Jeremiah 44:3

3 It is because the people who lived there did evil. They made me angry by burning incense and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew.

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 Jeremiah received a message from the Lord for all the Jews living in Egypt -- in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in southern Egypt. This was the message:

2 "The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: You saw all the terrible things I brought on Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, which are ruins today with no one living in them.

3 It is because the people who lived there did evil. They made me angry by burning incense and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew.

4 I sent all my servants, the prophets, to you again and again. By them I said to you, 'Don't do this terrible thing that I hate.'

5 But they did not listen or pay attention. They did not stop doing evil things and burning incense to other gods.