Yirmeyah 44:3

3 Because of their ra’ah (evil) which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn ketoret, and to serve elohim acherim, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor avoteichem.

Yirmeyah 44:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 44:3

Because of their wickedness which they have committed to
provoke me to anger
The cause of this desolation was the wickedness they were guilty of; whereby they provoked the anger of God to bring this destruction on them. Sin is always provoking unto God; and though it may not be done on purpose to provoke him, which it sometimes seems to be; yet it eventually does, and is always the cause of punishment: God never punishes man without a cause, or for anything but sin: in that they went to burn incense, [and] to serve other gods:
the particular wickedness they were guilty of, and which was the cause of their ruin, was burning incense to idols, and worshipping them, than which nothing is more provoking to God: and it was an aggravation of their sin, that they were gods whom they knew not, [neither] they, you, nor your fathers;
what they were; from whence they were; their original, and perhaps not their names; however, did not know that they were gods; nor could they prove them to be such; nay, might know that they were not: and now, since this was the sin which brought on the destruction they were eyewitnesses of, it should have been a caution to them that they went not into the same idolatrous practices, which yet they did not avoid; taking no warning from such awful instances of the divine displeasure.

Yirmeyah 44:3 In-Context

1 4 The davar that came to Yirmeyah concerning all the Yehudim which dwell in Eretz Mitzrayim, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Patros, saying,

2 Thus saith Hashem Tzva’os Elohei Yisroel; Ye have seen all the ra’ah that I have brought upon Yerushalayim, and upon all the towns of Yehudah; and, behold, this day they are a ruin, and no one dwelleth therein,

3 Because of their ra’ah (evil) which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn ketoret, and to serve elohim acherim, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor avoteichem.

4 Howbeit I sent unto you all My avadim the Nevi’im, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this to’evah (abominable thing) that I hate.

5 But they paid heed not, nor inclined their ozen to turn from their ra’ah (wickedness), to burn no ketoret unto elohim acherim.