Judgment for Idolatry
Jer 44:1 This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis—and in Upper Egypt:
Jer 44:2 “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins
Jer 44:3 because of the evil they have done. They aroused my anger by burning incense to and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew.
Jer 44:4 Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’
Jer 44:5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.
Jer 44:6 Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.
Jer 44:7 “Now this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant?
Jer 44:8 Why arouse my anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations on earth.
Jer 44:9 Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your ancestors and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 44:10 To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.
Jer 44:11 “Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah.
Jer 44:12 I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach.
Jer 44:13 I will punish those who live in Egypt with the sword, famine and plague, as I punished Jerusalem.
Jer 44:14 None of the remnant of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, to which they long to return and live; none will return except a few fugitives.”
Jer 44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah,
Jer 44:16 “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD!
Jer 44:17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.
Jer 44:18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”
Jer 44:19 The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”
Jer 44:20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him,
Jer 44:21 “Did not the LORD remember and call to mind the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials and the people of the land?
Jer 44:22 When the LORD could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became a curse and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.
Jer 44:23 Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.”
Jer 44:24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah in Egypt.
Jer 44:25 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have done what you said you would do when you promised, ‘We will certainly carry out the vows we made to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.’ “Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows!
Jer 44:26 But hear the word of the LORD, all you Jews living in Egypt: ‘I swear by my great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, “As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives.”
Jer 44:27 For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed.
Jer 44:28 Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.
Jer 44:29 “‘This will be the sign to you that I will punish you in this place,’ declares the LORD, ‘so that you will know that my threats of harm against you will surely stand.’
Jer 44:30 This is what the LORD says: ‘I am going to deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who want to kill him, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who wanted to kill him.'”
1 Jeremiah expresses the desolation of Judah for their idolatry. 11 He prophesies their destruction, who commit idolatry in Egypt. 15 The obstinacy of the Jews. 20 Jeremiah threatened them for the same, 29 and for a sign prophesied the destruction of Egypt.
Judgment for Idolatry
Jer 44:1 This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis—and in Upper Egypt:
This message from God probably came a few years after the events of ch. 43 took place (see on ch. 44:15). The three cities named were undoubtedly places where the emigrants from Judea settled.
Migdol. Perhaps Tell el–Ḥeir, a town about 61/4 mi. (10 km.) south of Pelusium.
Tahpanhes, … Noph. See on ch. 2:16.
Pathros. A region or country, not a city. It was a general name for southern, or Upper, Egypt.
Jer 44:2 “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins
Beginning with an appeal to their own personal experience, God hoped to convince the Jews that their troubles and distresses had been caused by their apostasy from the worship of the true God
Jer 44:3 because of the evil they have done. They aroused my anger by burning incense to and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew.
Jer 44:4 Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’
Jer 44:5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. 5.
Their ear. See Isa. 55:3; Jer. 7:24; 25:4.
Jer 44:8 Why arouse my anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations on earth.
These words imply that besides continuing in the familiar idolatrous practices of their own land, they engaged in those of the Egyptians. It was the danger of this idolatrous connection with Egypt that made Jeremiah opposed to every plan of alliance with that country.
Jer 44:9 Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your ancestors and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?
That these royal princesses did much to encourage apostasy is amply shown from the history of God’s people. Solomon introduced idolatry largely through the influence of his heathen wives (1 Kings 11:4–8). This same wicked influence was exerted by the queen mother of Asa (1 Kings 15:9–13) and the queen mother of Ahaziah (2 Chron. 22:1–4). Many royal women of Judah were of foreign birth, and therefore became the chief promoters of an alien idol worship, the wives of the nobles and other citizens following their iniquitous example.
Jer 44:10 To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.
Jer 44:11 “Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah.
Jer 44:12 I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach.
Jer 44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah,
Men who knew. Evidently the husbands had consented, sooner or later, to their wives’ idolatrous practices (see on v. 19).
Jer 44:17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.
The queen of heaven.
This goddess is usually identified with the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar. Inasmuch as there were immoral ceremonies connected with this worship, it aroused Jeremiah’s hot indignation, particularly since it appears to have been a prominent part of the idolatry then practiced.
The Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar, the mother goddess, was the equivalent of the divinity known to the Hebrews as Ashtoreth and to the Canaanites as Astarte, whose figurines are found in Palestine. This goddess of fertility, of maternity, of sexual love, and of war was worshiped in rites of a grossly immoral and debasing character.
She was essentially the same goddess though worshipped under many names and in many aspects, such as the earthmother, the virgin-mother, and is identified in a general sense with Atargatis, the “Great Mother” of Asia Minor, Artemis (Diana) of Ephesus, Venus, and others.
Various names applied to the virgin-mother goddess contain an element meaning “lady,” or “mistress,” as eNana, Innini, Irnini, Beltis. Some of the designations were Belti, “my lady” (the exact equivalent of the Italian Madonna), Belit-ni, “our lady,” and “queen of heaven,” the name under which Ishtar was worshiped on the housetops as morning or evening star, with an offering of baked cakes, wine, and incense.
Ishtar was also known as the merciful mother who intercedes with the gods for her worshipers. Some of these names and attributes are today applied to the virgin Mary, and many of the localized virgin cults in the Old World are believed to be the modern survivals of the worship of some of these various aspects of the ancient mother goddess.
Judah, … Jerusalem. They had engaged in idolatry long before the Captivity, and reforms like those of Hezekiah and Josiah had not been permanent.
Jer 44:19 The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”
Resenting Jeremiah’s words condemning their iniquity, the women quickly reacted by declaring in self-defense that their husbands sanctioned their actions.
Jer 44:22 When the LORD could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became a curse and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.
This should not be taken in an absolute sense, but simply as a graphic picture of the extreme desolation of Judah (see on ch. 4:25).
Jer 44:23 Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.”
The prophet decisively disposes of the apostates’ defence by showing that their seeming vaunted prosperity tragically ended in making their “land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day” (v. 22).
Jer 44:25 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have done what you said you would do when you promised, ‘We will certainly carry out the vows we made to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.’ “Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows!
Ironically Jeremiah assures them that their vows of rebellious disobedience to the will of God are to be nullified by the divine vow that they shall experience misery and death in Egypt (see v. 13).
Jer 44:26 But hear the word of the LORD, all you Jews living in Egypt: ‘I swear by my great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, “As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives.”
That is, the Lord (see Gen. 22:16; Ex. 3:15; see on Jer. 7:3). God’s name would “no more be named” by these apostates “in all the land of Egypt,” because they disrespected and profaned it, and also because there would “be an end of them” (Jer. 44:27).
Jer 44:30 This is what the LORD says: ‘I am going to deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who want to kill him, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who wanted to kill him.'”
This Egyptian king, known to the Greeks as Apries, reigned about 20 years (589–570 b.c.). Because of an army revolt he had to yield the throne to the army commander Ahmose, better known by the Greek name Amosis.
Tradition has it that because Jeremiah condemned their course of action the Jews in Egypt stoned the prophet to death, although according to other traditions he survived until Nebuchadrezzar’s invasion of Egypt and was carried either to Babylon or back to Judah, where he died a natural death.