Jeremiah 44:7

7 And now the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Why do ye this great evil against your souls, that a man of you perish and a woman, a little child and (a) sucking (so that a man and a woman, and a little child and a suckling, all perish from among you), from the midst of Judah, (and) neither any residue thing (shall) be left in you,

Jeremiah 44:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 44:7

Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of
Israel
The same epithets as before, ( Jeremiah 44:2 ) ; with an addition, that his words might carry more weight with them: wherefore commit ye [this] great evil against your souls;
the sin of idolatry, which is a great evil; a sin against God; a giving the glory to another, that belongs to him and not only so, but is against the souls of men; pernicious and ruinous to them, which brings destruction, even eternal wrath and damnation, on them; and this is an interesting argument why it should not be committed; nay, it was not only against God, and against themselves, but against their families, and the interest of them: to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to
leave you none to remain;
not that they did this great evil or committed idolatry with this intention, to ruin their families and posterity; but so it was eventually; hereby they provoked the Lord to anger, to cut off the men that offered incense to idols; and the women their wives, whom they allowed so to do; and their children, who were brought up in the same practices; so that they would have none to succeed them, to bear their name, and inherit their land; unless God should be merciful, and not deal according to their deserts; for such was the nature of their crime, as to deserve an utter extirpation of them.

Jeremiah 44:7 In-Context

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.)

6 And mine indignation and my strong vengeance is welled together, and is kindled in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they be turned into wilderness, and wasteness, by this day. (And my indignation and my strong vengeance was poured out, and was kindled in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they were turned into wilderness, and waste, as they be today.)

7 And now the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Why do ye this great evil against your souls, that a man of you perish and a woman, a little child and (a) sucking (so that a man and a woman, and a little child and a suckling, all perish from among you), from the midst of Judah, (and) neither any residue thing (shall) be left in you,

8 that stir me to wrath by the works of your hands, in making sacrifice to alien gods in the land of Egypt, into which ye entered, that ye dwell there, and that ye perish, and be into cursing, and into shame to all the folks of earth? (and that ye stir me to anger by the works of your hands, in making sacrifice to strange, or to foreign, gods in the land of Egypt, into which ye have entered, so that ye live there, but where ye shall also perish, and shall be into cursing, and into shame to all the nations of the earth?)

9 Whether ye have forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah, and the evils of their wives, and your evils, and the evils of your wives, which they did in the land of Judah, and in the countries of Jerusalem? (and in the streets of Jerusalem?)