Deeper Commentary
Jeremiah 44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah
concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at
Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis and in the country of Pathros, saying- The
Jews may well have gone to live with other Jews who had settled there
previously. Most of these places [excluding Pathros] were near the border
with Judah, as if they were looking to return to Judah once things had
stabilized. Woe had already been declared upon these towns where
the disobedient Jews went to live after the Babylonian invasion of Judah;
from the prophecy of Jer. 46:14, they ought to have already been aware of
what Jeremiah declared to them- that even there in Egypt, the Babylonians
would come and judge them.
Jeremiah 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- That evil came because of their idolatry; and yet they had
fled to Egypt and were continuing in such idolatry (:8). Their attitude
was therefore that it was good fortune that they had avoided the judgments
for idolatry; and they were eagerly carrying on with it. They refused to
see that God's grace was trying to lead them to repentance; and that
judgment for sin will fall, regardless of where on the globe one is
situated.
Jeremiah 44:3 because of their wickedness which they have committed to
provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, to serve other
gods that they didn’t know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers-
Not
only is the logic of choosing God's way so powerful, but the way of the
flesh is not satisfying. Sin became a weariness to Israel even before they
reaped the punishment for it (Is. 57:10); their mind was alienated from
the lovers they chose; they left the one they left the God of Israel for
(Ez. 23:17). They always wanted
new gods; they were never satisfied
with their idols. And it seems that now the same was happening; they were
looking to adopt new gods they had found in Egypt.
Jeremiah 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!-
A
love as strong as God's is going to also elicit the emotion of hatred and
anger when that love is rejected and abused. He "hated" (s.w.) Judah's
insincere worship and relationship with Him (Is. 1:14; 61:8; Jer. 44:4).
But it is hard to separate the sin from the sinner. That distinction may
be helpful for us in order to avoid judging others too personally, but God
it seems doesn't make that decision. He gave Israel into the hands of
those who hated her (s.w. Ez. 16:27,37) and in that sense He hated her.
The feelings of hatred which Hosea had for Gomer due to her abuse of His
love were those of God for Israel: "There I hated them" (Hos. 9:15). God
is not simply "love" in the abstract. He is love for real, with all the
emotion and psychological complex which goes along with love; and this
will include hatred if that love is abused.
Jeremiah 44:5 But they didn’t listen nor inclined their ear to turn from
their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods- Inclining or humbling / bowing down the ear means that true response to
God's word ought to be a humbling experience. We cannot come away from
engagement with God's word without being humbled. And this very phrase is
used of how God bows down / inclines His ear to human prayer (2 Kings
19:16; Ps. 17:6; 31:2; 71:2 and often). We see here the mutuality possible
between God and man, and the interplay between Bible reading and God's
response to our prayers. We speak to God in line with our understanding of
His word, and He responds to our prayers. Bible reading and prayer
therefore mesh together in the Christian life, as part of the upward
spiral of spirituality. God is not silent to our prayers- He reveals
Himself in response through His word.
Jeremiah 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- They had failed to
recognize that God is serious about judging sin; they thought that because
they had so far escaped that judgment therefore it would not come.
Distance was no object to God; the fact they were in Egypt didn't mean
they were hidden from Him or that judgment could only come or happen
whilst they were communicant members of the temple cult in Jerusalem.
Judgment will come- and resignation from a church or from God in toto
, moving out of the area... will not stop judgment coming.
Jeremiah 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 nursing child out of the midst
of Judah, to leave yourselves none remaining- Their sin was against
their own souls. Likewise the
rejected are witnesses against themselves (Is. 44:9; Mt. 23:31). Herein
lies the crass folly and illogicality of sin. Jeremiah pleaded with
Israel: "Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls [i.e.
yourselves], to cut off from you man and woman...that ye might cut
yourselves off" (Jer. 44:7,8, cp. how Jerusalem cut her own hair off in
Jer. 7:29). In the same passage, Yahweh is the one who does the cutting
off (Jer. 44:11); but they had cut themselves off. Likewise as they had
kindled fire on their roofs in offering sacrifices to Baal, so Yahweh
through the Babylonians would set fire to those same houses (Jer. 32:29).
