Jeremiah Chapter 44

From The Open Bible Project

44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

• (a) These were all famous and strange cities in Egypt, where the Jews that fled dwelt for their safety but the prophet declares that there is no hold so strong that can preserve them from God’s vengeance.

44:2 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein,

44:3 because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, [and] to serve other gods, that they didn't know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.

44:4 However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate.

• (b) Read (Jeremiah 7:25, Jeremiah 25:3, Jeremiah 29:19, Jeremiah 32:33).

44:5 But they didn't listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.

44:6 Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.

• (c) He sets before their eyes God’s judgments against Judah and Jerusalem for their idolatry that they might beware by their example, and not with the same wickedness provoke the Lord: for then they would be double punished.

44:7 Therefore now thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel: Why do you commit great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave yourselves none remaining;

44:8 in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to sojourn; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

44:9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

• (d) He shows that we ought to keep in memory God’s plagues from the beginning that considering them, we might live in his fear, and know if he did not spare our fathers, yea kings, princes, rulers and also whole countries and nations for their sins that we vile worms cannot look to escape punishment for ours.

44:10 They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

44:11 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.

44:12 I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an object of horror, [and] an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

• (e) Which have fully set their minds and are gone there on purpose. By which he excepts the innocents as Jeremiah and Baruch that were forces: therefore the Lord shows that he will set his face against them: that is, purposely destroy them.
• (f) Read (Jeremiah 26:6, Jeremiah 41:18).

44:13 For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence;

44:14 so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.

• (g) Meaning but a few.

44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

44:16 As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we will not listen to you.

• (h) This declares how dangerous a thing it is to decline once from God and to follow our own fantasies: for Satan ever solicits such and does not leave them till he has brought them to extreme impudency and madness, even to justify their wickedness against God and his prophets.

44:17 But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.

• (i) Read (Jeremiah 7:18) it seems that the papists gathered of this place "Salbe Regina" and "Regina caeli latare" calling the virgin Mary Queen of heaven and so out of the blessed virgin and mother of our saviour Christ, made an idol; for here the prophet condemns their idolatry.
• (k) This is still the argument of idolaters who esteem religion by the belly and instead of acknowledging God’s works who sends both plenty and famine, health and sickness. They attribute it to their idols and so dishonour God.

44:18 But since we left off burning incense to the queen of the sky, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

44:19 When we burned incense to the queen of the sky, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without our husbands?

• (l) This teaches us what a great danger it is for the husbands to permit their wives anything of which they are not assured by God’s word: for by it they take an opportunity to justify their doings and their husbands will give an account of it before God.

44:20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people who had given him an answer, saying,

44:21 The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, didn't Yahweh remember them, and didn't it come into his mind?

44:22 so that Yahweh could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

44:23 Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is this day.

44:24 Moreover 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:

44:25 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.

• (m) You have committed double evil in making wicked vows, and in performing the same.

44:26 Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Yahweh, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Yahweh lives.

• (n) This declares a horrible plague toward idolaters, seeing that God will not vouchsafe to have his Name mentioned by such as have polluted it.

44:27 Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.

44:28 Those who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.

• (o) We see therefore that God has a perpetual care over his, wherever they are scattered: for though they are but two or three, yet he will deliver them when he destroys his enemies.

44:29 This shall be the sign to you, says Yahweh, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:

44:30 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy, and sought his life.

• (p) He shows the means by which they would be destroyed to assure them of the certainty of the plague and yet they remain still in their obstinacy till they perish: for Josephus writes that five years after the taking of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar the younger having overcome the Moabites and the Ammonites went against Egypt and slew the king and so brought these Jews and others into Babylon.