Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 44:1
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
1. The word that came to Jeremiah ] Apparently some little time had elapsed since the arrival of the fugitives, so as to allow for the development of the worship here spoken of. We must remember, however, that there were colonies of Jews in Egypt already. The occasion was probably a gathering of a large number of that nation for a festival in connexion with this particular cult.
at Migdol ] on the N.E. border of Egypt, a little to the E. of Tahpanhes.
at Tahpanhes, and at Noph ] See on Jer 2:16.
Pathros ] Egyptian for “the land of the South,” Upper Egypt. See on Jer 44:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Migdol – Magdolum, a strong fortress on the northern boundary of Egypt.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XLIV
Jeremiah reproves the Jews in Egypt for continuing in idolatry
after the exemplary judgments indicted by God on their nation
for that sin, 1-14;
and, upon their refusing to reform, denounces destruction to
them, and to that kingdom wherein they sought protection,
15-30.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLIV
Verse 1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews] Dahler supposes this discourse to have been delivered in the seventeenth or eighteenth year after the taking of Jerusalem.
Which dwell at Migdol] A city of Lower Egypt, not far from Pelusium.
Tahpanhes] Daphne Pelusiaca, the place to which the emigrant Jews first went.
Noph] Maphes, Targum. Memphis. a celebrated city of Middle Egypt, and the capital of its district.
The country of Pathros] A district of Upper Egypt, known by the name of the Thebais. See Bochart, Lib. Phaleg, lib. iv., c. 22. Thus we find that the Jews were scattered over the principal parts of Egypt.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The patience and goodness of God to this remnant of his ancient people is very remarkable; he leaveth them not even in their rebellion, but sendeth Jeremiah, whom he had before sent to prevent their going into this idolatrous country, to try if in Egypt they would be brought to a better mind. It should seem that the generality of the Jews that went into Egypt had planted themselves at these four places. Of Migdol we read Exo 14:2; Num 33:7; from which places we may learn it was a city or town upon the borders of the Red Sea. We shall read of it again Jer 46:14. It was a place which might have minded them better of their obligations and duty to God, for upon their removal from thence God divided the Red Sea for their forefathers. Noph was another city in Egypt, of which we read Isa 19:13; Jer 2:16; 46:14; Eze 30:13,16. The Greeks and Latins call it Memphis; it is thought to be that city which is now called Cairo.
Pathros was a region or province, some think it derived its name from Pathrusim the son of Mizraim, Gen 10:14. It is the same (as some think) which is since called Thebais.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Migdolmeaning a “tower.”A city east of Egypt, towards the Red Sea (Exo 14:2;Num 33:7).
NophMemphis, now Cairo(Jer 2:16).
PathrosUpper Egypt(Isa 11:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The word which came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt,…. Or, “unto all the Jews” t; the word came to him, that it might be delivered to them; or, “against all the Jews” u; they having gone into Egypt contrary to the will of God, and committing idolatry; and the word or sermon is full of threatenings and judgments denounced upon them:
which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros: this prophecy was delivered after the Jews were come to Tahpanhes, or Daphne; see Jer 43:7; and had divided themselves, and were settled in different parts of the kingdom: some continued at Tahpanhes, where were the king’s court and palace: others went to Migdol, a place near the Red sea, just at the entrance into Egypt, from the land of Canaan, Ex 14:2; called, by Herodotus, Magdolus w; and by Adrichomius x said to be distant about a mile and a quarter from Pelusium, or Sin, the strength of Egypt, Eze 30:15; others took up their residence at Noph, generally thought to be the city of Memphis. The Targum calls it Mappas; the same which is now called Grand Cairo; or, however, this city is near the place where Memphis stood: others dwelt in the country of Pathros, which perhaps had its name from Pathrusim, a son of Mizraim, Ge 10:13. It is thought by Bochart and others to be the country of Thebais in Egypt, the same with the Nomos Phanturites, or Phaturites, of Pliny y; and in this country Jeremiah seems to have been when this word came to him,
Jer 44:15; and from hence sent or carried it to the other places: saying; as follows:
t “ad omnes Judaeos”, V. L. Castalio, Cocceius, Schmidt; “erga omnes”, Pagninus, Montanus. u “Contra omnes Judaeos”, Junius Tremellius “de, [vel] contra”, Piscator. w Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 159. x Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 121. y Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“The word that came to Jeremiah regarding all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt, who dwelt in Migdol, in Tahpanhes, in Noph, and in the land of Pathros.” From this heading we perceive that those who (according to Jer 43:1-13) had gone to Egypt, had settled there in various parts of the country, and that the following denunciations, which at the same time form his last prophecy, were uttered a long time after that which is given in Jer 43:8-13 as having been delivered at Tahpanhes. The date of it cannot, indeed, be determined exactly. From the threatening that King Hophra shall be delivered over to the power of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 44:24-30), only this much is clear, that Egypt was not yet occupied by the Chaldeans, which, as we have shown above (p. 353), did not take place before the year 572. But it by no means follows from this that Jeremiah did not utter these words of threatening till shortly before this event. He may have done so even five or ten years before, in the period between 585 and 580, as we have already observed on p. 12. The Jews had settled down, not merely in the two northern frontier towns, Migdol (i.e., Magdolo, , according to the Itiner. Anton., twelve Roman miles from Pelusium, Copt. Meschtl, Egypt. Ma’ktr, the most northerly place in Egypt; see on Eze 29:10) and Tahpanhes (i.e., Daphne, see on Jer 43:7), but also in more inland places, in Noph (i.e., Memphis, see on Jer 2:16) and the land of Pathros (lxx , Egypt. Petorees, i.e., Southland, viz., Upper Egypt, the Thebais of the Greeks and Romans; see on Eze 29:14). The word of the Lord runs as follows: –
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Sermon to the Jews in Egypt; Jeremiah’s Remonstrance. | B. C. 587. |
1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, 2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye 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 dwelleth therein, 3 Because 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, ye, nor your fathers. 4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. 5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. 6 Wherefore my fury and mine 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. 7 Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye 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; 8 In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have ye 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 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. 11 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. 12 And 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. 13 For I will punish them that 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, 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.
The Jews in Egypt were now dispersed into various parts of the country, into Migdol, and Noph, and other places, and Jeremiah was sent on an errand from God to them, which he delivered either when he had the most of them together in Pathros (v. 15) or going about from place to place preaching to this purport. He delivered this message in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and in it,
I. God puts them in mind of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, which, though the captives by the rivers of Babylon were daily mindful of (Ps. cxxxvii. 1), the fugitives in the cities of Egypt seem to have forgotten and needed to be put in mind of, though, one would have thought, they had not been so long out of sight as to become out of mind (v. 2): You have seen what a deplorable condition Judah and Jerusalem are brought into; now will you consider whence those desolations came? From the wrath of God; it was his fury and his anger that kindled the fire which made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah waste and desolate (v. 6); whoever were the instruments of the destruction, they were but instruments: it was a destruction from the Almighty.
II. He puts them in mind of the sins that brought those desolations upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was for their wickedness. It was this that provoked God to anger, and especially their idolatry, their serving other gods (v. 3) and giving that honour to counterfeit deities, the creatures of their own fancy and the work of their own hands, which should have been given to the true God only. They forsook the God who was known among them, and whose name was great, for gods that they knew not, upstart deities, whose original was obscure and not worth taking notice of: “Neither they nor you, nor your fathers, could give any rational account why the God of Israel was exchanged for such impostors.” They knew not that they were gods; nay, they could not but know that they were no gods.
III. He puts them in mind of the frequent and fair warnings he had given them by his word not to serve other gods, the contempt of which warnings was a great aggravation of their idolatry, v. 4. The prophets were sent with a great deal of care to call to them, saying, Oh! do not this abominable thing that I hate. It becomes us to speak of sin with the utmost dread and detestation as an abominable thing; it is certainly so, for it is that which God hates, and we are sure that hid judgment is according to truth. Call it grievous, call it odious, that we may by all means possible put ourselves and others out of love with it. It becomes us to give warning of the danger of sin, and the fatal consequences of it, with all seriousness and earnestness: “Oh! do not do it. If you love God, do not, for it is provoking to him; if you love your own souls do not, for it is destructive to them.” Let conscience do this for us in an hour of temptation, when we are ready to yield. O take heed! do not this abominable thing which the Lord hates; for, if God hates it, though shouldst hate it. But did they regard what God said to them? No: “They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear (v. 5); they still persisted in their idolatries; and you see what came of it, therefore God’s anger was poured out upon them, as at this day. Now this was intended for warning to you, who have not only heard the judgments of God’s mouth, as they did, but have likewise seen the judgments of his hand, by which you should be startled and awakened, for they were inflicted in terrorem, that others might hear and fear and do no more as they did, lest they should fare as they fared.”
IV. He reproves them for, and upbraids them with, their continued idolatries, now that they had come into Egypt (v. 8): You burn incense to other gods in the land of Egypt. Therefore God forbade them to go into Egypt, because he knew it would be a snare to them. Those whom God sent into the land of the Chaldeans, though that was an idolatrous country, were there, by the power of God’s grace, weaned from idolatry; but those who went against God’s mind into the land of the Egyptians were there, by the power of their own corruptions, more wedded than ever to their idolatries; for, when we thrust ourselves without cause or call into places of temptation, it is just with God to leave us to ourselves. In doing this, 1. They did a great deal of injury to themselves and their families: “You commit this great evil against your souls (v. 7), you wrong them, you deceive them with that which is false, you destroy them, for it will be fatal to them.” Note, In sinning against God we sin against our own souls. “It is the ready way to cut yourselves off from all comfort and hope (v. 8), to cut off your name and honour; so that you will, both by your sin and by your misery, become a curse and a reproach among all nations. It will become a proverb, As wretched as a Jew. It is the ready way to cut off from you all your relations, all that you shave have joy of and have your families built up in, man and woman, child and suckling, so that Judah shall be a land lost for want of heirs.” 2. They filled up the measure of the iniquity of their fathers, and, as if that had been too little for them, added to it (v. 9): “Have you forgotten the wickedness of those who are gone before you, that you are not humbled for it as you ought to be, and afraid of the consequences of it?” Have you forgotten the punishments of your fathers? so some read it. “Do you not know how dear their idolatry cost them? And yet dare you continue in that vain conversation received by tradition from you fathers, though you received the curse with it?” He reminds them of the sins and punishments of the kings of Judah, who, great as they were, escaped not the judgments of God for their idolatry; yea, and they should have taken warning by the wickedness of their wives, who had seduced them to idolatry. In the original it is, And of his wives, which, Dr. Lightfoot thinks, tacitly reflects upon Solomon’s wives, particularly his Egyptian wives, to whom the idolatry of the kings of Judah owed its original. “Have you forgotten this, and what came of it, that you dare venture upon the same wicked courses?” See Neh 13:18; Neh 13:26. “Nay, to come to your own times, Have you forgotten your own wickedness and the wickedness of your wives, when you lived in prosperity in Jerusalem, and what ruin it brought upon you? But, alas! to what purpose do I speak to them?” (says God to the prophet, v. 10) “they are not humbled unto this day, by all the humbling providences that they have been under. They have not feared, nor walked in my law.” Note, Those that walk not in the law of God do thereby show that they are destitute of the fear of God.
V. He threatens their utter ruin for their persisting in their idolatry now that they were in Egypt. Judgment is given against them, as before (ch. xlii. 22), that they shall perish in Egypt; the decree has gone forth, and shall not be called back. They set their faces to go into the land of Egypt (v. 12), were resolute in their purpose against God, and now God is resolute in his purpose against them: I will set my face to cut off all Judah, v. 11. Those that think not only to affront, but to confront, God Almighty, will find themselves outfaced; for the face of the Lord is against those that do evil, Ps. xxxiv. 16. It is here threatened concerning these idolatrous Jews in Egypt, 1. That they shall all be consumed, without exception; no degree nor order among them shall escape: They shall fall, from the least to the greatest (v. 12), high and low, rich and poor. 2. That they shall be consumed by the very same judgments which God made use of for the punishment of Jerusalem, the sword, famine, and pestilence,Jer 44:12; Jer 44:13. They shall not be wasted by natural deaths, as Israel in the wilderness, but by these sore judgments, which, by flying into Egypt, they thought to get out of the reach of. 3. That none (except a very few that will narrowly escape) shall ever return to the land of Judah again, v. 14. They thought, being nearer, that they stood fairer for a return to their own land than those that were carried to Babylon; yet those shall return, and these shall not; for the way in which God has promised us any comfort is much surer than that in which we have projected it for ourselves. Observe, Those that are fretful and discontented will be uneasy and fond of change wherever they are. The Israelites, when they were in the land of Judah, desired to go into Egypt (ch. xlii. 22), but when they were in Egypt they desired to return to the land of Judah again; they lifted up their soul to it (so it is in the margin), which denotes an earnest desire. But, because they would not dwell there when God commanded it, they shall not dwell they were they desire it. If we walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us. How can those expect to be well off who would not know when they were so, though God himself told them?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 44
JEREMIAH PROPHESIES IN EGYPT
Vs. 1-6: A REMINDER OF PAST REBELLION‘
1. This word is directed to all the Jews that dwell in the land of Egypt; and they are widely scattered throughout the land, (vs. 1).
2. All have witnessed the judgment and desolation that the Lord has brought upon Jerusalem and the land of Judah, (vs. 2; comp. Isa 6:11; Mic 3:12).
3. This judgment has come upon their accumulated wickedness whereby they have provoked the Lord to anger – burning incense to, and serving other gods which are no-gods, (vs. 3; Jer 2:17-19; Neh 9:33; Dan 9:5; Deu 13:6-9; Deu 29:24-29).
4.Though the Lord repeatedly sent His prophets – urging His people to repudiate these abominations – they refused to listen, or to turn from their shameful wickedness, (VS. 4-5; Jer 7:13; Jer 25:4-6; Zec 7:7; Jer 11:8-10; Jer 13:10).
