Jeremiah 44:3

3 for the malice which they did, to stir me to wrathfulness, and that they went, and made sacrifice, and worshipped alien gods, which they knew not, both ye, and they, and your fathers. (for the malice which they did, to stir me to anger, and that they went, and made sacrifice, and worshipped strange, or foreign, gods, which they knew not, neither ye, nor they, nor your fathers.)

Jeremiah 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.

Jeremiah 44:3 In-Context

1 The word that was made to Jeremy, and to all the Jews, that dwelled in the land of Egypt (who lived in the land of Egypt), dwelling in Migdol, and in Tahpanhes, and in Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, and said,

2 The Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Ye saw all this evil, which I brought (in) on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and lo! those be forsaken today, and no dweller is in them (and lo! they be deserted now, and no one is living there);

3 for the malice which they did, to stir me to wrathfulness, and that they went, and made sacrifice, and worshipped alien gods, which they knew not, both ye, and they, and your fathers. (for the malice which they did, to stir me to anger, and that they went, and made sacrifice, and worshipped strange, or foreign, gods, which they knew not, neither ye, nor they, nor your fathers.)

4 And I sent to you all my servants (the) prophets; and I rose by night, and sent, and said, Do not ye do the word of such abomination (and I rose up at night, and sent, and said, Do not ye do such abominable things).

5 And they heard not, neither bowed down their ear, that they shall be converted from their evils, and should not make sacrifice to alien gods. (But they did not listen, nor bowed down their ear, so that they would be turned from their evil doings, and would not make sacrifice to strange, or foreign, gods.)