Thus Israel were the ones who had kindled the fire of Yahweh's
condemnation (Jer. 17:4). Both Yahweh and Israel are described as kindling
the fire of judgment; He responded to what they had done (Jer. 11:16;
15:14; Lam. 4:11 cp. Jer. 17:4).
Jeremiah 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 live; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a
reproach among all the nations of the earth?- The Jews considered
that they had as it were resigned from Yahweh, so they were free to
worship as they wished. But this wasn't the case. We cannot resign from
Him. They would become a reproach and curse for this, and thus dishonour
Yahweh. We note again that the essence of idolatry is a trust in the work
of our own hands. This is what makes idolatry an abiding issue in the
lives of God's people.
Jeremiah 44:9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the
wickedness of the kings of Judah, 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?- We note the
emphasis upon the sins of the women (:17,21). In those days, religion was
largely a hobby for men, and the women followed their husbands' religion
where and when required. But we see here that the women are held
personally accountable; for God values men and women equally, desiring
that each person exercise a personal conscience toward Him.
Jeremiah 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- To walk in God's laws was to be the result
of their humbled repentance. This is one reason why we have Divine laws-
to provide a channel through which we can express that intangible and
non-specific love of God which we feel upon repentance.
Jeremiah 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- See on :7. All would be destroyed; but the same chapter speaks of a remnant that would not be (:14,28).
This is the Bible paradox of God's love of Israel and desire for their
redemption.
Jeremiah 44:12 I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces
to go into the land of Egypt to live 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, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach-
Jeremiah 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 plague-
As noted on :12, their attempt to avoid Divine judgment by living in
Egypt was not going to work. There can be a sense that we can resign from
everything to do with God's truth; and live with no sense of judgment to
come. These Jews who fled to Egypt are proof that this is not the case.
God's grip is strong upon us and He wishes us for His Kingdom till the day
we die.
Jeremiah 44:14 so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into
the land of Egypt to live there, shall escape or be left to return into
the land of Judah, to which they will have a desire to return to dwell
there: for none shall return save such as shall escape-
They
thought they could forget about the things of Yahweh once they were in
Egypt. But they were to face condemnation there, and in their time of
condemnation, they desperately wanted to
return to their land [cp. the Kingdom]- but it was all
too late. Cain is another type of the rejected- instead of
going as far away from Divine things as possible after his condemnation,
he went to live on the east of Eden- where the cherubim were, guarding the
barred entry to God's paradise (Gen. 4:16). This desire to be in the
Kingdom but it being too late is the 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' the
Lord speaks about; a mental torment absolutely self inflicted.
Jeremiah 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- Pathros was in the far south of Egypt, and may have included
Jews who had been resident in Egypt for some time. Being so far south,
they were confident that Jeremiah's prophecies that the Babylonians would
find them even there would for sure be proved untrue.
Jeremiah 44:16 As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of
Yahweh, we will not listen to you- This is rank disobedience. But
they phrase it in terms of there perhaps being a difference between the
words of Yahweh and those of Jeremiah. These are the words Jeremiah
"(you") had spoken, not from Yahweh but only "in the name of Yahweh". This
kind of petty doubting of the process of Divine inspiration is often
deployed by those who simply don't want to accept the demands of His word
upon them personally.
Jeremiah 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- See on
:19; Jer. 7:18.
The
Jews left in the land after the Babylonian invasion begged Jeremiah to
tell them God's word: "Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will
obey the voice of the Lord" (Jer. 42:5,6). But when they heard His words,
their response was: "As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the
name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do
whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth" (Jer. 44:16,17). Their
apparent zeal for Bible study came to nothing when the results were
inconvenient to them (and we can take a lesson from this). But I wonder
whether they actually said "We will certainly do whatsoever goeth forth
out of
our mouth"? Maybe they did; but
perhaps this is what their rejection of
God's
word was tantamount to, and therefore this is the way their words are
recorded.