5. ft was for this reason that God’s anger and wrath was so aroused against Jerusalem and Judah that they are now waste and desolate, (vs. 6; Jer 34:22; Jer 42:18; Isa 51:17-20).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Jeremiah had already prophesied against the Jews, who had taken refuge in Egypt, as though there would be for them in that rich and almost unassailable land a safe and quiet retreat. But he now speaks against them for another reason, and denounces on them something more grievous than before, even because they had not only gone into Egypt against God’s will, but when they came there they polluted themselves with all kinds of superstition. God, no doubt, designed, in due time, to prevent this, when he forbade them to go into Egypt; for he knew how prone they were to idolatry, and to false and adulterous modes of worship. He was therefore unwilling that they should dwell in that land, where they might learn to pervert his worship. And this had happened, as it appears from the present prophecy. As then they had cast aside every shame, and given themselves up to the superstitions of the heathens, the Prophet again testified, that God would take vengeance on them. But we shall see that he had to do with refractory men; for without shewing any respect for him, they attacked him with impetuous fury. The sum of what is said then is, that the Jews who dwelt in Egypt were unworthy of any pardon, because they had, as it were, designedly rejected the favor of God, and their obstinacy had become altogether hopeless. We shall now consider the words:
A word is said to have been given to Jeremiah to all the Jews But God spoke to Jeremiah not in the same way as to the Jews; for he committed to him the words which he commanded him to deliver to others. Then the word was directly given to Jeremiah only; but as Jeremiah was God’s interpreter to the people, the word is said to be given in common to all, which yet at first, as it has been stated, was committed to Jeremiah alone. For he did not favor the Jews with such an honor as to speak to them, but he sent the Prophet as his messenger. He said then to the Jews who dwelt in Egypt, and afterwards he mentions certain places, first Migdol, then Tahpanhes, and thirdly, Noph. The first name some have rendered Magdal. That city was not so much known at the time when Egypt flourished, but it has been mentioned by heathen writers. Of Tahpanhes we spoke yesterday. Noph has been called Memphis; and it is generally agreed that what the Hebrews called Noph was that noble and celebrated city Memphis, which, as they suppose at this day, is called Cairo, Le Caire. He lastly mentions the country of Pathros, which is supposed by some to have been near Pelusia. But on such a matter as this I bestow no great labor; for even heathen writers have regarded this as an obscure country, of no importance. Pathros is elsewhere mentioned as a city, and some think it to have been Petra of Arabia. But the Prophet no doubt refers here to the country in which Memphis and other cities were situated, in which the Jews dwelt.
But he says these things for this reason, because a question might have been raised, “As the Jews dwelt in Egypt, so large was the land, that the Prophet could not have announced the commands of God to all. This, then, was the reason why he intimates that. they were not dispersed everywhere throughout Egypt, from one end to the other, but that they were in one part only, and that they were so collected that his word might come to all. This, then, was the reason why he mentioned the places where the Jews sojourned.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.1. Chronology of the Chapter.A considerable interval must be placed between this chapter and the two preceding, which record their arrival in Egypt; for we here find the fugitives coming together to Pathros from their different towns, so that we have to allow time for their dispersion through Egypt and settlement in widely separated cities there. Yet the address of Jeremiah assumes that he speaks to the people of the migration who have come into Egypt, and not to a later generation born in Egypt. Dr. Payne Smith puts the incident only a year after their arrival in Egypt, but this seems too early; and it may be nearer the case to conjecture the date as being from five to ten years after the flight into Egypt, probably about 580 B.C., though Lange suggests 510 B.C. See Introduction, p. 2, V. c.
2. Contemporaneous Scriptures.Ezekiels visions in Babylon are synchronous. See also Psalms 137. Daniel also in Babylon (see chaps. 3, 4.) Obadiah also rises at this time in prophecy, denouncing Edom for its exultation over Zions overthrow.
3. Geographical References.Jer. 44:1. Migdol, meaning a tower, a boundary city in the north of Egypt, now Magdolum, twelve miles from Pelusium. Tahpanhes, note on chap. Jer. 43:8, and Noph, note on chap. Jer. 2:16. Pathros, i.e. Upper Egypt (see Eze. 29:14).
4. Personal Allusion.Jer. 44:30. PHARAOH-HOPHRA, vide Contemporaneous History, note to chap. 32. Hophra, known to the Greeks as Apries, succeeded Psammis, the successor to Pharaoh-Necho, whom Nebuchadnezzar defeated at Charchemish. Vide Extermination of Jewish Exiles in Egypt, below, p. 620.
Jer. 44:19. The Queen of Heaven. Vide note in loc. Jer. 7:18.
5. Literary Criticisms.Jer. 44:9. The wickedness of your wives. As the Hebrew suffix is singular, , the LXX. alter the word and give your princes. But Henderson, Keil, Naegelsbach, and others would retain the word as referring to the Jewish queens, who were abettors of idolatry (1Ki. 14:1-8; 1Ki. 15:13), and take the singular suffix in a collective sense.
Jer. 44:10. Not humbled, lit. broken (as Isa. 19:10) or bruised (Isa. 53:6).
Jer. 44:14. They have a desire to return, i.e. are lifting up their souls to return to Judah. Vide Literary Criticisms, Jer. 22:27.
Jer. 44:19. To worship her, i.e. the Queen of Heaven. The Hiph. of . In the Piel form (Job. 10:8) the word is rendered by the meaning to fashion, shape. The meaning is similar here, to represent her; the cakes being made in the form of a crescent to represent the moon. Without our men, i.e. our husbands.
SUBJECT OF CHAPTER 44
JEWISH IDOLATRY IN EGYPT
OCCASION OF THE IDOLATROUS ASSEMBLY. There had gathered together at Pathros a great multitude of the Jews resident in Egypt.
I. It was a public festival in honour of Astarte, the Queen of Heaven (Jer. 44:17); and libations are being offered to her in accordance with a vow the worshippers had made, Do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our mouth. This is the usual phrase for a vow (Num. 30:2; Num. 30:12; Jdg. 11:36). They had, therefore, bound themselves to this public homage of the queen of heaven, and were now intent upon carrying out the special object which brought them together (see Jer. 44:25 : Our vows that we have vowed, &c.)
II. It was to an assembly of women that the prophet spake. For this great multitude is literally a great kahal, or congregation gathered for a religious purpose; and except for such a purpose Jewish manners would not allow the women to be abroad in crowds (Dr. Payne Smith). The women are now the speakers, replying to Jeremiahs protest (see Jer. 44:19, without our men, i.e., husbands).
III. The men, however, though excluded from such an assembly, knew what their wives and daughters were doing (Jer. 44:15). Though they do not engage in this service of homage to the Queen of Heaven, they sympathise with and favour it; for they have come with the women to Pathros, thus sanctioning the occasion of their assembling.
IV. The festival observances consisted of fragrant incense burnt upon an altar, and libations poured out unto her (Jer. 44:17), possibly before some image or representation of Astarte, and cakes made (either to be burnt or eaten) which were shaped like the crescent of the moon. Before this altar, and perhaps also image, of the moon-goddess the women advanced and passed in regular procession, chanting as they came, and reciting the benefits they had received from the hands of the goddess they adored (Jer. 44:17).
V. The infatuation of these idolatrous worshippers. This adoration of Astarte was rife (Jer. 44:17) when Josiah ascended the throne; its suppression by Josiah was regarded with much secret ill-will. In Jehoiakims reign the people hastened back to their idolatry (see note, National History, to chap. 7 p. 143; and homily on Section 1620, p. 147; also on Jer. 44:17-18, p. 158, 159). Zedekiah prohibited this form of worship during the miseries of his reign. The people now, from amid Egyptian scenes, look back over the history of their national misfortunes and ascribe them all to their neglect of this goddess (Jer. 44:18).
VI. Specious excuses offered in extenuation of their apostasy. Several pleas are urged:1. Their vows must be fulfilled (Jer. 44:17); and this pledge they dare not violate, for that would entail the anger of Astarte. 2. Their idolatry had the sanction of national custom in the days gone by; for their ancestors had practised it generally and publicly with the sanction of their kings and princes (Jer. 44:17). 3. It had entailed no calamity (Jer. 44:18); for they persist in ignoring their wickedness (Jer. 44:9) as the cause of their distresses, and now ascribe calamity to their neglect of this goddess. 4. These female worshippers of Astarte had the authority and protection of their husbands in their idolatry (Jer. 44:19). Without the consent of their husbands the vows of women are not binding (Num. 30:7-8); but as our men support us in these obligations to Astarte, we, their wives and daughters, are blameless and irreproachable. Thus they desire to shield themselves under the complicity of others.
AN INDIGNANT PROTEST AGAINST APOSTASY. Delivered amid the idol-scenes of Egypt, and to the assembly of Jewish apostates.
I. A bold and vehement expostulation. Jeremiah stops the procession of the women, and the festival of Astarte, to pronounce against it in the name of God. The prophet was undeterred by the violence he had endured at the hands of his nation, who had dragged him away into Egypt, but fearlessly rebuked their apostasy from God for the idolatries of Egypt (Jer. 44:8). In this earnest remonstrance he declares(a.) that the existing desolation and ruin of Judea were the evil consequences of their own past wickedness in apostatising from Jehovah (Jer. 44:2-7); and (b.) that for them to continue such idolatries in Egypt would certainly entail destruction and ruin upon themselves (Jer. 44:8-14). If God had not spared Jerusalem (Jer. 44:2), the holy city, where He had made His name to dwell, and which He loved, will He, think you, spare Egypta scene He loathes? (Jer. 44:8). And he heaps maledictions upon them(a.) for their needless and voluntary and wilful departure into Egypt (Jer. 44:8), whither ye be gone to dwellnot carried by force as your brethren in Babylon; and now (b.) for their flagrant insult of Jehovahs honour before the very eyes of the heathen, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt (Jer. 44:8). For this their aggravating guilt, he declares their sure and terrible extermination (Jer. 44:11-14).
II. Wilful refusal of the prophetic admonition. Here the men join the women in loud and obstinate rejection of Gods word (Jer. 44:15-16). (a.) They implicitly acknowledge that this solemn protest of the prophet is Jehovahs word (Jer. 44:16); (b.) but insist that the happiest days of their nation were associated with Astarters worship (Jer. 44:17): (c.) that the favour of the Queen of Heaven guarantees more advantages than the worship of Jehovah (Jer. 44:18-19). It was thus a declaration of(1.) Absolute faith in other gods; Polytheism, therefore. (2.) Preference for and a higher esteem of Astarte; which means abandonment of Jehovah as their national God. (3.) Indifference to all Jehovahs displeasure and threatenings; they were better off, with His anger, in Astartes favour, for the Queen of Heaven was certainly more benign, whereas Jehovahs protection had been of little good to them.
III. Refutation of popular fallacies and announcement of certain doom. Taking up the facts of their national misery and final expatriation, Jeremiah shows(a.) That, though they played an idolatrous part in their own land, their idols had not preserved them from national destruction; for your land is a desolation, &c. (Jer. 44:22). (b.) That their deeds of flagrant apostasy went up before God as a memorial and witness against them for their ingratitude and faithlessness (Jer. 44:23); for He had established and honoured them as a nation by giving them His law, His statutes, and His testimonies (Jer. 44:23). (c.) That because of their evil doings and abominations (Jer. 44:22) God could no longer hold back the doom which at last overwhelmed the land and the people (Jer. 44:22-23).
Then GOD ABANDONS THEM FOR EVER. (1.) They had allied themselves by vows to an idol (Jer. 44:25), and resolutely kept their vows of allegiance though God pleaded with them (Jer. 44:16). (2.) The Most High therefore divorces them from Himself by solemn oath (Jer. 44:26), and breaks His covenant with them as His people. (3.) Declares that He will no longer extend His protection over them, but will be their enemy (Jer. 44:27-28); and (4.) Gives them an ominous sign (in predicting the fate of their Egyptian king) of the certainty that He will avenge on them the insult of their open rejection of Him (Jer. 44:29-30), and which will convince them that it is the hand of the God they have insulted which chastises them for their guilt.
THE FINAL WORD OF WOE: JEREMIAHS FAREWELL PROPHECY
I. A long and painful ministry, closing amid saddest circumstances. See Introduction, V., Length of his Official Ministry, p. 2. Could any facts be wanting to complete the melancholy surroundings? (a.) His pleadings and warnings against a fatal national policy in trusting to Egypt, all unheeded. (b.) His nation vanquished and scattered; some in Babylon, others in Egypt. (c.) Jerusalem destroyed, Gods temple in ruins, the land given up to execration (Jer. 44:22). (d.) Himself, an old and forlorn prophet, amid aliens, and even more alien fellow-countrymen. (e.) His people sunk into lower depths of iniquity than during his entire career; and now at last absolutely repudiating Jehovah as the object of their worship and obedience.
II. A brave and heroic career, shining out lustrously to the end. For over fifty years he had been Gods messenger: to this hardened people. He had suffered much at their hands; yet, undaunted till the last, and now at so great an age, between seventy and eighty years old, lifting up his voice in fearless protestation and fervent pleadings amid the people whom he had sought to keep faithful to God. His last outcry is full of grand prophetic power.
III. A lifelong witness against sinners, ending amid signs of fruitlessness and defeat. Not one feature of hope illumines the dense darkness and poignant melancholy of this last sight of Jeremiah. Every view looks mournful and piteous. (a.) No good seems to have resulted from all his earnest, prolonged, faithful, and self-sacrificing work. (b.) No prospect opens as a relief to the desolate retrospect. The sun sinks before him amid portending tempests of terror and woe. The Christian tradition respecting his death is that he was stoned to death at Tahpanhes by his own countrymen! Another tradition is that he escaped to Babylon. But no star rises on the dark night. This chapter gives the farewell glance at the hoary prophet; and his last utterance is one of severest gloom.
Note.In 2 Maccabees 1, 2, there is a most interesting story of Jeremiah hiding the sacred fire, the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Altar of incense in a cave in Mount Nebo previous to his leaving Judea, where, says the record, they remain to this day, nor will be discovered until God collects Israel together again.
EXTERMINATION OF THE JEWISH EXILES IN EGYPT
I. Of their total extinction in Egypt they had been solemnly forewarned (chap. Jer. 42:15-18). Their presence in Egypt, therefore, invited the punishment.
II. Their open abandonment of Jehovah now as their God added the fatal element to their rebellion (Jer. 44:16-17).
III. Gods awful farewell to these guilty people is taken under the solemnity of an oath, as indicating its irrevocableness (Jer. 44:26).
IV. Their absolute extermination, Jehovah will see to it that it is effected (Jer. 44:27).
THE EXTERMINATION ACCOMPLISHED. Their asylum proved no shelter from the pursuing vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar.
