Jeremiah 44

Jer 44:1-30.

JEREMIAH

REPROVES THE

JEWS FOR

THEIR

IDOLATRY IN

EGYPT, AND

DENOUNCES

GOD'S

JUDGMENTS ON

THEM AND

EGYPT

ALIKE.

1. Migdol--meaning a "tower." A city east of Egypt, towards the Red

Sea

(Ex 14:2;

Nu 33:7).

Noph--Memphis, now Cairo

(Jer 2:16).

Pathros--Upper Egypt

(Isa 11:11).

2. evil . . . upon Jerusalem--If I spared not My own sacred city, much

less shall ye be safe in Egypt, which I loathe.

3. they went--implying perverse assiduity: they

went out of their way to burn incense (one species of idolatry put

for all kinds), &c.

4.

(2Ch 36:15).

7. now--after so many warnings.

commit . . . this . . . evil against your souls--

(Jer 7:19;

Nu 16:38;

Pr 8:36).

It is not God whom you injure, but yourselves.

8. in . . . Egypt--where they polluted themselves to ingratiate

themselves with the Egyptians.

ye be gone--not compelled by fear, but of your own accord, when I

forbade you, and when it was free to you to stay in Judea.

that ye might cut yourselves off--They, as it were, purposely courted their own ruin.

9. Have you forgotten how the wickednesses of your fathers were

the source of the greatest calamities to you?

their wives--The Jews' worldly queens were great promoters of

idolatry

(1Ki 11:1-8; 15:13; 16:31).

the land of Judah--They defiled the land which was holy unto God.

10. They . . . you--The third person puts them to a distance from

God on account of their alienating themselves from Him. The second

person implies that God formerly had directly addressed them.

humbled--literally, "contrite"

(Ps 51:17).

neither . . . feared--

(Pr 28:14).

11. Behold, I will set my face against you for evil--(See on

Le 17:10).

and to cut off all Judah--that is, all the idolaters;

Jer 44:28

shows that some returned to Judea (compare

Jer 42:17).

14. none . . . shall escape . . . that they should return, &c.--The

Jews had gone to Egypt with the idea that a return to Judea, which

they thought hopeless to their brethren in Babylon, would be an easy

matter to themselves in Egypt: the exact reverse should happen in the

case of each respectively. The Jews whom God sent to Babylon were there

weaned from idolatry, and were restored; those who went to Egypt by

their perverse will were hardened in idolatry, and perished there.

have a desire--literally, "lift up (their) soul," that is,

their hopes (compare

Jer 22:27,

Margin;

De 24:15,

Margin).

none shall return but such as shall escape--namely, the "small number"

(Jer 44:28)

who were brought by force into Egypt, as Jeremiah and Baruch, and those

who, in accordance with Jeremiah's advice, should flee from Egypt

before the arrival of the Chaldeans (see on

Jer 42:17).

CALVIN less probably refers the words to the

return of the exiles in Babylon, which the Jews in Egypt regarded as

hopeless.

15. their wives--The idolatry began with them

(1Ki 11:4;

1Ti 2:14).

Their husbands' connivance implicated them in the guilt.

16. we will not--

(Jer 6:16).

17. whatsoever . . . goeth . . . out of our . . . mouth--whatever

vow we have uttered to our gods

(Jer 44:25;

De 23:23;

Jud 11:36).

The source of all superstitions is that men oppose their own will and

fancies to God's commands.

queen of heaven--(See on

Jer 7:18);

Ashtaroth or Astarte.

we . . . fathers . . . king, &c.--The evil was restricted to no one

class: all from the highest to the lowest shared the guilt.

then had we plenty--Fools attribute their seeming prosperity to God's

connivance at their sin: but see

Pr 1:32;

Ec 8:11-13.

In fact, God had often chastised them for their idolatry (see

Jud 2:14);

but it is the curse of impiety not to perceive the hand of God in

calamities.

victuals--Men cast away the bread of the soul for the bread that

perisheth

(De 8:3;

Joh 6:27).

So Esau

(Heb 12:16).

18. They impute their calamities to their service of God, but these

are often marks of His favor, not of wrath, to do His people good at

their latter end

(De 8:16).

