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.