I. The sign by which they should realise Gods destructive judgments. Pharaoh-Hophra, when defeated in battle by the Cyrenians, became regarded with suspicion as having betrayed his native troops for selfish ends, and hence a revolt arose. Amasis, whom Hophra sent to treat with these mutinous troops, himself went over to the rebels. Hophra, gathering an army of foreign auxiliaries, now fought against Amasis and the Egyptian troops, but was defeated and taken captive. After treating him kindly for some years, Amasis, because the Egyptians regarded this indulgence with ill-favour, surrendered Hophra to his enemies, by whom he was strangled. He came to the throne a year before the Jewish migration to Egypt, and continued king for eighteen years after, although his last ten years were spent a prisoner in his palace at Sar. This civil war of Amasis with Hophra opened the way for Nebuchadnezzars invasion of Egypt in the twenty-third year of his reign.
II. The total extermination of the Jewish refugees in Egypt. A thousand years before God had led forth His people from Egypt with a mighty hand, and planted them in Zion; but Israel had failed of her mission; and now these most arrant rebels shall utterly perish in this land of Egypt, where they boasted they could find safe asylum (chap. Jer. 42:14), abandoned and disowned by God (chap. Jer. 44:26), exterminated by the rage of the king of Babylon, from whom they sought refuge in Egypt, but who avenged himself upon them there with merciless wrath (Jer. 44:12).
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 44
Jer. 44:2-13. Theme: GODS APPEAL AGAINST JUDAH. In this wretched remnant the old root of disobedience and unbelief remains still.
I. A mirror of the stubborn heart of man.
1. Unceasingly warned. For centuries (Jer. 44:10).
2. Faithfully and impassionedly warned (Jer. 44:3). By words of thunder and strokes of power. Think only of Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Isaiah, &c.
II. The judgment of just love executed.
I. All reforming and redeeming agencies failed. Judah hardened his stubborn neck (Jer. 44:5; Jer. 44:10).
2. Long-suffering love became exhausted, and there remained nothing but the doom which outraged mercy demanded (Jer. 44:6-13). Compare Naegelsbach.
Jer. 44:4. Theme: GOD HATES SIN. Oh, do not the abominable thing which I hate.
God speaks these words of wickedness. All sin is in principle idolatry; the sinner leaves the true God, and pays homage to some idol.
He who searches the heart may see now that there is some abominable thing upon which you are intentplanned during the week, resolved upon. But the Almighty One stoops to beseech you, Oh, do not, &c. Do not pass this message of God on to another fellow-hearer; your sin is the abominable thing.
God hates sin; so hates it in all its formsas a principle, an act, a course of life, that it is an abominable thing.
Why does He hate it? He hates nothing He has made. Many things you dislike He does not dislikethe reptile, &c.; but the one thing He hates is a thing He has not made; it is a thing the creature has made, not the Creator.
I. Let us inquire what sin is. Violation of Gods law (1Jn. 3:4). Doing what God forbids; or not doing what He commands. To love, both God and our neighbour, is the fulfilling of the law (Mat. 22:36-40). Right conduct, without love, is therefore sin. He hates it
1. Because it is contrary to His own nature. Holy is the Lord God.
2. Because sin is unnatural in His creatures. It is no part of the human constitution, but a foreign element.
3. Because sin transgresses holy, just, and good laws. Not of some arbitrary commandment.
4. Because it defiles and injures the entire human nature. It pollutes what should be pure; blasts and blights.
5. Because it makes men curses to each other. What has changed children into profligates, mothers into brutes, fathers into beasts of prey? Do not wonder God says, I hate it.
6. Because it ignores, or rejects, the Divine government. And no government is so paternal, tender, and beneficent as Gods.
7. Because wherever sin exists, except it is checked by Gods mercy, it has the dominion. A cruel tyrant!
8. Because where it is introduced it spreads. In every clime; through every race; through every grade of society; a deadly pestilence.
9. Because sin requires God to inflict upon men, of every class and kind, that which He assures us upon His oath He has no pleasure in.
10. Because continuing in sin, while hearing the Gospel, tramples under foot the blood of Jesus.
II. Hear, then, Gods entreaty: Do it not!
1. What are you going to do? Persist in it? Think! Do you really mean to go on sinning in the face of such a message? With conscience smarting, memory weighted, remorse springing up in your soul like a tempest, with a fearful looking-for of judgment, with your miserable convictions and bitter tears, your gloomy forebodings and knowledge of penalties, are you determined to continue?
2. Then there can be but little hope, if this state of heart continue, concerning you. You may live, with a seared conscience, until you lay down on the bed of death; and there perhaps all your old fears will be awakenedwhen it is too late! Then, as you sink down into perdition, the millstone about your neck will be the abominable thing which God hates.Rev. Samuel Martin (Westminster), 1858 A.D.
Jer. 44:4. Theme: THE ABOMINABLE NATURE OF SIN. Howbeit I sent unto you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
No man can think his guilt too great. We may confine our views to sin and exclude mercy, but we cannot overrate guilt. God long laboured in vain with the Jews, and at length Nebuchadnezzar carried the mass of them to Babylon. Jeremiah took the remnant to Egypt. While there he spoke to them the words of the text. The abominable thing was their idolatry; the same may be said of all sin. Sin is the abominable thing God hates. This appears
I. From the nature of things. Sin is opposed to the wishes and designs of God. God is love, and His object is to raise all creatures to highest eternal happiness. They must therefore have the same love He possesses, and own Him for their Head, His law being their standard.
1. Sin sets up private interest against public good. The root of sin is self-love, and out of it arise all evil passions that hurry men and devils into evil against Heaven. Sin is the transgression of the law. And this being its nature, makes it the enemy of happiness. The Friend and Guardian of the universe hates and must punish sin. Love abominates it.
2. Sin opposes God in all good for His creatures; it resists all His loving purposes. That He does hate sin we see
II. From His expressions of abhorrence.
1. In the penalty annexed to His law, the eternal exclusion from good, and eternal endurance of evil. This endless evil is the measure of Gods hatred of sin.
2. In His providential government. When angels sinned, not all Gods love nor their dignity could save them. When Adam and Eve sinned they were turned out of Eden. The Flood swept the world when it was filled with violence. For sin Egypt was lashed with ten plagues, and her king found a watery grave. And when Israel sinned, God brought upon them fiery serpents and fire from heaven; the ground opened and swallowed them up; and while they possessed the promised land His providence was a constant remembrancer of His hatred of sin. Gods anger against sin destroyed Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Edom, Moab, and the Philistines.
(a.) All human suffering and death express Gods anger against sin. Sinners will be punished according to their guilt.
(b.) What strength of that abhorrence of sin is uttered in the cry, Oh, do not this abominable thing, &c.!
(c.) Yet one exhibition of Gods anger against sin is more amazing than the rest. For us God spared not His own Son, and will He then, O sinner, spare thee?
Who are sinners? All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. And, moreover, all are under the entire dominion of sin. God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil continually. As is the fountain, so are the streams. Words and actions of the natural man are but sin.
III. Considering Gods abhorrence of sin, how astonishing His long forbearance, and how wonderful the love of God which passeth knowledge!
1. We have cause for humility. Self-importance and conscious worth are unbecoming. How fearful would have been our condition had not the Son of God left His glory to save us! We needed a Divine Saviour. Let us hide ourselves in His righteousness.
2. For sinners abhorred of God this is our only remedy. For many years God has pleaded, Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate. Do not re-enact the rebellion of the Jews. Remember it is written, Because I called and ye refused. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. Seize the offered blessing now, ere God says, Ye shall not see My rest.Rev. Edward Griffin, D.D.
Theme: SINNERS: A WARNING. Have ye forgotten the wickedness, &c.
I. Guilty careers offer a melancholy admonition to others.
II. Examples of ruin should deter us from sin.
III. Reckless indifference to the careers and penalties of sinners shows the most obdurate and hopeless impiety.
1. Beyond reformation (Pro. 27:22).
2. Dead to all saving influences (Pro. 25:20).
Jer. 44:17. Theme: SELF-VINDICATING SINNERS. No one would perhaps justify these people; yet thousands will justify themselves!
I. Criminal impiety.
1. Their voluntary engagements. Johanan had inclined to hide in Egypt from Nebuchadnezzar, but sought Gods direction; pledging themselves, from the least to the greatest, to obey His voice (chap. Jer. 42:1-6). Instead of fulfilling their engagements
2. Their deliberate violation of them. God warned them (chap. Jer. 42:13-17); but they charge Baruch with feigning this message (chap. Jer. 43:1-4), and followed their own course.
3. Their self-vindicating effrontery. The people betook themselves to idolatry in Egypt. Being reproved, they boldly asserted that Jehovahs worship had been profitless, and that the Queen of Heaven had proved their benefactress. So they would worship her, whatever God or His prophet might say (Jer. 44:17-19).
II. Modern repetitions.
1. The profane sinner. See his engagements in baptism and confirmation! Yet millions repudiate their engagements, and vindicate their evil ways.
2. The self-righteous formalist. Hear him joining in the liturgy as a penitent sinner; yet tell him in private what a sinner he is, what duties should follow from penitence, how he should cleave humbly to Jesus Christ, and he repudiates it all.
3. The hypocritical professor. He finds excuses for his sin, turns the grace of God into lasciviousness.
III. Certain issues. God told these Jews, who defied His judgments, that they should see whose words should stand, His or theirs (Jer. 44:28).
1. How did it fare with them? (Jer. 44:12-14; Jer. 44:29-30.)
2. How shall it fare with you? (Luk. 19:27.) Address
(a.) Those who disregard our testimony. In the day that God shall visit for sin, ye shall be cast down and perish (Jer. 44:15-17).
(b.) Those who tremble at the word of God. That is the state of mind becoming to every sinner (Isa. 66:2). Cultivate it, and then pay to God your vows.Charles Simeon, M.A., 1828.
Theme: THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRELIGION! For then had we plenty of bread, and were well, and saw no evil.
No doubt there are times when the wicked prosper. Because of this it is too often thought that godliness is (not) profitable for the life which now is, &c. It was so with these idolaters (Jer. 44:17-18). They argued that because they had more of this worlds comforts when living in idolatry, that therefore it was more advantageous than the worship of the true God.
I. Consider that God does not enter into judgment with wrongdoers immediately and forthwith, but reserves His displeasure. Punishment does not follow instantly upon transgression. Sinners may see no evil at the time of sinning; yet Gods displeasure is kindled by it, and will one day burst upon them. Sin never goes unpunished.
II. God does not connive at sin because He allows it to be committed at the time with impunity. Though they enjoyed abundance, and saw no evil at the time of their idolatry, yet now they were smarting under the penalties. Because ye burned incense, and because ye sinned, therefore this evil happened unto you as at this day.
Even though no manifestation of Divine displeasure comes during the commission of sin, God is assuredly displeased. And though during a course of iniquity there is no lack of lifes good things, yet iniquity is not profitable. The day of recompense will come.
III. As with these Jews it seemed better for them, in a worldly sense, when they lived in idolatry than when they abandoned it, so it sometimes appears to have been better with the sinner, in a worldly sense, when he lived in sin than when he became converted by Gods grace and professed Christianity. In early Christian times the profession of Christianity involved the loss of all things, but higher blessings more than compensated these worldly sacrifices. No man hath left houses for My sake, but shall receive manifold more, &c. But though nothing was gained in this life; suppose that since we left off (Jer. 44:18) our worldly and evil ways we only suffered misfortunes, yet what an ample compensation in the life to come!
IV. But experience testifies that more is gained by religion than lost. If a Christian lose the favour of man, he wins the favour of God; if he lose the pleasures of sin, he gains the joys of salvation. Let not good men, however great their privations, look back on their days of sin and lament, Then had we plenty, &c., as if the former days were better than these. Rather rejoice that, however poor they be, they are rich in faith, and heirs of a kingdom, that all things are theirs, things present and things to come.
V. Gaze not with envious eyes on the prosperity of the wicked. O men of God, look not back on the flesh-pots of Egypt, or the rewards of sin. By a holy content and joy in God let it be seen in you that
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before you reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
Walks, &c., Rev. D. Pledge.
Jer. 44:25. Theme: KEEPING UNHOLY VOWS.
I. Conscientiousness in wrongdoing. Must keep vows!
II. Defiance of solemn prohibition. Idol worship!
III. Subtlety of self-delusion. Vows are too solemn to be broken!
IV. Flattery of spiritual infatuation. It is good for us to be faithful.
V. Gods law disobeyed in self-justification. Though God forbids, we are bound to fulfil with the hand our vows.
A SUPERSTITIOUS REGARD FOR VOWS. That they are inviolable, and should be sacredly fulfilled. But
i. To cling to our vows when they are evidently unwise or ungodly is criminal.
ii. To fulfil our rash vows in proof that we are not fickle, is to add reckless deeds to reckless words.
iii. To persist in our vows when shown they break Gods laws is defiant obstinacy; substituting constancy to our words for obedience to Gods word.
iv. To retract wicked vows is the highest proof of wisdom and piety. Better break our words than provoke Gods wrath. Think of Herods vow, leading to murder!
Jer. 44:25. Theme: OBSTINACY. We will surely perform our vows.
I. Resisting admonition (Jer. 44:16).
II. Blinded by false judgment (Jer. 44:17-18).
III. Wilful persistency (Jer. 44:25).
IV. More obdurate as it continues.
Jer. 44:26. Theme: FINALLY ABANDONED BY GOD. Since ye will not hear Me speaking and warning, hear Me swearingBy my great name, &c.Jamieson.
God will have the last word; the prophets may be run down, but God cannot.Henry.
This is the severest punishment, when God takes away His holy name and word.
I. In what it consists. That the Lord removes the candlestick of His word from among His people; i.e., by depriving them of the means of grace He brings Himself into forgetfulness amongst them.
II. On what it is founded. That this people, on their part, have striven to forget God.
III. What is its effect? The people given up to the powers of evil, for their complete destruction.Naegelsbach.
Note.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 (Exo. 9:29): there shall be left none there to profane His name thus any more.Jamieson.
Jer. 44:29. Theme: ONE SINNER A SIGN TO MANY. In naming to this audience the then powerful Egyptian king, Hophra, Jeremiah exposed himself to greatest hazards. For the audience he addressed were all hostile to the prophet and his mission. Had any of Jeremiahs hearers reported this daring utterance to the king himself, it would have insured the prophets swift doom. Yet Gods messenger dares to witness even against powerful kings, unterrified by danger, content to speak what God speaks in him. God names Hophra in this prediction; for He deals with men individually; has the fate of each in His hands; and none shall stay His hand.
