, and the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Cross References

• 1. Habakkuk 2:10; [Numbers 16:38; Proverbs 20:2]
• 2. [Jeremiah 38:23; Lamentations 2:11]
• 3. [Jeremiah 38:23; Lamentations 2:11]