19. make . . . cakes to worship

her--MAURER translates, "to form her

image." Crescent-shaped cakes were offered to the moon. Vulgate supports English Version.

without our men--The women mentioned

(Jer 44:15);

"a great multitude" here speak: we have not engaged in secret night

orgies which might justly be regarded unfavorably by our

husbands: our sacred rites have been open, and with their privity.

They wish to show how unreasonable it is that Jeremiah should oppose

himself alone to the act of all, not merely women, but men also.

The guilty, like these women, desire to shield themselves under the

complicity of others. Instead of helping one another towards heaven,

husband and wife often ripen one another for hell.

21. The incense . . . did not the Lord

remember--Jeremiah owns that they did as they said, but in retort

asks, did not God repay their own evil-doing? Their very land in its

present desolation attests this

(Jer 44:22),

as was foretold

(Jer 25:11, 18, 38).

23. law--the moral precepts.

statutes--the ceremonial.

testimonies--the judicial

(Da 9:11, 12).

25. Ye . . . have both spoken with . . . mouths, and fulfilled with

. . . hand--ironical praise. They had pleaded their obligation to

fulfil their vows, in excuse for their idolatry. He answers, no one can

accuse you of unsteadiness as to your idolatrous vows; but steadfastness

towards God ought to have prevented you from making, or, when made, from

keeping such vows.

ye will surely accomplish . . . vows--Jeremiah hereby gives them up

to their own fatal obstinacy.

26. I have sworn--I, too have made a vow which I will fulfil.

Since ye will not hear Me speaking and warning, hear Me swearing.

(Ge 22:16),

the greatest by whom God can swear

(Heb 6:13, 14).

my name shall no more be named--The Jews, heretofore, amidst all

their idolatry, had retained the form of appeal to the name of God and

the law, the distinctive glory of their nation; God will allow this no

more

(Eze 20:39):

there shall be none left there to profane His name thus any more.

27. watch over . . . for evil--

(Jer 1:10;

Eze 7:6).

The God, whose providence is ever solicitously watching over His people

for good, shall solicitously, as it were, watch for their hurt.

Contrast

Jer 31:28; 32:41.

28. small number--(see on

Jer 44:14;

and

Jer 42:17;

Isa 27:13);

compare "all-consumed"

(Jer 44:27).

A band easily counted, whereas they were expecting to return

triumphantly in large numbers.

shall know--most of them experimentally, and to their cost.

whose words . . . mine, or theirs--Hebrew, "that from Me and them."

Jehovah's words are His threats of destruction to the Jews; theirs, the

assertion that they expected all goods from their gods

(Jer 44:17),

&c. "Mine"; by which I predict ruin to them. "Theirs"; by which they

give themselves free scope in iniquity.

shall stand--

(Ps 33:11).

29. this . . . sign unto you--The calamity of

Pharaoh-hophra (see on

Jer 44:30)

shall be a sign to you that as he shall fall before his enemy, so you

shall subsequently fall before Nebuchadnezzar

(Mt 24:8)

[GROTIUS]. CALVIN makes the

"sign" to be simultaneous with the event signified, not antecedent to

it, as in

Ex 3:12.

The Jews believed Egypt impregnable, so shut in was it by natural

barriers. The Jews being "punished in this place" will be a sign

that their view is false, and God's threat true. He calls it "a sign

unto you," because God's prediction is equivalent to the event,

so that they may even now take it as a sign. When fulfilled it would

cease to be a sign to them: for they would be dead.

30. Hophra--in

HERODOTUS called Apries. He succeeded Psammis, the

successor of Pharaoh-necho, who was beaten by Nebuchadnezzar at

Carchemish, on the Euphrates. Amasis rebelled against, and overcame him,

in the city Sais.

them that seek his

life--HERODOTUS, in curious accordance with this,

records that Amasis, after treating Hophra well at first, was

instigated, by persons who thought they could not be safe unless he were

put to death, to strangle him. "His enemies" refer to Amasis, &c.; the

words are accurately chosen, so as not to refer to Nebuchadnezzar, who

is not mentioned till the end of the verse, and in connection with

Zedekiah

(Eze 20:3; 30:21).

Amasis' civil war with Hophra pioneered the way for Nebuchadnezzar's

invasion in the twenty-third year of his reign [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10.11].