I. A sign given as a premonition of coming judgments.
1. Signs given before events were intended to prepare the mind for events hereafter, and to fortify against doubt. Thus with Gideons fleece (Jdg. 6:36-40).
2. Signs placed in the future, and to be waited for, were intended to keep the mind expectant and trustful. Thus with the sign to Moses (Exo. 3:12), the event convinced them that Gods hand had wrought it, and called up their gratitude to Him.
3. This sign was thus prospective; buried for a time, but in due course it would rise into realisation, and its value would be
(a.) In vindicating Jeremiah as being truly Gods spokesman.
(b.) As proving that Gods Mighty Hand was working.
(c.) As refuting their boasted trust in the security of Egypt.
(d.) As an announcement of the utter ruin of this rebellious people of which that sign was the forerunner.
II. A sign fulfilled guarantees accomplishment of the truth it forewarned.
1. The event seemed unlikely of fulfilment. For Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra) now flourished in great prosperity and power (so Herodotus records). Indeed he vaunted impiously that no God has power to dethrone me. But he was defeated by the rebel Amasis, and strangled by his own subjects. This Hophra became (what he was afterwards titled on Egyptian monuments) hated by his own nation; and this was only (according to Herodotus) satiated by Amasis giving him up to the people for a violent and degrading death. Hophras death occurred eighteen years after the burning of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. (See Extermination of Exiles, p. 620.) Many of these Jews would live to see this sign fulfilled.
2. The sign pledged the fate of these exiles. They vaunted their safety, as Hophra vaunted his power. They deemed their shelter in Egypt impregnable, and the shield of Pharaoh over them a sure protection; but Hophra should be given into the hand of them that seek his life, and so should they also perish. His fall should announce theirs.
Note:
1. When Gods anger overtakes one man, it pledges the equal certainty of judgment on all who are alike guilty.
2. Fulfilled judgments in history, in the destruction of cities (Egypt, Nineveh, Jerusalem), and of nations (Israel, &c.), and of individuals (Nebuchadnezzars madness, Zedekiahs fate), are all witnesses to the sure doom of sinners.
3. Hopeless deathbed scenes are a warning against those who neglect salvation.
4. Fatal and sudden accidents admonish those who reckon on years of opportunity.
5. The visions of torment, in Christs parable of the rich man and in the Revelation, warn us to flee from the wrath to come.
Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luk. 13:1-6).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. A Prophetic Admonition Jer. 44:1-19
Nothing is more inspiring than to see an old soldier of God faithful until death on the battlefield for the Lord. Chapter 44 offers the reader the last glimpse of Jeremiah. He is still fighting for the God he serves; he is still appealing to the people he loves. The present paragraph contains his warning to remnant in Egypt (Jer. 44:1-14) and the rejection of that warning by the incorrigible people (Jer. 44:15-19).
1. The warning Presented (Jer. 44:1-14)
TRANSLATION
(1) The word which came unto Jeremiah concerning the Jews who were living in the land of Egyptin Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in the country of Pathrossaying, (2) Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the calamity which I brought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah. Behold, they are a desolation this day and there is no inhabitant in them (3) because of their evil which they committed in order to provoke Mesacrificing to and serving other gods which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew. (4) I earnestly and persistently sent unto you all of My servants the prophets, saying, Please do not this abominable thing which I hate. (5) But they did not obey or listen to turn from their evil that they no longer offer sacrifice to other gods. (6) And My wrath and My anger was poured out upon them and it burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation as they are this day. (7) And now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why are you placing your lives in jeopardy by continuing to do this great evil which will only result in man, woman, child and suckling being cut off from the midst of Judah, so as to leave of yourselves no remnant? (8) Why do you provoke Me by the works of your handsoffering sacrifice to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to sojournin order to cut yourselves off that you might be a curse and a reproach among the nations of the earth. (9) Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, and the evil of the kings of Judah, their wives, and your evil and the evil of your wives, which was done in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? (10) To this day they have not humbled themselves nor feared nor walked in My law and My statutes which I have set before you and before your fathers. (11) Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts the God of Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil even to cut off all of Judah. (12) And I will take the remnant of Judah which have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to sojourn, and they shall all perish. In the land of Egypt they shall fall by the sword or perish in the famine; from the least even to the greatest they shall die by sword and famine; and they shall become a imprecation, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach. (13) And I will bring punishment upon all the inhabitants in the land of Egypt as I brought punishment upon Jerusalem by means of sword, famine, and pestilence. (14) Of the remnant of Judah which came to sojourn in the land of Egypt no one will escape or be left to return to the land of Judah to which they long to return to dwell there. But they shall not return except a few who might escape.
COMMENTS
How grieved Jeremiah must have been to see the remnant in Egypt persisting in idolatry. For an entire lifetime he had tried to guide this people in the paths of covenant faithfulness to the Lord, But Jeremiah had failed to stem the tide of national apostasy. Jerusalem was made to drink of the bitter cup of Gods wrath in 587 B.C. Now the remnant which had survived that disaster by Gods grace have turned from Him to serve gods of their own making. It is with a heavy burden upon his heart that the old prophet tries once again to warn the miserable remains of his people of the error of their ways.
The Jews who had fled to Egypt had settled all over that land. Besides the colony at Tahpanhes, where Jeremiah seems to have resided, Jews had settled at Migdol, Noph, and the country of Pathros (Jer. 44:1). Migdol is located near the northeastern boundary of Egypt, about twelve miles south of Pelusium. Noph or Memphis was located about 125 miles south of the Mediterranean Sea. Pathros means land of the south and refers to the region still further south of Memphis called Upper Egypt. From these widely scattered places the Jews had assembled for some kind of religious festival in honor of the heathen deity, the queen of heaven. Probably Tahpanhes was the site of the gathering.[360] This may have been the last opportunity that Jeremiah had to address the entire remnant which had fled to Egypt.
[360] On the basis of Jer. 44:15 some suggest that the festival was held in Pathros or Upper Egypt.
The warning of the prophet passes through three distinct phases. First he offers to these Jews an explanation of the past calamity which has befallen the nation (Jer. 44:1-6). Then he expostulates with them concerning their present sin (Jer. 44:7-10). Finally he declares that judgment will yet befall them even in Egypt (Jer. 44:11-14).
a) Explanation of past calamity (Jer. 44:1-6). As was his usual custom Jeremiah turned first to history. He reminds his hearers that Jerusalem and the cities of Judah were uninhabited and in ruins (Jer. 44:2). The people of God had provoked His wrath by their wickedness. They had committed the sin that God detested above all othersthey had burned incense to strange deities and had rendered homage to gods of their own making (Jer. 44:3). Even though they had violated the First Commandment, God had earnestly and persistently sent prophets to plead with His people to turn from their abominable idolatry; but still they persisted in this wickedness (Jer. 44:5). Because of this stubborn refusal to turn from the path of idolatry, the anger and fury of God was poured out upon the cities of Judah (Jer. 44:6). The rubble and ruins of those once proud cities should serve for all time as a warning of the consequences of sin and apostasydeath, destruction, and desolation.
b) Expostulation concerning present sin (Jer. 44:7-10). Turning from the explanation of past calamity the prophet begins to make an application of the lessons of history to the remnant in Egypt. Jeremiah found it hard to understand why the people continued to offer incense to pagan deities in view of the terrible consequences of that action in the past. The bewilderment of the prophet is reflected in the two questions he addresses to the remnant in this paragraph. Why do you continue to commit[361] this great evil against yourselves?[362] (Jer. 44:7). Persistence in this violation of the most elemental commandment of the word of God will result in national suicide. If it continues every man, woman, child and infant of Judah will be cut off in the wrath of God (Jer. 44:7). The nation will become an object of cursing and a reproach among all the nations of the earth (Jer. 44:8). Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers? he asks, and then, using the technique of emphasis by enumeration, he adds and the wickedness of your kings . and their ,wives . and your own wickedness and of your wives? (Jer. 44:9). Surely they had not so soon forgotten that the wages of sin is death! But alas it is true. They have not humbled themselves (lit., bruised themselves) i.e. made themselves contrite in repentance. They do not fear God nor walk in his law and statutes (Jer. 44:10).
[361] A Hebrew participle implies continuous action.
[362] Against your souls (KJV) is but another way of saying in Hebrew against yourselves.
c) Declaration of future judgment (Jer. 44:11-14). The maxim They who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it is vividly illustrated in Jer. 44:11-14. God declares that He will set His face against His people. All Judah will be cut off (Jer. 44:11). Throughout the paragraph the judgment of God upon the remnant in Egypt is represented as absolute. One must wait until the final clause to find any note of hope. An awesome trinity of verbs in verse twelve spells out the disaster: they shall fall, they shall die, they shall be consumed. What irony! They fled to Egypt in order to escape bloodshed, privation, carnage, and exile. But these Jews who had stubbornly set their will against that of their God and had emigrated to Egypt would meet with war and famine, destruction and death in that land. Whatever imagined horrors drove them from their homeland following the death of Gedaliah would overtake them in reality. From the least to the greatest, none would escape the terrible onslaught. Though the remnant in Egypt would die, their memory would live on in the minds of men for use in expressions of astonishment, execration, cursings, and reproach (Jer. 44:12). Just as God had punished Jerusalem by sword, famine, and pestilence, so God would now pour out His wrath upon those Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt (Jer. 44:13). None would escape the judgment in order that they might return to Judah even if they might have a desire so to do.
In this dark picture of judgment there is but one, ever so tiny, ray of hope. Just as a minister who preaches on judgment might delay any mention of saving grace until the conclusion of his message, so Jeremiah waits until the very last clause of his judgment speech to temper the absolute tones of his message. None shall return but such as shall escape, i.e., be delivered by the grace of God. Only a handful of the present remnant will ever see their homeland again. Even the most optimistic Jew among them would not have been able to find much consolation in this exceptive clause. Jeremiah did not intend to offer consolation. It was his purpose here to shock, to jar and hopefully thereby to lead these people to repentance.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XLIV.
(1) At Migdol, and at Tahpanhes . . .We find from Jer. 44:15 that the discourse that follows was delivered at a large gathering of the Jews at Pathros. The number of places named (the three appear in the same combination in Jer. 46:14) indicates the extent of the emigration. Migdol (here, as elsewhere, meaning a tower or fortress) is named in Exo. 14:2 as on the route of the Israelites before they crossed the Red Sea, between Pi-hahiroth and Baal-zephon, and again in Eze. 29:10; Eze. 30:6. It appears in the Itinerary of Antoninus, under the name Magdolo, as twelve miles south of Pelusium. The latter is thought by Lepsius to be different from the former, and to answer to the Stratopeda or camp which Herodotus mentions as having been founded by Psammetichus I. as a settlement for his Ionian or Carian mercenaries (Smiths Dict. of the Bible, Art. Migdol). Noph was identical with Memphis, and appears in Isa. 19:13; Jer. 2:16; Eze. 30:13; Eze. 30:16 : and as Moph in the Hebrew of Hos. 9:6. The position of Pathros is less certain, but it may be inferred from the mention of the other cities with it that it was in Lower Egypt, and possibly, from Jer. 44:15, that it was the name of the region in which it was situated. So in Isa. 11:11, it appears in conjunction with Mizraim (= Egypt) and Cush (= Ethiopia), both of which are names of regions and not of cities. By Brugsch (Egypt, I. 242) it has been identified with Upper Egypt, the region of the Thebaid. There is no certain note of the interval between the arrival of the Jews in Egypt and the delivery of the discourse, but it would appear that there had been time for the Jews to disperse and settle in the three or four cities here named, and to adopt the worship of the Egyptians. It is, however, implied throughout that the prophet is speaking to the emigrants themselves, and not to their descendants (Jer. 44:17; Jer. 44:21).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah’s Last Prophecy.
JUDAH’S PRESENT DESOLATION THE RESULT OF IDOLATRY, Jer 44:1-7.
1. Which dwell at Migdol Literally, tower. Not the “Migdol” of Exo 14:2, but the fortress situated on the northern boundary of Egypt, twelve Roman miles from Pelusium. From this heading it appears that the Jews had settled in various parts of the land of Egypt; so that probably considerable time separates this chapter from the last. For Noph and Tahpanhes, see Jer 2:16; Jer 43:7. Pathros was Upper Egypt the Thebais of the Greeks and Romans.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Superscription.
‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwelt in the land of Egypt, who dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph (Memphis), and in the country of Pathros, saying,
This is the opening superscription to this new prophecy, separating it from what has gone before. It informs us that what follows is YHWH’s word to all Jews who have taken refuge in Egypt. It covers the whole of chapter 44. The opening prophecy is directed at the remnant who have escaped from Judah as previously described, who settled at Tahpanhes, whilst the concluding prophecy is directed at all Jewish refugees throughout Egypt. Whether the latter include any or all of the former we are nowhere told, but there would certainly be many Jewish refugees in Egypt who had not come with those who had arrived with Jeremiah.
With regard to the central section it is difficult to know who quite is involved in the worship described there, whether those living in Pathros, or Jews from all over Egypt gathered in Pathros for a festival, but either way they are seen as typical of most of the Judeans in Egypt. As always there would be a few exceptions, such as Jeremiah and Baruch.
It is apparent from this word here that there were at this time colonies of Jews in different parts of Lower Egypt. Migdol (‘tower or fortress’) is mentioned in Exo 14:2 and was on the Israelite route out of Egypt. It was therefore close to the borders. Noph is identical with Memphis (mentioned in Jer 2:16; Isa 19:13; Eze 30:13; Eze 30:16). Tahpanhes was also a border city. The position of ‘the country of Pathros’ is uncertain. That it covers a large area comes out in its use elsewhere. It may thus have included a number of communities of ‘Jews’. The name means ‘the Southland’ and it may therefore indicate Upper Egypt, the long Nile valley extending north to south between Cairo and Aswan. It is attested in Assyrian inscriptions as Paturisi. In Isa 11:11 we find the description ‘from Mizraim (Egypt), from Pathros and from Cush’, and this would appear to confirm this conclusion as it would appear to indicate Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt and North Africa (Northern Sudan). Interestingly an inscription of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, also speaks of him as ‘king of Musur, Paturisi and Cush’, which parallels Isaiah’s description. For further mention of Pathros/Pathrusim see also Gen 10:14; Eze 29:14; Eze 30:14. ‘The country of Pathros’ would therefore possibly include the Jewish military colony at Elephantine, on an island in the Nile not far from Syene (Aswan – Eze 29:10; Eze 30:6), that is if, as is probable, it existed at that time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Word Of YHWH Comes Against All His People Who Have Taken Refuge In Egypt In The Past Because Instead Of Learning Their Lesson From What Has Happened To Jerusalem They Have Turned To Other Gods, Something Which They Brazenly Boast About. Therefore Because Of This YHWH’s Judgment Will Come On Egypt And His People Will Be Caught Up In It And Will Suffer Accordingly ( Jer 44:1-30 ).