Jeremiah 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- As noted on
Jer. 43:11, the consumption by sword and famine was because they were in
Egypt. They had been spared this whilst in the land of Israel.
Jeremiah 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?- It was this very
behaviour which had brought the Babylonians upon Jerusalem (Jer. 7:18).
"The queen of heaven" was a Babylonian fertility god, otherwise called
Ishtar, shaped like the moon or the planet Venus. It was the god of female
fertility, hence the note that the women and children were a large part of
its worship. Each female devotee was expected to sleep with the male cult
prostitutes of this cult. And then sacrifice one of their children to it.
No wonder this so upset God, seeing that He was the source of Israel's
fertility, and their children were born to Him and not to the supposed
queen of heaven. The women later protested that they were impenitent of
this worship of the queen of heaven, and they did so with the full
blessing of their husbands; this was significant, seeing that the cult
involved sleeping with other men and offering their children to Ishtar.
Jeremiah 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-
It is twice emphasized that Jeremiah replied "to all the people".
None could claim they had not heard God's response.
Jeremiah 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 it, and didn’t
it come into His mind?- There was the idea that God forgot their sin;
that that was all back there and back then, but now they had moved to
Egypt, all was different. We too can reason the same way, wrongly assuming
that time and geography make a pseudo atonement for our sins. God had been
hurt deeply by their idolatry, and it continued to come into His mind.
Judgment was going to come for it.
Jeremiah 44:22 So that Yahweh could no longer endure you, because of the
evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have
committed; therefore your land has become a desolation, an astonishment
and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day- Yahweh had been
bearing their sin ("s.w. "endure"), but there came a point where this was
no longer appropriate if they were continuing in those sins.
Jeremiah 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- What was worse was that
this group had come to Jeremiah seeking God's word, and apparently had
some interest in obeying it. But there was a willfulness in their sin
which made their judgment inevitable. The evil done to the land of Judah
"happened to you, as it is this day"; they were wrong to think that by
running away to Egypt, they had avoided Divine judgment.
Jeremiah 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-
There is strange emphasis on all the people being addressed,
including the women. This reflects God's inclusive approach, recognizing
the women as well as the men were guilty and likewise also capable of
repentance. It is not God's way to punish a majority just for the sins of
their leadership; the entire community were addressed and thereby were
responsible.
Jeremiah 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- Their hands fulfilled what their mouths spoke in that those
hands formed the cakes to the queen of heaven, and performed the rituals.
Establish then your vows, and perform your vows- God will confirm people in the path they wish to take both for good and bad, hence we are to pray "lead us not into temptation".
Jeremiah 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- This implies
that every single Jew in Egypt was to be killed. Such threats of total
destruction of every Jew in Judah had been made earlier by the prophets,
and yet not carried out in the end because of God's way of remembering
mercy in the midst of wrath. And it was to be the same here; the Assuan
papyri show that the Egyptian Jews in the century following were a
flourishing community and were worshippers of Yahweh and not idolaters.
Perhaps it was this level of turning toward Yahweh which meant that God
changed these threatened judgments.
Jeremiah 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 they are all gone- The language of
total destruction is immediately ameliorated in :28, when we read that
some of them would return into Judah.
Jeremiah 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 live there, shall know whose word
shall stand, Mine, or theirs- This is proof enough that the language
of total destruction of all Jews in Egypt was not going to literally
happen.
Jeremiah 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-
Egypt was given into the hand of their enemies so that Judah might learn
something from this. We see the condemnation of others in order to warn
us. There is a gap between the statement of judgment, and its execution.
In that gap we can repent and change the otherwise inevitable outcomes.
The propblems of the Pharaoh Hophra (see on :30) were to be a sign to the
Jews that the Babylonian judgment would surely come upon them.
Jeremiah 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- All that we
know of the fate of Hophra is derived from Herodotus (2:169), who states
that Amssis "gave Apries over into the hands of his former subjects, to
deal with as they chose. Then the Egyptians took him and strangled him".
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