Jeremiah 44:8

8 ¹Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, ²making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become ³a curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth?

Jeremiah 44:8 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 44:8

In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands,
&c.] Their sinful actions, particularly their idolatry, by worshipping images, the works of men's hands; and though it was the queen of heaven they worshipped, which their hands made not, yet it was before images they did that; besides, the things they did to her were the worlds of their hands, as sacrificing, pouring out drink offerings, and as follows: burning incense;
which they did, not only to her, but to other gods in the land of Egypt;
where they were very numerous: whither ye be gone to dwell;
against the express will and command of God: that ye might cut yourselves off;
as from the worship of God, so from being his people, and from being under his care and protection, and from all privileges temporal and spiritual: and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of
the earth?
not that this was their view, end, and design, but this was the event so it was, that they were looked upon as an accursed people of God and man, and their names were taken up for a proverb and a reproach everywhere.

Jeremiah 44:8 In-Context

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?

10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.

Cross References

• 1. [See ver. 3 above]
• 2. [See ver. 3 above]
• 3. Jeremiah 42:18; See Jeremiah 18:16