This is a new word of YHWH not directly connected with what has gone before, although clearly coming after the fall of Jerusalem. It was given in the time of Pharaoh Hophra (Jer 44:30), and therefore prior to 570 BC. It commences with the words ‘the word that came to Jeremiah –’ and can be divided up into four sections:
1. YHWH’s word against His people warning of His coming judgment because they have not heeded what He has done against Jerusalem. The remnant who have escaped to Egypt will be destroyed (2-14).
2. The people’s defence to the charge and their response to Jeremiah’s words (15-19).
3. Jeremiah’s immediate reply reminding them that YHWH had seen what they and their fathers had done and had acted in judgment on them by desolating their land and making it a spectacle to the world (20-23).
4. A further word confirming YHWH’s judgment on all Jews living in Egypt because they have turned to other gods and are trusting in Pharaoh Hophra as their deliverer (24-39).
While not stated in the text we can make a contrast here between the refugees here in Egypt and the exiles over in Babylon. These in Egypt have become involved in the worship of other gods, incorporating YHWH into a syncretistic basically polytheistic religion, and refusing to listen to Jeremiah’s pleas, whilst many of those in Babylon will purify their faith, thanks in large measure to Ezekiel, and be ready to return to their land when the time is ripe.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 2 ( Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 ).
Whilst the first twenty five chapters of Jeremiah have mainly been a record of his general prophecies, mostly given during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim, and have been in the first person, this second section of Jeremiah (Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5) is in the third person, includes a great deal of material about the problems that Jeremiah faced during his ministry and provides information about the opposition that he continually encountered. This use of the third person was a device regularly used by prophets so that it does not necessarily indicate that it was not directly the work of Jeremiah, although in his case we actually have good reason to think that much of it was recorded under his guidance by his amanuensis and friend, Baruch (Jer 36:4).
It can be divided up as follows:
1. Commencing With A Speech In The Temple Jeremiah Warns Of What Is Coming And Repudiates The Promises Of The False Prophets (Jer 26:1 to Jer 29:32).
2. Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration And Of A New Covenant Written In The Heart (Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26).
3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah And Its Repercussions Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (Jer 34:1 to Jer 39:18).
4. Events Subsequent To The Fall Of Jerusalem (Jer 40:1 to Jer 45:5).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 2 ( Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 continued).
As we have previously seen this Section of Jeremiah from Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 divides up into four main subsections, which are as follows:
1. Commencing With A Speech In The Temple Jeremiah Warns Of The Anguish That Is Coming And Repudiates The Promises Of The False Prophets (Jer 26:1 to Jer 29:32).
2. Following On After The Anguish To Come Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration, Central To Which is A New Covenant Written In The Heart And The Establishment Of A Shoot (Branch) Of David On His Throne (Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26).
3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah, The Continuing Disobedience Of The People Is Brought Out, And Jeremiah’s Resulting Experiences Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (Jer 34:1 to Jer 39:18).
4. Events Subsequent To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Described Including The Rejection By The Remnant Of Judah Of YHWH’s Offer Of Full Restoration (Jer 40:1 to Jer 45:5).
We have already commented on Subsections 1 in Jeremiah 4; subsection 2 in Jeremiah 5; and subsection 3 in Jeremiah 6. We must now therefore consider subsection 4 here. This subsection deals with various experiences of Jeremiah amidst what remained of Judah after the fall of Jerusalem.
SECTION 2. Subsection 4). Events Subsequent To The Fall Of Jerusalem, Including The Rejection By The Remnant Of Judah Of YHWH’s Offer Of Full Restoration, Resulting In Further Judgment On God’s Recalcitrant People ( Jer 40:1 to Jer 45:5 ).
Within this subsection, which opens with the familiar words ‘the word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (which in this case indicates that the section as a whole which follows contains prophecies of Jeremiah which are put into an historical framework, for what immediately follows is historical narrative), we have described events subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem:
‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –.’ The appointment of Gedaliah as governor of Judah and his attempt, along with Jeremiah, to re-establish it as a viable state (Jer 40:1-16).
Gedaliah’s assassination by a recalcitrant prince of Judah, who himself then had to flee to Ammon, resulting in the feeling among many who had been re-established in Judah that it would be necessary to take refuge in Egypt (Jer 41:1-18).
The people promise obedience to YHWH and are assured by Jeremiah that if they remain in Judah and are faithful to Him YHWH will ensure that they prosper, whereas if they depart for Egypt it can only result in disaster (Jer 42:1-22).
Jeremiah’s protestations are rejected by the Judeans who take refuge in Egypt and are warned by Jeremiah that soon Nebuchadrezzar would successfully invade Egypt itself (Jer 43:1-13).
‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt –.’ Having settled in Egypt the people return to idolatry, rejecting Jeremiah’s warnings of the consequences, and are assured by him that they will suffer as Jerusalem has suffered, with only a remnant being able to return to Judah (Jer 44:1-30).
‘’The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah –.’ YHWH’s assurance given to the faithful Baruch in the days of Jehoiakim that He would be with him, come what may (Jer 45:1-5).
It will be noted that the markers given by the author actually divide the subsection into three parts, Jer 40:1 to Jer 43:13, Jer 44:1-30 and Jer 45:1-5. Thus ‘the word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ is a phrase which covers the whole of Jer 40:1 to Jer 43:13, with Jer 40:1 b-42:6 being the necessary historical introduction to the actual ‘word from YHWH’ given in Jer 42:7 onwards. The importance of this word is emphasised by the ten day wait. (In comparison with this incorporation of a prophecy within an historical framework we should note how constantly in Genesis covenants and words from YHWH were regularly put within an historical framework).
The main purpose of this section is in order to establish:
1. that what has happened to Judah and Jerusalem was YHWH’s own doing, as verified even by Nebuchadrezzar’s imperial guard commander.
2. that nevertheless YHWH had not totally forsaken His people but would re-establish them if they looked to Him and were obedient,
3. that their future success depended on that obedience, an obedience which proved to be lacking.
It is difficult for us to realise quite what a crushing blow the destruction of Jerusalem would have been to Jewry worldwide. All their pet beliefs had been brought crashing down. Whilst many were in exile far away from their homeland they had gained confidence from the fact that the Temple still stood and that the covenant worship still continued. But now the idea of the inviolability of the Temple had proved invalid, Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the very power of YHWH was being called into question. Could therefore now any trust be placed in YHWH? It was therefore necessary in this regard that it be emphasised by Jeremiah that it was not YHWH Who had failed, but His people. He brought out that they had in fact brought their devastation on themselves. The new beginning that he had promised could only arise out of the ashes of the old, because the old had been distorted beyond all recognition. His words would be a bedrock on which their new ideas about YHWH could be fashioned.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jeremiah’s First Warning
v. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, v. 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah, v. 3. because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went, v. 4. Howbeit, I sent unto you all My servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, v. 5. But they hearkened not nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, v. 6. Wherefore My fury and Mine anger was poured forth, v. 7. Therefore, now, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, v. 8. in that ye provoke Me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, v. 9. Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, v. 10. They are not humbled, even unto this day, v. 11. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will set My face against you for evil and to cut off all Judah, v. 12. And 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, v. 13. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, v. 14. so 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,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jeremiah’s debate with the Jewish fugitives in Pathros; his last prophecy.
Jer 44:1-14
Accusation brought against the obstinately idolatrous people.
Jer 44:1
Which dwell; rather, which dwelt. It appears from this verse that the Jewish fugitives had separated in Egypt, some going to the two northern frontier cities, Migdol (on which see R.S. Poole, ‘The Cities of Egypt,’ Jer 8:1-22.) and Tahpanhes or Daphnae, others further south to Noph, i.e. Memphis, or, less probably, Napata (see on Jer 2:16), and Pathros (i.e. Upper Egypt; comp. Isa 11:11).
Jer 44:6
Was kindled in; rather, burned up.
Jer 44:7
Against your souls; i.e. against yourselves. The “soul” is the personality.
Jer 44:8
That ye might cut yourselves off; rather, that ye might cut (them) off from you. Who are meant is clear from Jer 44:7.
Jer 44:9
Have ye forgotten, etc.? The prophet wonderingly asks if they have forgotten the sins of their forefathers and the consequent calamities. No other explanation of this present idolatry seems possible; and yet how passing strange is it! Their wives. The Hebrew has “his wives,” i.e. according to Kimchi and Hitzig, the wives of each of the kings (sometimes great patrons of idolatry). But it is better to adopt, with Ewald, Graf, and Dr. Payne Smith, the reading of the Septuagint, “his princes.”
Jer 44:10
They are not humbled; rather, not made contrite (literally, not crushed, viz. by repentance).
Jer 44:11
To cut off all Judah; i.e. the Judah in Egypt, not that in Babylon. Notice the qualification of this too absolute statement in Jer 44:14, Jer 44:28.
Jer 44:14
They have a desire; literally, they lift up their soul (comp. Jer 22:27).
Jer 44:15-19
The reply of the people. The special mention of the women suggests that the occasion of the gathering was a festival in honour of the Queen of Heaven.
Jer 44:15
Had burned incense; rather, were burning incense. The practice was still going on.
Jer 44:17
Whatsoever thing goeth forth; rather, the whole word which hath gone forth. A particular vow to the divinity is meant. The queen of heaven (see on Jer 7:18). Then had we plenty of victuals, etc. An extremely important passage, as revealing the view taken of their misfortunes by Jews of the average type. Jeremiah regarded the misfortunes of his country as proofs of the displeasure of Jehovah; these Jews, on the other hand, of his impotence.
Jer 44:19
This part of the reply belongs to the women, who declare that, their husbands’ consent having been given to their vow, Jeremiah has no right to interfere (see Num 30:6, Num 30:7). Burned poured, etc.; rather, burn, pour. Did we, etc.; rather, do we, etc. To worship her. The sense of the Hebrew is doubtful; but the best reading seems that of Rashi, Graf, and Dr. Payne Smith, “to make her image.” Without our men; rather, without our husbands.
Jer 44:20-30
Jeremiah’s rejoinder.
Jer 44:21
Remember them; i.e. the repeated acts of idolatry.
Jer 44:25
With your hand; rather, with your hands. Ye will surely accomplish, etc.; rather, ye shall, etc; by all means perform your vows, and take the consequence. The irony of the passage is lost by the “will” of the Authorized Version.
Jer 44:26
My Name shall no more be named. Because no Jews will be left alive in Egypt.
Jer 44:28
Yet a small number, etc. Isaiah’s doctrine of the remnant. In the midst of judgment, God remembers mercy, and his ancient covenant. A remnant is saved as the nucleus of a regenerate people.
Jer 44:29
A sign; rather, the sign.
Jer 44:30
I will give Pharaoh-hophra, etc. The sign consists in the capture of Hophra by his deadly enemies. Henceforth he will live in constant alarm, for he is in the hands of those “that seek 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” (see further on Jer 46:13).
HOMILETICS
Jer 44:1-10
Warnings from the past.
History has its moral lessons. We who are heirs of the ages should learn wisdom from the mistakes as well as from the good examples of the past. Let us consider how this may be done.
I. WARNINGS FROM THE SIN OF THE PAST. Jeremiah calls upon the Jews in Egypt to reflect on the wicked conduct of their nation, tracing it back from the present through successive generations of iniquitous court and private life. It is a gloomy task, but a wholesome one. Tacitus was, perhaps, the greatest moralist of his age, because he saw into the moral side of history, and ruthlessly exposed the vice and cruelty and treachery which underlay the splendour of Roman imperialism. Because we can read history with some measure of detachment from the passions and prejudices of the hour, we may learn to see therein the character of actions which are closely parallel to others nearer home. Thus the past may become a mirror of the present, and one that rectifies the images from the confusion which accompanies the direct vision of what is very closely connected with our own person.
II. WARNINGS FROM THE DIVINE VOICE IN THE PAST. God had instructed and urged his people to forsake their sins. He had not left them in the dark or unchecked”Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets.” This had been done with earnestness and emphasis”rising early and sending them.” It was a revelation of the evil character of their deeds”this abominable thing;” an appeal to them to cease from such wickedness”Oh, do not this abominable thing!” and a declaration of the Divine abhorrence of their conduct”that I hate.” All this has been said concerning the wickedness of the past; but it is to be reflected upon for its application to the present. We also may find profit in considering the ancient voices of heaven. The warnings of the Bible may be reread and reapplied in our own day. If we see no new Jeremiah, we have the inspired words of the old Hebrew prophet, and they are as true now as ever. What God hates he hates eternally. What he forbids is always wrong. The object of his urgent appeal should command submission at all times.
III. WARNINGS FROM THE PUNISHMENTS OF THE PAST. The object of punishment is twofold. First, it concerns the guilty; secondly, it has lessons for witnesses. It is chastisement to the offender, it is warning to others. No punishment would be just if it were simply given as a deterrent. But being deserved and needful on account of the conduct of the victim, it is then utilized in perfect justice for the general benefit of the community. We should be thankful for the fact that the fate of others is not altogether obscure, so that we may profit by the sad lessons of their experience.
Jer 44:16
Open rebellion.
I. GOD LEAVES US FREE TO ACCEPT OR REJECT HIS AUTHORITY. Whatever may be urged from the standpoints of abstract philosophy and of speculative theology, in practice, as Butler says, we all act as though we were free. In the Bible, too, this practical freedom of the will is constantly implied and appealed to. Though we have no moral right to renounce the Law of God, though we shall suffer if we do so, the terrible power of rebellion is entrusted to us that our loyalty may be proved and our service may remain free and willing.
II. ALL EVIL CENTRES IN THE WILL. The idolatrous Jews will not hearken to the word of Jeremiah. Herein lies the sum and substance of their offence. Depraved appetites and wicked passions are temptations to the evil will or products of its deeds. In themselves they are no more wicked than the external temptations which appeal to the purest elements of our common human nature. Guilt consists in yielding to themin the act of the will that consents, indulges, or urges.
