CHAPTER 44

(587 B.C.)

THE JEWISH REFUGEES TO PERISH IN EGYPT

¹The Word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tah-panhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying (the Jews, after arriving in Egypt, had spread over the land, some going north and some south. It seems that the occasion for this Prophecy by Jeremiah was at some type of festival that drew representatives of the Jews from all over Egypt, if not most Egyptians, as well! This is Jeremiahs last Prophecy relating to Israel. The remaining Prophecies of the Book concern the Gentiles.

The Jews lived in hopes of being able to return to Judah soon. But, because of their unbelief and rebellion against God, only a few would actually see Judah again),

²Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein (this Scripture refers to the righteous Judgment of God against His chosen People because of their gross idolatry and rebellion. The word evil means judgment!),

³Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to Anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, you, nor your fathers. (Although the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah was a fact that could not be denied, yet these obstinate unbelievers refused to recognize its cause. On the contrary, they declared that their misfortunes arose from their lack of devotion to the Queen of Heaven, i.e., the Great Mother of God [Vss. 17-19].)

⁴Howbeit I sent unto you all My Servants the Prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. (Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate, is a plaintive cry from the Holy Spirit, breathing an agony that only Divine Love could feel and utter.)

⁵But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. (Even though the Lord is speaking in the past tense here, future Passages will show that this sin was still prevalent among the remnant, even while in Egypt.)

⁶Wherefore My Fury 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 at this day. (The words, wasted and desolate, aptly describe the results of sin.)

⁷Therefore now thus sa ys the LORD, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit you this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain (To cut off from you..., refers to Judah and Jerusalem, which have already been denuded; this present sin will destroy even the remnant);

⁸In that you provoke Me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither you be gone to dwell, that you might cut yourselves off, and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the Earth? (The words, In that you provoke Me unto wrath with the works of your hands, suggest that the sinning of the people was more than failure; it was a dare to God. It was as though they were daring Him to do anything about their rebellion.)

⁹Have 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? (The Holy Spirit here points out the culpability of the wives as well as their husbands, showing that the wives of nobles, princes, and kings have been, in the past, and at times in the present, the most active introducers of idolatry. Instead of helping each other toward Heaven, husband and wife often ripen each other for Hell.)

¹⁰They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in My Law, nor in My Statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers. (The change from the third to the second person is designed to express how idolatry alienates from God.)

¹¹Therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set My Face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. (These individuals no doubt believe that by putting aside the Bible and worshipping the Egyptian gods, they would secure a prosperous return to their native land, while those who surrendered to the Chaldeans, who rejected idolatry, and who clung to the Bible would perish. The exact opposite, however, is a historic fact.)

¹²And 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, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. (Once again, these rebels hear the same Prophecy as was given by Jeremiah just before they left Judah [42:17].)

¹³For I will punish them who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence (this prediction is given again because these people, no doubt, thought they were totally safe in Egypt. They paid absolutely no attention to Jeremiahs Prophecies, because they had already formed their opinion, which was contrary to the statement of the Lord):

¹⁴So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape. (But such as shall escape, must have referred to those who, like Jeremiah and Baruch, refused to burn incense to the idol. God always has, and always has had, His few [Mat. 7:14; I Pet. 3:20; Rev. 3:4]. The awakened heart cries: O to be one of that few!)

¹⁵Then all the men wh o knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great multitude, even all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying (Had burned incense, really means were burning incense, because the practice was still going on. Here we have the formal commitment of Israel in Egypt to the moon goddess instead of Jehovah. Thus, they made their choice and, in effect, signed their own death warrant),

¹⁶As for the Word that you have spoken unto us in the Name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto you. (Their answer, we will not hearken unto you, while directed to the Prophet, was actually spoken to the Lord.)

¹⁷But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto 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 victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. (Queen of Heaven, was the name given to the moon goddess by these rebels of Judah, but was called Ashtoreth or Astarte. She was the wife of Baal, or Molech, who was called the King of Heaven by the Phoenicians. The male and female pair of deities symbolized the generative powers of nature; hence, the introduction of prostitution in connection with such worship.

The Babylonians worshipped the goddess as Mylitta [generative]. The moon became the symbol of female productiveness, and all women converts were to submit to immorality at least once in this worship.)

¹⁸But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. (Unregenerate men are incapable of recognizing the Hand of God in calamities.)

¹⁹And when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men? (If one will notice, their boldness in their sin is characterized here by their open confession of idol worship. The slide downward into sin is accelerated by each act performed, with a searing of the conscience and a deadening of the soul. Now they have no shame whatsoever!)

²⁰Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying (the Lord would answer through His Prophet, but it would be not at all what the people desired to hear),

²¹The 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, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into His Mind? (And came it not into His mind?, refers back to the Prophecy of 32:35. In that Prophecy, He was referring to human sacrifice; He is referring now to the worship of the Queen of Heaven. Both have their origination in demon spirits!

Judah went far deeper into sin than could be contemplated by the natural mind.)

²²So that the LORD could not longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. (According to these Passages and many similar others, the Truth is proclaimed that all disfavor shown by God resulting in judgment or chastisement is due to sin, i.e., the evil of your doings.)

²³Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the Voice of the LORD, nor walked in His Law, nor in His Statutes, nor in His Testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day. (The Lord exclaims to these people that they can claim as much as they desire that their problems were caused by their leaving off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, but in truth their problems have been brought about because you have sinned against the Lord.)

²⁴Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the Word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt (I think it is obvious that while Satan hates both men and women, he hates women in particular. It was the woman he first approached in the Garden of Eden, and the hatred intensified when the Lord told him, And I will put enmity [hatred] between you and the woman, and between your seed [mankind which doesnt serve God] and her Seed [the Lord Jesus Christ]; it [He] shall bruise your head [what Jesus did at the Cross], and you shall bruise His heel [the sufferings of Calvary; Gen. 3:15]):

²⁵Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying; You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: you will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows. (If these people were determined to accomplish their vows of evil, God, on His part, was resolved to perform His in their destruction.)

²⁶Therefore hear you the Word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by My great Name, says the LORD, that My Name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD lives. (The vows of these rebels had been given with sarcasm; but this Vow of the Lord is given with a cold finality. The idea is: no Jews will be left alive in Egypt, with the exception of a small number that will escape probably those who did not succumb to the sin of idolatry. The others would die tragically!)

²⁷Behold, I will 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. (This is the worst judgment that could be imagined!)

²⁸Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, who are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, Mine, or theirs. (It is not known who was in this small number who escaped the sword and returned to Judah, nor how many were in it, but it is believed that it consisted of those who refused to offer incense to this Queen of Heaven, and who did not join in the sarcastic answer to the Lord.)

²⁹And this shall be a sign unto you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My Words shall surely stand against you for evil:

³⁰Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them who seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and who sought his life. (History records the miserable end of Pharaoh-hophra at the hand of his enemies, led by Amasis, a rebel. The civil war which this man provoked facilitated the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. It is said that the Egyptians who were his enemies took him and strangled him. Therefore, the Lord punished Pharaoh for his opening Egypt to the rebellious remnant of Judah.

I suspect this statement, Whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs, rang in the ears of these hapless rebels on the eve of their life.)