Jeremiah 44

A Message of Rebuke for the Rebellious Remnant

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, who were living at Migdol, and Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, {saying},

2 "Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the towns of Judah. And look, they [are] a site of ruins this day, and there is not in them an inhabitant,

3 {because of} their wickedness that they committed to provoke me to anger by going to make smoke offerings, serving other gods whom they had not known, [neither] they, you, or your ancestors.

4 And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, {sending over and over again}, {saying}, "Please, you must not do this detestable thing that I hate."

5 But they did not listen and they did not incline their ears to turn back from their wickedness, to not make smoke offerings to other gods.

6 So my wrath and my anger were poured out and burned in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as [they are] this day.'

7 So then, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Why [are] you doing great harm to {yourselves}, to cut off for yourselves man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah, to not leave over for yourselves a remnant,

8 provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, to make smoke offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you [have] come to dwell as aliens, so as to cut off yourselves, and so that you are becoming as a curse, and as a disgrace among all the nations of the earth?

9 Have you forgotten the wicked things of your ancestors, and the wicked things of the kings of Judah, and the wicked things of their wives, and your wicked things, and the wicked things of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

10 They have not shown contrition up to this day, and they have not shown reverence, and they have not walked in my law and in my statutes that I set {before you} and {before} your ancestors.'

11 {Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Look, {I am determined to bring disaster on you}, even to exterminate all Judah.

12 And I will take [away] the remnant of Judah {who are determined} to come [to] the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there, and everyone will perish. They will fall in the land of Egypt by the sword; they will perish by the famine, from [the] smallest to [the] greatest. By the sword and by the famine they will die and become as a curse, as a horror, and as a curse, and as a disgrace.

13 So I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt just as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague.

14 And there will not be a survivor or an escapee of the remnant of Judah, those who have come to dwell as an alien there in the land of Egypt, to return [to] the land of Judah where they [are] {longing} to return to dwell there, for they will not turn back, {but only} [some] survivors.'"

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives [were] making smoke offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood [by], a great assembly, and all the people who lived in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, {saying},

16 "[Concerning] the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we [are] not going to listen to you!

17 But certainly we will do {everything} that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, [for] then {we had enough to eat}, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster.

18 But {since} we stopped making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by the famine we have perished.

19 And indeed, [when] we [were] making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and {pouring out} to her libations, [was it not] {with the consent of} our husbands [that] we made for her sacrificial cakes {marked with her image}, and we poured out to her libations?"

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and to the women, and to all the people who answered him a word, {saying},

21 "The offering that you made, smoke offerings in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your ancestors, your kings, and your officials, and the people of the land, [did] not Yahweh remember them, and [did] it [not] come to his {mind}?

22 And Yahweh was no longer able to bear [it], {because of} the evil of your deeds, {because of} the detestable things that you committed. Thus your land became as a site of ruins, and as a horror, and as a curse, {without} inhabitants, as [it is] this day.

23 {Because of} [the fact] that you made smoke offerings, and that you sinned against Yahweh, and you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you have not walked in his law, and in his statute, and in his legal provisions, {therefore} this disaster has happened to you, as [it is] this day."

24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who [are] in the land of Egypt.

25 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'You and your wives have promised with your mouths and with your hands you have fulfilled, {saying}, "We certainly will carry out our vows that we vowed, to make smoke offerings to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations." You must certainly keep your vows and you must certainly carry out your vows.'

26 {Therefore} hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah, those who live in the land of Egypt: 'Look, I hereby swear by my great name,' says Yahweh, 'surely my name will no longer be called in the mouth of any man of Judah, saying, "{as the Lord Yahweh lives}," in all the land of Egypt.

27 Look, I [am] going to watch over them for harm and not for good, and all people of Judah who [are] in the land of Egypt will perish by the sword and by the famine until their perishing.

28 And [the] survivors of [the] sword will return from the land of Egypt [to] the land of Judah {few in number}. And all the remnant of Judah who have come to the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there will know whose word will endure, from me or from them.

29 And this [will be] to you the sign,' {declares} Yahweh, 'that I [am] going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that surely my words will endure against you for evil.'

30 Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [am] going to give Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who sought his life.'"

