Jeremiah 44:12

12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have 1set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. 2In the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine 3they shall be consumed. 4From the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, 5and they shall become an oath, a horror, 6a curse, and a taunt.

Jeremiah 44:12 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 44:12

And I will take the remnant of Judah
Such as remained of that tribe in the land of Judea after the captivity: and not all of them, but such that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn
there:
who were bent upon going thither, notwithstanding all the remonstrances made to them to the contrary; and were gone thither, and were now actually sojourners there: this describes such persons who wilfully, and of their own accord, went thither; and excepts those who were over-persuaded or over-powered to go along with them: and they shall all be consumed, [and] fall in the land of Egypt;
not by natural death, one after another; but by the judgments of God, as follows: they shall [even] be consumed by the sword [and] by the famine;
by the sword of the king of Babylon; and by famine, occasioned by a foreign army and sieges: they shall die; from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and
by the famine;
which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and to express the universality of the destruction; that it should reach to persons of every age, state and condition, rank and degree, young and old, high and low, rich and poor: and they shall be an execration, [and] an astonishment, and a curse,
and a reproach; (See Gill on Jeremiah 42:18).

Jeremiah 44:12 In-Context

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.
11 "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for harm, to cut off all Judah.
12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall be consumed. From the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a taunt.
13 I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence,
14 so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, except some fugitives."

Cross References 6

  • 1. Jeremiah 42:15
  • 2. Jeremiah 42:16
  • 3. Jeremiah 42:16
  • 4. See Jeremiah 6:13
  • 5. See Jeremiah 18:16
  • 6. [See ver. 8 above]
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.