Warnings to the Jews in Egypt
44
📚The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, living at Migdol and at Tahpanhes and at Noph 📖 and in the country of Pathros 📖, saying, 2 📚“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen 📖 the whole disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and, see, today they are a desolation, and no one lives in them, 3 📚because of their evil which they did, provoking me to anger by going to burn incense, and to serve other gods, which they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4 📚However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abominable thing 📖 that I hate.’ 5 📚But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, and to burn no incense to other gods. 6 📚Therefore my fury and my anger were poured out, and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they became ruined and desolate, as at this day.
7 📚“Therefore now thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you do this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant from Judah, to leave you no one remaining? 8 📚You are provoking me to wrath by the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt 📖 where you have gone to live, causing you to be cut off 📖 and to become an object of cursing and scorn among all the nations of the earth. 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 have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 📚They are not humbled even to this day, and they have not been afraid, nor walked in my law or in my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.
44:7-10 They saw with their own eyes what had happened. Would they not learn their lesson, repent, and turn to God? The evil in human nature is not so easily overcome. See Rom 1:32.⚜
11 📚“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See, I will set my face against you for disaster, and to cut off all Judah. 12 📚And I will take the remnant of Judah that set their faces to go to the land of Egypt to settle there, and they will all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they will be consumed by the sword and by famine. They will die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine, and they will become an oath, and an object of astonishment and cursing and scorn. 13 📚For I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by the plague, 14 📚so that none of the remnant of Judah, who has gone into the land of Egypt to settle there, will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, where they desire to return to live; for no one will return except a few refugees”.
15 📚Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great crowd, all the people who were living in the land of Egypt, in Pathros 📖, answered Jeremiah, saying, 16 📚“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. 17 📚But we will certainly do whatever comes out of our own mouth, burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our officials, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of provisions, and were well off, and did not see any disaster. 18 📚But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and have been consumed by the sword and by famine”.
44:15-18 The people leave no doubt that they intend to do just what they please. They loved their idols and after them they would go, regardless of what anyone, including God, said. This reveals again the desperate wickedness of the human heart. Compare Rev 9:20-21 – when the whole world is being punished and is heading for disaster at the end of this age mankind will still not give up its beloved idols.⚜
44:17-18 They give their reasons for clinging to idol-worship. It is a reason men everywhere will give. They thought their goddess was giving them prosperity and guarding them from harm. Their worship was rooted in selfishness. They cared nothing for God or for what God said in His word; they were not concerned with truth or the ethics of the matter. And they praised the goddess for what the true and living God Jehovah had done. Little did they realize that it was their worship of her, and not the renouncing of her worship, that would bring death and destruction to them. This story has been repeated again and again even in our days.⚜
19 📚And the women added, “When we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without our men?”
44:19 According to the Bible the husband was to be the head of the house and to be responsible for what took place there. These men knew of the false worship of their wives and did nothing. So they shared their guilt.⚜
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer, saying, 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 officials, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into his mind? 22 📚So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of your evil deeds and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, and an object of astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant; as it is to this day. 23 📚Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in his law, in his statutes, or in his testimonies, this disaster has happened to you; as it is to this day”.
44:20-23 Jeremiah tries to use the facts of their recent history to appeal to their reason. But when people are determined to do as they please facts and reason are as nothing to them.⚜
24 📚Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 📚Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, ‘We will surely perform the vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ You will surely fulfil your vows, and surely perform your vows.
44:24-25 Their abominable idolatry was not enough for them. They actually made solemn vows to continue it.⚜
26 📚Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who live in the land of Egypt. See, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked in the mouth of anyone of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ‘The Lord God lives.’
44:26 Those who reject the truth of God and run after idols have no business swearing by His name.⚜
27 📚See, I will watch over them for disaster, and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.
44:27 Let us learn from this that God, seeing the behavior of individuals or groups or peoples or even nations, will sometimes determine to do them harm rather than good. This fact alone should bring men to their knees seeking God’s mercy.⚜
28 📚Yet a small number who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, and the whole remnant of Judah, that has gone into the land of Egypt to settle there, will know whose words will stand 📖, mine, or theirs.
29 📚“And this will be a sign to you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for disaster: 30 📚Thus says the LORD, See, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies, and into the hands of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life”.
44:30 This was fulfilled in 570 BC. Hophra was killed by rivals for the throne.⚜