Jeremiah 44:21

21 “Do you think the LORD did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Jeremiah 44:21 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 44:21

That incense that ye burnt in the cities of Judah, and in the
streets of Jerusalem
To false gods, to the queen of heaven, to the host thereof: ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of
the land;
on which account they pleaded antiquity, authority, and the general consent of the people, as on their side, which the prophet allows; but it all signified nothing: did not the Lord remember them, and came it [not] into his mind?
either the incense they offered up to strange gods, or the persons that did it? did he take no notice of these idolatrous practices, and of these idolaters? he did; he laid up these things in his mind; he showed a proper resentment of them, and in due time punished for them.

Jeremiah 44:21 In-Context

19 “Besides,” the women added, “do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike, who had given him that answer,

21 “Do you think the LORD did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

22 It was because the LORD could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing—a desolate ruin without inhabitants—as it is today.

23 All these terrible things happened to you because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the LORD . You have refused to obey him and have not followed his instructions, his decrees, and his laws.”