III. WILFUL REJECTION OF TRUTH IS REBELLION AGAINST GOD. Not to hearken is to revolt. We must be careful to distinguish pure intellectual doubt and unbelief from this revolt of the will against truth. The latter may not deny the correctness of what it rejects; it simply refuses to follow it. If it does fail to believe the truth, but through only wilfully closing all avenues of evidence, the blame of an evil will must be attached to it.
IV. SELF–WILL IS AN EVIL WILL. In rejecting the Divine message the idolatrous Jews insolently add, “We will certainly do the whole word which hath gone forth out of our own mouth” (see verse 17).
1. Self-will even in regard to things innocent in themselves is nevertheless an evil will. For we are not our own masters. The servant is wrong if he disobey his master, though to do a harmless act. The soldier is guilty in disobeying orders, whatever other course he may take. We are “under authority.” If our Captain says, “Go,” we are not free to stand for the most innocent reason.
2. Self-will is too often directed to evil things. Those Jews who deliberately rejected the Divine message chose to perform acts of idolatry of their own will. Our will is corrupt. Left to itself it chooses much that is evil, To keep it pure we must lift it up to union with a higher will. When it breaks loose and defiantly chooses its own private course, its evil nature will incline it to a bad course.
V. COMPANIONSHIP IN SIN BECOMES CONSPIRACY IN GREATER SIN. The husbands support their wives in the evil practices of the women, and together they declare that for the future they will pursue these practices openly and deliberately. But the closest relationship and the warmest affection are no reasons for defending wicked conduct, much less for encouraging and sharing it. When the love of husband and wife conflicts with the love of God, even that most near and sacred tie should yield to the highest of all obligations. Otherwise the marriage relation, which is instituted for the blessings of mutual comfort and happiness, becomes a curse.
Jer 44:18
Chastisement misinterpreted.
I. IT IS POSSIBLE TO MISTAKE THE CAUSE AND PURPOSE OF GOD‘S PROVIDENCE IN CHASTISEMENT. Instead of accepting their calamities as punishments for their sins against Jehovah, the Jews in Upper Egypt argue from them to conclusions of unbelief in the power and goodness of the God of their fathers. They are not alone in their error. The problem of suffering and its source and aim is profoundly difficult. The glib repetition of old platitudes only mocks at the mystery it can never solve. Job’s friends were good men, and two of them able men; but “miserable comforters” were they all, because their explanation of the cause of the tragic agony before them was so utterly inadequate. Two reasons for error in the interpretation of chastisement may be detected in the case of Jeremiah’s contemporaries.
1. An evil disposition. These men had no desire to recognize the hand of the true God in their experience. They had followed their wives in favouring the immoral rites of a heathenish cult. Jeremiah’s teaching was rejected with insult; the idolatrous religion was grasped with obstinate self-will. Behaving in this way, the Jews in Upper Egypt were not in a fit state to judge fairly of the meaning of God’s dealings with them. Our “views” of truth depend materially on our attitude towards it. Bad passions and a corrupt will prevent men at all times from profiting by chastisement.
2. The delay of chastisement. This was not contemporaneous with the sin. It would seem that the corruption which followed the reformation of Josiah was not so bad as that which preceded it. Yet it was after this that the blow fell. Now, a similar experience may often be noted. Charles II. was a worse king than James II; and Louis XV. than Louis XVI. The revolutions did not occur when things were at their worst. They took time to ripen. The chief causes of them were not their immediate antecedents. The same may be expected in private lives. Therefore it may require searching thought to trace the trouble down to its real root.
II. IT IS POSSIBLE TO FALL INTO RELIGIOUS ERROR THROUGH MISINTERPRETING GOD‘S PROVIDENCE IN CHASTISEMENT. By a false inference drawn from the experience of trouble, the idolatrous Jews were led to fling off the last relic of their ancient faith, and to renew their allegiance to the heathen religion they had partially renounced in outward act, though not, as it now appears, in the inclinations of their hearts. Consider the process by which this result was reached.
1. A delusion as to the nature of repentance and its effects. The Jewish refugees had imagined that their abandonment of open idolatry would have warded off the impending doom. They were enraged at discovering their mistake, and they took the result as a reason for daring scepticism. Important lessons may be derived from their mistake, e.g.
(1) that outward reformation is useless before God without heartfelt repentance;
(2) that there are necessary consequences of sin which no repentance can obviateimprovidence leading to poverty, intemperance to disease, crime to secular punishment, in spite of all the genuine tears of a Magdalene;
(3) that when God accepts repentance and forgives the penitent, it may still be necessary to chastise him for the good of his own soul.
2. The mistake of judging of the truth of a religion by the worldly advantages that accrue from it. Godliness has “promise of the life that now is” (1Ti 4:8). Under the Old Testament economy this promise was emphasized. Nevertheless, even in the Jewish religion it was often recognized that suffering might fall upon the people of God (e.g. Psa 22:1-31.). With our fuller light, we know that the temporal advantages of religion are but a small part of its blessings; that under certain circumstances it may bring more worldly loss than gain; that there are Christians who reckon that if in this life only they have hoped in Christ, they are of all men most pitiable (1Co 15:19). Therefore we should settle it well in our minds that, as worldly injustice and calamities of all kinds may fail upon the devoted servants of Christ, the experience of these things should not shake our faith. This fact needs to be well considered and realized, because there is no more frequent cause of sudden and violent scepticism than a series of great and inexplicable troubles.
3. The sin of pursuing religion for its worldly profit. Even if godliness is profitable for all things, it cannot be truly followed for the sake of gain. To choose our religion according to the advantages it may give us, is to subordinate truth to convenience, and to degrade to the position of a servant that which claims to rule as a master, or will have nothing to do with us.
Jer 44:22
The limit of God’s forbearance.
I. GOD‘S FORBEARANCE IS LIMITED. There is no limit to his love. His mercy “endureth forever.” There is no limit to his patience, his endurance of the most provoking wickedness. But there is a limit to God’s forbearance. Consider what determines this.
1. Justice. There is a point where necessary justice must interfere to prevent further wrong and punish what is already done.
2. The good of the community. Mercy to the criminal may involve injustice to the victim. There are abandoned wretches whom the world would find inestimable advantage in caging up out of the power of doing further mischief. There must be a point where their rights cease and the rights of others step in. In the Divine government this must be noted and acted on.
3. The advantage of the offender. It is a curse to a man to leave him forever unchecked and unpunished. He may be left for a season to give all necessary scope for the operation of milder measures and for his own free repentance. But when the gentleness has failed, the only chance lies in some drastic treatment.
II. IT IS POSSIBLE TO REACH THE LIMIT OF GOD‘S FORBEARANCE. It was reached by the antediluvians, by the cities of the plain, by the Jews at the time of the Captivity, by the Jews when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, by many a nation and many a man since. It may be reached by us, This subject, therefore, is not a question of abstract theology, touching only the ideal relations of Divine attributes. It is tremendously practical.
1. The limit may be reached in our lifetime. Men presume on their prosperity till God providentially strikes them down in desolation, and they learn in their anguish the folly of their long abuse of God’s long suffering mercy.
2. It will come to the impenitent in the next life. Death will bring it if it has been stayed during all the earthly life. The longer it is delayed the more fearful will be its consequences to those who “treasure up to themselves wrath in the day of wrath.”
III. IT MUST BE UNSPEAKABLY TERRIBLE TO REACH THE LIMIT OF GOD‘S FORBEARANCE. Then all the vials of wrath will be outpoured. The horror of the judgment ensuing can only be measured by the greatness of the forbearance which restrains it. If that were not very fearful, why should God hesitate so long in letting it loose? Why should he use all other possible means to prevent the necessity of resorting to it? Why should he urge and plead with us to hear his voice today and harden not our hearts?
Jer 44:25
Sinful vows.
I. SINFUL VOWS ARE AMONG THE MOST WICKED OF SINS. Some sins are committed hastily and in passion, these with more deliberation; some without strong desire, these most earnestly.
II. IT IS A SIN TO PERFORM SINFUL VOWS. If we were not at liberty to make the vows, we are not at liberty to perform them. We cannot be bound to do that which we have no right to do. If we have promised to do an unlawful act, we should not consider that promise binding upon us, since our word cannot abrogate the law that forbids the act.
III. GOD LEAVES MEN FREE TO EXECUTE THEIR EVIL INTENTIONS. The Jews in Upper Egypt were to be left to the performance of their vows to the queen of heaven. This implied no sanction; it was only the withholding of forcible restraints. What a solemn responsibility lies in the fact that we have this large liberty after we have chosen an evil way, and before we are called to judgment for it!
IV. GOD SOMETIMES CEASES TO WARN MEN OF THE DANGER OF THEIR WICKED COURSES. They are then left to themselves till their sin ripens. It is a terrible fate, but consistent with the goodness of God, as we may be sure that, if God deliberately ceases to warn a man, it is because warnings are lost on him or simply harden him. We may so sin as to become “seared in our own conscience with a hot iron” (1Ti 4:2).
V. THE FRUIT OF THE WICKED COURSES WHICH MEN HAVE CHOSEN FOR THEMSELVES WILL BE THE WORST PUNISHMENT OF THEM. They need no external penalties performed by executioners of justice. Sin is its own executioner, the natural effect of sin its own punishment. In the natural results that followed the performance of their wicked vows the idolatrous Jews will reap the bitterest harvest of retribution. “The sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death” (Jas 1:15).
Jer 44:28
The remnant of the remnant.
Of the Jews who escaped the sword of Nebuchadnezzar in the invasion of their land, “a remnant “fled to Egypt; of this body of refugees “a remnant” was to survive the dangers that would destroy the greater part. Thus but a small number would return to Jerusalem in safety. For their folly in fleeing to Egypt the fugitives would suffer a second desolation, while the captives in Babylon and the patient poor people who remained in the land of their fathers would be spared. Yet even out of this further calamity some few would be brought in safety.
I. JUDGMENT IS TEMPERED WITH MERCY. Many are spared at the first blow. Some of these are only hardened in wickedness. A second blow falls. Still some are spared. God is reluctant to give his people up. If he can find room for any mercy in the midst of the severest judgment, he will exercise it.
II. GOD‘S JUDGMENT IS DISCRIMINATING. Even now it must be so; for “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” But we do not yet know its purposes and its methods, and therefore to us it looks as though it could not take note of individual deserts. Ultimately we shall see how God has overlooked no exceptional case. Noah is picked out of the drowning world. Lot is remembered in Sodom. Elijah is provided for in the general drought. We can look for no such evidences of an interfering Providence in earthly things now, perhaps, but the truth they illustrate holds good, and must work its blessed results in the day of final account. Natural selection does not always result in the survival of the morally fittest on earth. On the contrary, the good may become martyrs, the bad triumphant tyrants. But we see only the opening acts of the drama. The final catastrophe will reveal the justice that regulates.
III. LEFT TO THEMSELVES, NO MEN COULD ESCAPE THE DOOM OF SIN. In the eternal judgment there could not even. be a remnant of a remnant, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” All would, therefore, receive the wages of sin.
IV. BY THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST ALL WHO HAVE SINNED MAY BE SAVED. This is large enough to deliver, not merely a remnant of a remnant, but every man who has fallen, however low he lies in the mire.
V. AT FIRST BUT A REMNANT OF A REMNANT ARE SAVED BY CHRIST. The question whether few were to be saved was not to be answered for the satisfaction of idle curiosity (Luk 13:23). But that only a few sought the grace of Christ at first is a historical fact. The number has grown wonderfully, and yet how large a part of the world must be accounted still dark and dead in sin! But the few are saved that they may win the many. The first disciples became apostles. The small remnant laid the foundation of a great nation. The Church is called to evangelize the world.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 44:1-14
(vide Jer 43:8-13).
The condition of hardened sinners desperate.
I. WHY IS IT SO?
1. Because repeated warnings have been rejected. (Jer 44:4, Jer 44:5.) These have been inspired and infallible. Had they believed ever so little they might have trusted implicitly what was spoken, accompanied as it was with such miraculous credentials. We, in these last times, have had the Lord himself. He has revealed the heart of the Father.
(2) They were sufficiently numerous and seasonable. God “rose up early and sent them.” He sent them all. No opportunity or peculiarity of individual influence was emitted. Christ is greater than all the prophets put together, and his gospel is universally declared and universally authoritative over the consciences of men. God cannot send another messenger, nor would it avail if he could.
2. Because the lessons of experience have been ignored. (Jer 44:9, Jer 44:10.) How terribly severe had not these been! It was scarcely possible for greater temporal punishments to be inflicted. Yet it was in the discipline of these judgments they were to have been saved. The path of transgressions, as the sinner looks back upon it, is marked by ruin and death. Yet will he not repent.
3. Their persistent disobedience is an intolerable offence to God. (Jer 44:8.) God’s judgments are not exhausted, but his patience may be. The history of offence and punishment will not repeat itself indefinitely. There are abysses of wrath. There is an eternal fire. Let them beware lest they be utterly consumed.
II. WHAT ARE THE SIGNS THAT IT IS SO?
1. The Word of God is wholly against them, The indictment has no redeeming feature.
2. The pathos and pitifulness of God’s entreaty. (Jer 44:4, Jer 44:7.) There is compassion in the Divine mind because of the consequences that impend. Who so able to understand the sinner’s circumstances as his Father? He who can see before and after, and who can fathom the mystery of iniquity, fears for his erring child.
III. WHAT ELEMENT OF HOPE, IF ANY, IS STILL LEFT FOR THEM?
1. God still pleads. Silence would mean hopelessness. Whilst his servant is authorized to speak, there may remain a way of escape.
2. The fatherly compassion his voice betrays. There are tears in the entreaty: “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!” It is the birth cry of an evangel; a prophecy of Jesus. Mercy may move and melt where judgment has failed. “For the love of Christ constraineth us,” etc. (2Co 5:14); “But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).M.
Jer 44:15-23
Credentials of religion.
Very important to know why we prefer one religious system to another, and also why we ought to prefer it. A man is continually in need of having to give a reason for the hope that is in him. The higher religions find the field already occupied by many great systems, and have to vindicate themselves. The arguments employed here are those most commonly adduced, because most superficial. As appealing to the sensuous and material side of human nature, they are very influential.
