The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Jeremiah 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,
2 “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
says: ‘You have seen all the evil that I
have brought on Jerusalem, and on all
the cities of Judah. Behold, today they are a
desolation, and no man dwells in them,
3 because oftheir wickedness whichthey
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.
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.”
5 But they didn’t listen and didn’t incline
their ear. They didn’t turn from their
wickedness, to stop burning incense to
other gods.
6 Therefore my wrath and my anger was
poured out, and was kindled in the cities of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and
they are wasted and desolate, as itis today.’
7 “Therefore now Yahweh, the God of
Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘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 middle ofJudah, to leave yourselves no
one remaining,
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?
9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of
your fathers, the wickedness of the kings
of Judah, the wickedness of their wives,
your own wickedness, and the wickedness
of your wives which they committed in
the land of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem?
10 They are not humbled even to this day,
neither have they feared, nor walked in
my law, nor in my statutes, thatI set before
you and before your fathers.’
11 “Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God
of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will set my face
against you for evil, even to cut off all
Judah.
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 will all
be consumed. They will fall in the land
of Egypt. They will be consumed by the
sword and by the famine. They will die,
from the least even to the greatest, by the
sword and by the famine. They will be an
object of horror, an astonishment, a curse,
and a reproach.
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;
14 so that none of the remnant of Judah,
who have gone into the land of Egypt to
live there, will escape or be left to return
into the land of Judah, to which they have
a desire to return to dwellthere; for no one
will return except those who will escape.’ ”
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,
16 “As for the word that you have spoken
to us in Yahweh’s name, we will not listen
to you.
17 But we will certainly perform every
word that has gone 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 ofJerusalem; for then we had
plenty of food, and were well, and saw no
evil.
18 But since we stopped burning incense
to the queen of the sky, and pouring out
drink offerings to her, we have lacked all
things, and have been consumed by the
sword and by the famine.”
19 The women said, “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?”
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,
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?
22 Thus Yahweh could no longer bear it,
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 today.
23 Because you have burned incense and
because you have sinned against Yahweh,
and have not obeyed Yahweh’s voice, nor
walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor
in his testimonies; therefore this evil has
happened to you, as it is today.”
24 Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people,
including all the women, “Hear Yahweh’s word,
all Judah who are in the land of Egypt!
25 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
says, ‘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.’
26 “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, all
Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt:
‘Behold, I have sworn by my great name,’ says
Yahweh, ‘that my name will no more be
named in the mouth of any man of Judah
inallthe land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord
Yahweh lives.”
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 will be consumed
by the sword and by the famine, until they
are all gone.
28 Those who escape the sword will return
out of the land of Egypt into the land
of Judah few in number. All the remnant
of Judah, who have gone into the land of
Egypt to live there, will know whose word
will stand, mine or theirs.
29 “ ‘This will be the sign to you,’ says
Yahweh, ‘that I will punish you in this
place, that you may know that my words
will surely stand against you for evil.’
30 Yahweh says, ‘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, just as I gave
Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who
was his enemy and sought his life.’ ”