Jeremiah 44 Commentary

Chapter 44

The Jews in Egypt persist in idolatry. (1-14) They refuse to reform. (15-19) Jeremiah then denounces destruction upon them. (20-30)

Verses 1-14 God reminds the Jews of the sins that brought desolations upon Judah. It becomes us to warn men of the danger of sin with all seriousness: Oh, do not do it! If you love God, do not, for it is provoking to him; if you love your own souls, do not, for it is destructive to them. Let conscience do this for us in the hour of temptation. The Jews whom God sent into the land of the Chaldeans, were there, by the power of God's grace, weaned from idolatry; but those who went by their own perverse will into the land of the Egyptians, were there more attached than ever to their idolatries. When we thrust ourselves without cause or call into places of temptation, it is just with God to leave us to ourselves. If we walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us. The most awful miseries to which men are exposed, are occasioned by the neglect of offered salvation.

Verses 15-19 These daring sinners do not attempt excuses, but declare they will do that which is forbidden. Those who disobey God, commonly grow worse and worse, and the heart is more hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Here is the real language of the rebellious heart. Even the afflictions which should have parted them from their sins, were taken so as to confirm them in their sins. It is sad when those who should quicken each other to what is good, and so help one another to heaven, harden each other in sin, and so ripen one another for hell. To mingle idolatry with Divine worship, and to reject the mediation of Christ, are provoking to God, and ruinous to men. All who worship images, or honour saints, and angels, and the queen of heaven, should recollect what came from the idolatrous practices of the Jews.

Verses 20-30 Whatever evil comes upon us, it is because we have sinned against the Lord; we should therefore stand in awe, and sin not. Since they were determined to persist in their idolatry, God would go on to punish them. What little remains of religion were among them, would be lost. The creature-comforts and confidences from which we promise ourselves most, may fail as soon as those from which we promise ourselves least; and all are what God makes them, not what we fancy them to be. Well-grounded hopes of our having a part in the Divine mercy, are always united with repentance and obedience.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "to say"
• [b]. Literally "from the face of"
• [c]. Or "fathers"
• [d]. Literally "doing early and sending"
• [e]. Literally "to say"
• [f]. Hebrew "ear"
• [g]. The Hebrew verb is singular
• [h]. The Hebrew verb is singular
• [i]. Literally "your lives"
• [j]. Or "fathers"
• [k]. Literally "to the face of you"
• [l]. Literally "to the face of"
• [m]. Or "fathers"
• [n]. Literally "To thus"
• [o]. Literally "I [am] setting my face against you for disaster"
• [p]. Literally "who set their faces"
• [q]. Literally "lifting up their soul"
• [r]. Literally "but if"
• [s]. Literally "to say"
• [t]. Literally "all the word"
• [u]. Hebrew "mouth"
• [v]. Or "fathers"
• [w]. Literally "we satisfied ourselves with food"
• [x]. Literally "from"
• [y]. Literally "to pour out"
• [z]. Literally "from apart from"
• [aa]. Literally "to the copying of her"
• [ab]. Literally "to say"
• [ac]. Or "fathers"
• [ad]. Literally "heart"
• [ae]. Or "endure"
• [af]. Literally "from the face of"
• [ag]. Literally "from the face of"
• [ah]. Literally "from there is not"
• [ai]. Literally "From the face of"
• [aj]. Literally "unto thus"
• [ak]. Literally "to say"
• [al]. Hebrew "mouth"
• [am]. Hebrew "hand"
• [an]. Literally "to say"
• [ao]. Hebrew "heaven"
• [ap]. Literally "To thus"
• [aq]. Literally "the life of Lord Yahweh"
• [ar]. Or "men"
• [as]. Literally "males of number"
• [at]. Literally "a declaration of"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 44

This chapter contains a sermon of Jeremiah's to the Jews in Egypt, reproving them for their idolatry there; their answer to it, expressing their resolution to continue in their idolatrous practices; and a denunciation of judgments upon them, of which a sign is given. The sermon begins with observing to them the destruction of Jerusalem, and the causes of it, idolatry and contempt of the prophets, Jer 44:1-6; then follows an expostulation with the present Jews for doing the same things, and exposing themselves and their posterity to the same punishment, Jer 44:7-10; upon which they are threatened with the sore judgments of God that should come upon them, and cut them off in general, Jer 44:11-14; yet such were the impudence and obstinacy of this people, that they declared they would not hearken to the prophet, but persist in their idolatry; it having been better with them when they practised it than when they left it, Jer 44:15-19; to which the prophet replies by observing, that for the idolatry of their fathers their land was become a desolation and a curse, as at this day, Jer 44:20-23; and assures them that destruction would come from the Lord upon them, which he had swore to, Jer 44:24-28; and a sign of it is given; the delivery of the king of Egypt into the hand of the king of Babylon, Jer 44:29,30.