I. WORLDLY ARGUMENTS FOR A RELIGION. Here they are employed on behalf of a false religion, an idolatry; but they are often made use of in recommending true religion. They are generally of two classes, viz. pertaining:
1. To authority. The idolatry here defended was
(1) general and fashionable;
(2) ancient;
(3) patronized by royalty;
(4) practised in the mother city of God’s people.
2. To tendency. It was alleged to have promoted prosperity and peace.
II. THEIR INCONCLUSIVENESS.
1. Authority is only valuable as it helps to establish truth. Sin in its most flagrant forms, ignorance and inhumanity, have been more and longer prevalent than the greatest religions the world has seen. The most cruel and debasing religions are the most ancient in most countries. The only authority which can be admitted in such a connection is that of the best, i.e. the wisest and purest.
2. The tendency argument is open to similar objections. It is a great deal to say in favour of a religion that it has promoted the welfare and happiness of its supporters; but it is not so easy to prove it. Here the prophet alleges that it was their idolatry which lay at the root of all the misery of the people of Judah. It requires a very wide, varied, and lengthened induction of a people’s circumstances ere such a statement is legitimate either way. And even if it were made out to one’s satisfaction that a religious system had a beneficial effect upon the material condition of a people, it must still be remembered that man is a spiritual being, and that his moral and spiritual nature will sooner or later enter an imperious claim to attention and satisfaction. Only that which is right and true can meet the wants of the human spirit under all circumstances. And God is the one Being who can satisfy the spiritual aspirations and needs of his creatures. If the best and the holiest of men cannot be content with material advantages and comfort, but are ever yearning for something beyond, it is evident that utilitarianism must be interpreted in a very spiritual sense indeed ere it can pass muster as a tolerable criterion of any religion. It is chiefly because Christianity has revealed a Divine communion and a universal moral basis that it is destined to supplant all other creeds. But at the same time, it is also enforced by the test of utility in its more material aspect. No religion has so advanced the comfort, civilization, and peace of this world.M.
Jer 44:26-28
The danger of corrupting true religion.
God has from the beginning been solicitous for the purity of his revelation and worship. He would never suffer his ordinances to be tampered with, or share his honour with other gods. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Deu 6:13; Luk 4:8).
I. IT HAS BEEN GUARDED BY AWFUL SANCTIONS. Frequently in Old Testament history the death penalty was inflicted upon spiritual pretenders, false prophets, and idolatrous worshippers of Jehovah. The warning of the text is very significant; a time was to come when no Jew would any more swear by Jehovah in Egypt, for the very good reason that there would be none there. “In the form of asseveration the Name of Jehovah would be still retained, although they had long since been devoted to the service of other gods. But Jehovah, who is a jealous God, rejects honour and acknowledgment which he must share with others; and so his Name shall no longer be heard from the mouth of any Jews in Egypt” (Hitzig). In the New Testament men are warned of making the Word of God “a cloke for lasciviousness;” of “perishing in the gainsaying of Core;” of tasting of the powers of the world to come, and falling back; of making gain of godliness; of handling the Word of God deceitfully, and wresting it to their own destruction; or of adding aught to the revealed truth (Rev 22:18, Rev 22:19).
II. REASONS FOR THIS SEVERITY,
1. Objective.
(1) The slow advance of truth.
(2) The costliness of the Divine relation.
2. Subjective.
(1) Partly in the very nature of the easemoral simplicity being sacrificed in the self-consciousness of a corrupt worship.
(2) The necessity of inspiration by the truth in order to the spiritual welfare and true immortality of man.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 44:1-30
Jeremiah’s last sermon.
There are other prophecies of Jeremiah recorded in this book in the chapters that remain, but this discourse is the last that we know of his delivering. And with it the curtain falls upon this great prophet of God; upon Baruch, his beloved companion and helper; and upon the wretched Jews for whose good he had laboured, but in vain. A long interval separates it from that in the previous chapter; for we see the people not now at Tahpanhes, at the border of Egypt, but gathering from all parts of the land to Pathros, to a great heathen festival there. And a very awful discourse it is. There is not one word of gospel in it, but the boom of the heavy bell of doom is heard resounding all through itnot one solitary chime of grace, or mercy, or hope anywhere. It is like the words of the Son of man when he comes to judge the world, and all nations are brought before him, to those on his left hand. They are told their sin and their doom. They make such defence as they can, which is rather a defiance than a defence; they are answered, and their sentence is pronounced again. There is throughout both these discourses nought but “a fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation.” “There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” Such sermons might well have suggested these apostolic words. In this one note
I. ITS COMMENCEMENTTHE INDICTMENT OF THE CONDEMNED. The prophet reminds them that they had seen God’s judgments upon their brethren and fathers, and they knew the cause, that it was their sin against God. They had heard warning after warning addressed to themselves against the same sin. And not only had these warnings been repeated, but many messengers had been sent, and these had given their message with all earnestness and zeal, in season and out of season, and God himself had deigned to entreat with them and plead with them, saying, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!” But they had disregarded, despised, disobeyed all, and they were not humbled (verse 10) even now. Therefore was their judgment pronounced against them and their doom was fixed.
II. THE ANSWER OF THE PEOPLE. They would not believe in their doom. They resolved to persist in their sin. They declared they were every way better off in serving idols than in serving God.
III. THE PROPHET‘S REPLY AND REITERATON OF GOD‘S JUDGMENT AGAINST THEM.
CONCLUSION. As we read and ponder this terrible chapter, and remember that as its declarations concerning the past were true, so also were those that related to the future; for the judgment came upon them to the uttermost, far more than fell on those in Babylon. What can our hearts say to this? “Who would not fear thee, O Lord?” “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.”C.
Jer 44:1-30
The end of Jeremiah; or, going down in clouds.
With this chapter Jeremiah disappears from view. The sadness which surrounded his first ministry accompanies it to the last and deepens at its close; like a sunset in clouds, going down in darkness and storm, The path along which he had been led had been via crucis, a via dolorosa indeed; a lifelong tragedy, an unceasing pain. We can only hope that death came soon to him after his recorded history closes. We have seen him torn from his native land and carried down to Egypt. We see him in the forty-third chapter at the border of the land; in this, in the heart of Egypt, at Pathros, probably forced to witness the degrading idolatry of his people, and unable to do aught to prevent it. An idol festival, accompanied, doubtless, with all the wonted pollutions of such worship, is proceeding, and he lifts up his voice once more in stern protest. But in vain, as heretofore. He vanishes from our view at an hour when his countrymen, so far from being less addicted to idols, were now open in their sin, vaunting it and declaring their determination to adhere to it, and their reset that they had ever done otherwise. What a farewell between a minister of God and the people of his charge! There never was but one other like itthe farewell of him who said, as he wept over another doomed Jerusalem and a future Jewish people, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” What became of Jeremiah from this date we know not. “No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” “There is the Christian tradition resting doubtless on some earlier belief, that the long tragedy of his life ended in actual martyrdom, and that the Jews at Tahpanhes, enraged by his rebukes, at last stoned him to death.” The testimony to the martyrs at the close of the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is thought to contain allusion to him: “They were stoned”so we read. There is a Jewish tradition, however, which says that he made his escape to Babylon, but Josephus, like the Bible, is utterly silent as to the prophet’s end. And it has been suggested that the tradition of the Jew and the silence of the historian are alike owing to a desire to gloss over some great crime. The suggestion is a probable one. “But he did not need a death by violence to make him a true martyr. To die with none to record the time or manner of his death was the right end for one who had spoken all along, not to win the praise of men, but because the Word of the Lord was in him as ‘a burning fire.’ The darkness and doubt that brood over the last days of the prophet’s life are more significant than either of the issues which present themselves to men’s imaginations as the winding up of his career.” “But a careful examination of his writings show that, whilst the earlier ones are calmer, loftier, more uniform in tone, the latter show marks of age and weariness and sorrow, and are more strongly imbued with the language of individual suffering.” How glad we would have been had the clouds lifted ere he died, and a gleam of sunshine had irradiated the hitherto almost unbroken gloom! Some of the prophets were permitted to have a blessed onlook into the better days that were coming. He who wrote the closing portion of Isaiah’s prophecies did so; like Moses from Mount Pisgah. But it was not so to be with this prophet of God. His sun was to go down in clouds, and, though he had faithfully kept God’s commandments, there was not for him in this life any “great reward.” Though out of love for his countrymen he had refused the offer of a peaceful and honoured home in Babylon, like Moses, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God” he yet failed to win their affection or obedience; and they remained in the same evil mind to the last. He had walked in the fear of the Lord. But those ways had. not been for him “ways of pleasantness,” nor its paths “paths of peace.” The brokenhearted old man appeals to God and man, “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” The twenty-second psalmthat which seems to tell so clearly of the sufferings of our Lordis thought by many to have been written by him, and tp tell of his own deep distress. Priest, patriot, prophet, martyr, hero of the faith indeed, what a life was thine from beginning to end, from thy first call by God to thy last rejection by men! These lines, translated for our day, and sung by our comfortable congregationswith what consistency they who sing them best know
“If I find him, if I follow,
What his guerdon here?
Many a sorrow, many a labour,
Many a tear;”
are applicable enough to one like that great prophet of God, whose career began, continued, and, most of all, ended, in sorrow, labour, and tears. But the review of such a ministry must assuredly have its lessons. As we think of it are we not reminded
I. OF “THE MAN OF SORROWS,” OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST? No doubt other great servants of God, whose ministry and especially whose end have been like that of Jeremiah, come into the mind. John the Baptist in Bible history, and Savonarola in later days. The parallel between this great Florentine preacher and our prophet has often been noticed. The insistance upon spiritual religion, the sad and terrible close of his career,these have led many to look upon Savonaroia as the Jeremiah of the Middle Ages. But these resemblances are incidental and undesigned. That, however, between our Lord and his honoured servant who, in so many ways, preceded him, is not incidental, nor can it be called undesigned. But whilst the prophet is like our Lord in so many respects, yet, great as were his sorrows, those of the Man of sorrows were greater still. For our Lord knew more of the evil of sin and hated it more intensely. He sacrificed more and endured more. And so the experience of the prophets, like that of all God’s servants, only goes to show that Christ has sounded deeper depths of sorrow than any that his servants can ever know.
“Christ leads us through no darker room
Than he’s been through before.”
Hence always “underneath,” however deep the depths out of which we cry, “are the everlasting arms” of his sympathy and love and help.
II. OF THE LIGHTNESS OF OUR BURDENS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF MANY OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD? How it shames us to think of the things we murmur about, when we contrast them with what such men as Jeremiah continually endured! Surely as we think of the severity of his cross, and especially that of our Saviour, we shall cease to complain of what ours may be.
III. OF WHAT THE GRACE OF GOD CAN DO? Did the prophet of God endure and contend so nobly, and was he faithful unto death? But is not “Jesus Christ the same yesterday,” etc.? Then he who so strengthened his servants in days gone by will do the same still. Let us, therefore, go forward without fear.
IV. OF THE NECESSITY OF COUNTING THE COST ERE WE ENTER UPON THE SERVICE OF GOD? We see in the career of Jeremiah what may be required of us. Our Lord said to one candidate for discipleship, “The foxes have holes, and,” etc. He would have the man consider if he were prepared to bear a life like that. And as we read what has been demanded of the Lord’s servants, and may be of us, it is well that we, too, should count the cost. But do not count it so as to decline it; no, but that you may hasten to the treasure store of Christ, to the riches of his grace who will make his strength perfect in our weakness.
V. OF THE GREAT ARGUMENT FOR A FUTURE LIFE WHICH SUCH A CAREER AS THAT OF JEREMIAH FURNISHES? We have seen how uninterruptedly sad his life was, and how darkly it ended. Now, can any say that there is nothing more for such a man as that; that he and all they “who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished”that is, the noblest, the purest, the best; those whose lives were beautiful, brave, God-like,that these have perished? And yet, if death ends all, they have. It is incredible.
VI. IF SUCH MEN DEEMED IT WELL TO SACRIFICE ALL THEIR PRESENT FOR THE FAVOUR OF GOD, ARE WE WISE WHO REFUSE TO SACRIFICE ANYTHING, who love the world and cling to it and make it our good?C.
Jer 44:4
The mind of God towards sin and sinners.
“Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!” Idolatry is the sin specially referred to here. And it was indeed an “abominable thing.” Pollution, cruelty, degradation, were inseparably associated with it. But the words may be applied to all sinshould be so applied. For what is sin? It is the acting out of that evil corrupt nature which we know to our cost lurks within us all. It is the stream that naturally flows from an evil fountain, the fruit that is sure to grow on a corrupt tree. Now, this view declares the mind of God
I. TOWARDS SIN.
1. He calls it “this abominable thing.” Thus he brands it. See how justly. For what do we call abominable? Is wrong done to a benefactor abominable? Is not every sin such a wrong? God does not command more than he deserves when he says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,” etc. What do we not owe to him? and how do we requite him? Is wrong done to one who has entrusted his goods to us that we may employ them for him, who has made us his stewards that we may employ rightly that which he has committed to our care,is faithlessness to such abominable? But is not sin precisely such a wrong? Our mind, affections, will, our body with all its faculties and passions,what are they aught else but our Maker’s goods with which, as stewards, he has entrusted us? Let conscience declare the use we have made of themthat sin makes of them. Is wrong done to the defenceless and innocent abominable? Do we not cry out loudly against such a one? But is not sin such a wrong? We sin not to ourselves. We entail the consequences of our actions on those who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly innocent, and who will surely suffer by what we do. No man dieth to himself. He drags down in the vortex in which he himself is engulfed children, friends, neighbours, companions, all whom he has influenced and helped to make sinful like himself. Is wrong done to vast numbers abominable, so that when we hear of how one has brought ruin upon multitudes our anger against him grows the more? Surely it is so. But where do the ever-widening circles of sin’s deadly influence stop? How wide an area do they enfold? “Jeroboam the son of Nebat made Israel to sin.” Is that which pollutes and defiles, which is sensual and unclean, abominable? But sin is guilty of all this. For all these reasons and others sin is an abominable thing.
2. He hates it. “Do not that I hate!” God hates nothing that he has made. To us some creatures are hateful and some persons. But not so to God. He does not hate even the sinner, but only his sin. It is not alone that it is abominable in its own nature that he hates it, but it works such ruin, spreads sorrow and desolation far and wide. It has opened and peoples the abodes of the lost. And it does despite and dishonour to the Son of God. How, then, can God do otherwise than hate it?
II. TOWARDS THE SINNER. Note the pleading tone of this verse, “Oh, do not,” etc.! What pity, what compassion, what yearning love, are all discernible in this beseeching entreaty which God addresses to the sinner! “Hear, then, God say to you, ‘Do it not!’ Now, what are you going to do? Do you mean to tell me that you will persist in it? Do you really mean that? Now, think! Do you really mean to go on sinning in the face of such a message as this?with conscience smarting, and saying in its guilty smart, Do not that abominable thing! with memory weighted with the recollection of past transgressions, and saying by the leaden burden which it carries, Do not that abominable thing! With all this, and much more, do you mean to say that you will continue in sin? With remorse, like spiritual tempest, already springing up within your soul, and threatening to destroy all your joy and peace; with a fearful looking for of judgment and future indignation; with your miserable convictions, and with your bitter fears; with your gloomy forebodings, and with your knowledge of the results and consequences of sin;do you mean to tell me that you are determined to continue? Well, if you be determined to continue, when the offended Father comes down to you in his marvellous condescension, and cries, ‘Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!’ then, we fear, there is but little hope; and certainly, if this state of heart continue, we cannot have much hope concerning you. It is probable that if some of you pass by many more seasons of conviction, God will say, ‘He is joined to his idols; let him alone;’ and you will be, in this world, left alone. You will come here, perhaps, according to your custom, but you will be left alone, I shall never have a message to you; I shall never have a prayer for you; no warning from these lips will ever reach you; you will be insensible as the very pews in which you sit, and nothing shall seem, in these ordinances, to be a voice from Heaven to your guilty and needy soul. Thus will you live until, with a seared conscience, you lie down on the bed of death, and there, perhaps, when it is too late, all your old fears will be awakened. You may send to your minister upon that bed of death, and he may come, but by your bedside he may be speechless, his very power to pray may depart from him, and in trying to ask mercy for you all his utterances may be choked; and you may go from that wretched dying bed to hell. And as you sink down into the pit, the millstone about your neck will be the abominable thing which God hates”.C.
Jer 44:17, Jer 44:18
The apparent profitableness of sin.
This was what they asserted. And there seemed something in the assertion. All the great nations around them, and of which they knew anything, were idolatersAssyria, Type, Babylon, Egypt, and the powerful Philistine, desert and other tribes. But Israel was in great trouble and humiliation. But the argument would have been valid if at the time of their fidelity they had always suffered, and if in their disobedience they had always prospered. They knew, if they would speak the truth, that the very reverse was the fact. When faithful, a thousand fell at their side, etc; but it came not nigh them. But when disobedientthough God bore with them for a while, and this forbearance they perverted into an argument for their sin, as so many do stillthen it was their troubles came. But, no doubt, ungodliness did and does at times seem to be the most profitable course. This is so because
I. If it were not so, then there could be no such thing as faith.
II. Nor could there be holinessno love of goodness and God for their own sake.
III. The ungodly are held back by no scruples as the godly are.
IV. And they have the advantage of concentration of energy. They care only for one world; the believer cares for two, and most not for this but for the next.
V. The long suffering of God may lead them to repentance.
VI. Therefore, let us not grudge the wicked their prosperity, nor deem their ways better than the ways of God.C.
Jer 44:17
Wretched reasons for a wrong resolve.
When we come to a good resolution there can always be found good reasons for it. But when we come to a had resolve the reasons for it do not always appear so bad as they are. They can be plausibly urged and maintained, and appear very valid until they are more closely examined and the light of God’s Word is brought to bear upon them. Then they appear what they really are. That Word is the Ithuriel’s spear, which detects and declares what seemed to be something altogether different. Thus is it with the reasons urged here by the miserable exiles in Egypt for their persistence in their idolatry. Note
I. THEIR RESOLVE. It was
(1) that they would not hearken to the prophet of God; and
(2) they would go on paying their vows, and burning their incense “unto the queen of heaven.” Now,
(3) this was a resolve proved to be wrong by the plain Word of God, the example of the noblest men of their race, the experience of their forefathers, and by the sorrows that had come and were yet to come upon themselves. But they urged
II. THEIR REASONS. These were:
1. Their vows. As if a sinful vow could be made less sinful by keeping it; cf. Herod’s vow to Herodias’s daughter. Bad promises are ever better broken than kept.
2. Custom, which they said had in its favour:
(1) Antiquity. Their fathers did so. Yes; some of them had; but not all, nor the best.
(2) Authority. Their kings, princes, etc. But this, also, largely false.
(3) Unity. They all did it, But there were a faithful few still.
(4) Universality. It was done everywhere. Not everywhere, hut, no doubt, extensively and very much, it was true, in Jerusalem, the metropolis of their land. All this was but a portion of the truth.
3. They pleaded advantage. They were better off when they acted thus; only trouble came when they worshipped God. No doubt sentence against their evil work was not executed speedily, and for a while their prosperity was not interrupted. Hence they perverted this forbearance of Godas men do stillinto a pretext for going on in their evil way. Then when the judgments did come, and under the lash of them they gave up their idols, it was only an outward abandonment, not a genuine repentance, and such con. duct did not bring back the forfeited, favour of God. Hence, they said, it had been better not to have forsaken their idols at all
III. AND THESE WRETCHED REASONS ARE IN FORCE STILL. How many excuse and defend their idolatry of the world and self and sin on the ground of custom, of gain thereby, and of loss if they act otherwise! And the force of these so called reasonings is great indeed with “men of this world.” Where, then, can be found that reasoning which will beat back and beat down their fatal force? In this alonethe Divine Spirit acting through a consistent, believing, happy Church.C.
Jer 44:19
The husband’s responsibility.
“Did we make her cakes to worship her without our men?” These women pleaded that they had their husbands’ sanction for what they did. It could not have been otherwise considering the subordinate position women occupied in Oriental nations. No doubt, therefore, the husbands and the male heads of families generally not only permitted, but even prompted these things. Hence it was some sort of excuse and defence for these women thus engaged in idolatrous worship. Such defence is allowed in human law. For the husband, by Christ’s law as well as man’s, is the head of the wife. If so, then the chief responsibility and the chief guiltiness on account of the sin of the household rest on the man at the head of it. The especial blessing of God was pronounced on Abraham because, says God, “I know him, that he will command his household after him.” The anger of God came on Eli because he failed to do this. To escape such guilt, let husbands:
1. Be in the Lord themselves.
2. Marry only in the Lord.
3. Be careful to maintain family religion.
4. Set themselves to seek the grace of God’s regenerating Spirit for all their households.C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 44:1-10
A severe lesson unlearned.
I. OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN THE LESSON. The suffering had not happened a long way off and to a people of strangers. Those who were to be taught had seen for themselves. The suffering was the very cause that prompted them to seek a home in Egypt, and even at this moment it was no great distance that separated them from the land of desolation. And so also have we opportunities, only too many, to learn from the sufferings of others. All suffering teaches something, if only we are willing to learn, and the suffering that comes through sin should have a peculiarly instructing power. Opportunity is also given, not only to learn ourselves, but to teach others. The daily newspaper, with its records of crime, folly, violent death, and lifelong disgrace, puts all who read it under a great responsibility for ordering their lives aright.
II. THE FULL EXPLANATION OF THE SUFFERING. The cause of it all is clearly stated. The unfaithfulness of a nation to their God. Even to have begun a departure from God was great wickedness, but persistency still further intensified the guilt. Other nations were faithful to their gods, though they were really no gods and had rendered no service, whereas Israel owed its growth, its position, its prosperity, its fame, to Jehovah. We do not know the origin and moulding of any other people as we do those of the people of God. We cannot think of the great suffering connected with the desolated cities of Judah without thinking also of Jehovah’s long suffering, and of the continuous prophetic means he employed to set before his people their wickedness and peril. On the other hand, we have a lesson with respect to what seems unpunished iniquity. Suffering is surely being gathered up for it. Time is being given for repentance and amendment.
III. THE LESSON IS ALTOGETHER UNLEARNED. We say “unlearned,” because it effected no change. Suffering by itself cannot change. Suffering, indeed, appears to have different effects with different people, but the suffering is not really a cause. It but gives occasion to see whether men will yield to the new life and energy which comes from God. There had been a great upheaval in Judah, but so far as concerned the Jews dwelling in the land of Egypt the only change was one in the scene of their idolatries. They were the same men in Egypt as at Jerusalem.Y.
Jer 44:11-14
The doom on those making sure of safety in Egypt.
I. A FIXED RESOLUTION. The obstinate self-will of man brings into relief the inflexibility of the righteous judgments of God. The remnant of Judah set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there. What, then, is to be expected but that Jehovah should set his face against them? The more self-will becomes a power in the life, the more nearly does it move in direct opposition to him who is the true Sovereign and Disposer of every human life. We can guess something of the thoughts of these Egypt seekers. They say to themselves, “Henceforth we shall consult for our own safety.” They speak as if the peculiar perils hitherto besetting them were the perils of one place rather than another. Perhaps even they reckoned that outside the land of Israel they were beyond Jehovah’s reach. Here there is a lesson for us in our selfish aims and pursuits. All selfishness is bad, but even in selfishness a lesser badness is a degree of goodness, and it is well for a man if he gets frequently shaken in his selfishness; for then, his face not being steadily against God, he will find God looking on him encouragingly, to draw him out of his selfishness altogether.
II. A COMPLETE DESTRUCTION. Complete, that is, in the sense of general and final. There was but a remnant to begin with, and of that a very small remnant might escape. The very smallness of the remnant, however, would but magnify the completeness of the destruction, no place is secure against the visitations of God’s righteous wrath. Indeed, the greater the appearance of natural security, the more manifest will be the breaking in on this security of the Divine justice. Men must be taught, even by terrible lessons, that, as there is the best kind of safety under the shadow of God’s wings, so there is the worst kind of danger the further we go from God. To multiply our own defences is really to multiply our own perils.
III. A NULLIFIED PURPOSE. This remnant, not finding in Egypt the expected safety, thinks there is nothing easier than to go back again to the land of Judah. Whereas they find too late that, while departure from their own proper place is easy enough, return to it may be impossible. Opening the door to get out was one thing; opening it to get in again quite another. Seventy years was to pass before they of the Captivity should return from Babylonindeed, it would really be another generation altogether; and should those who sought Egypt in contumacy and rebellion expect to fare better? We must be wise in time. To be wise too late gives suffering its keenest edge. So Judas brought back in vain the thirty pieces of silver, and Esau found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears. This is why God is so earnest in promising wisdom and light to those who seek for them, that we may seek for them at the right time, at the beginning of the great opportunity of life, and at the beginning of every smaller opportunity.Y.
Jer 44:15-19
Supposed and real reasons for calamity.
I. A SUPPOSED REASON. What is the calamity? Sword and famine. Certainly a calamity to be removed and as far as possible averted for the future. And casting about to discover a reason for the calamity, the men of Judah, or rather the women, for it is they who appear most prominently in this declaration, discover that the reason is to be found in the discontinuance of their offerings to the queen of heaven. What a family matter this offering was is shown by Jer 7:18. The women kneaded dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven. These offerings must have been very generally given up when the migration into Egypt took place, and then, on the coming of the sword and famine, what was more natural than for these women to connect the calamity with the discontinued offerings? In one thing they were quite right; there was a supernatural reason for the calamity. Wrong as they were, it was well they did not rest in any mere natural reason. They were sure that a Divine Being of some sort or other had to do with their troubles. The direction of thought is different now. When calamity comes upon people, if they connect it with God at all, they very often do so in an arbitrary kind of way, as if nothing but a mere superior will, without reason or purpose of any sort, had sent calamity to them. It is easy to pity what we call the ignorance and superstition of this crowd of women, but always we can see the errors of other times far more easily than those of our own. The causes of suffering need to be inquired for very carefully, very patiently; for wrong conclusions only bring more suffering than ever.
II. THE REAL REASON. They had forsaken Jehovah. Not that there is any necessary connection between the forsaking of Jehovah and the sword and famine. Nothing but our faith in the reality of a prophet’s predictions can enable us to see this connection. There is oftentimes an utter forsaking of God, yet neither sword nor famine follow. The true and necessary result of going after something else than God is found in the consequent misery and emptiness of the life. Continually we suffer from our inability to see things in their right proportions. Bad as sword and famine may be, there are things infinitely worse. The fact that this multitude was debasing itself by worshipping the queen of heaven pointed to a state of things far worse than any physical suffering could be. Physical suffering may at any time be removed, if desirable, by a miracle. But that darkness of the heart producing essential idolatry, a darkness so loved and cherished, who is to remove that? Nay, the very fulness of temporal comforts may become a veil between God and the soul. The very thing which helped to deceive the people here as to the real causes of things lay in this, that at the time when they were worshipping the queen of heaven they had plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.Y.
Jer 44:27
Watching over men for evil.
I. THIS WATCHING IS NEVER IRRESPECTIVE OF CONDUCT. If God ever watches over any man for evil it is because the man’s conduct deserves it. It is not so necessarily with our watching. We may watch over a man for evil either from intensity of malice or intensity of selfishness. We may wish to do him ill from revenge or because his prosperity seems to mean our adversity. A word announcing watch over men for evil is a very serious word to fall even from Divine lips; and while ,God may speak it, perhaps we ought never to speak it. But at the same time, we cannot help watching over men for evil, and what we need especially to guard ourselves against is the doing of this from wrong motives. We must follow in the footsteps of God himself. When we censure others, or oppose them, or make them suffer in any way, let it be clear to ourselves and as far as possible clear to the world that their conduct has demanded it.
II. EVIL CONDUCT IS NEVER SEPARATED FROM SUCH WATCHING. God says that he is watching in this particular instance, but we know that he watches for evil against all evil doers. We speak of evil doing as being invariably followed by suffering, but this is only one way of putting the matter. We may also say that when suffering follows our wickedness it is the proof that God is watching for evil over the evil doer. And in this matter we need zealously and boldly to do as God does, though, of course, we must do it according to the measure of human limits and infirmity. When any one is engaged with determination in any evil pursuit, it must be ours to show that we are by no means indifferent. God’s watching over wicked men for evil is often done through the eyes of his own people; for if we have the Spirit of God in us there will be something of Divine discernment.
III. A CONNECTED TRUTH THAT NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED AT THE SAME TIME. If God watches over the wicked for evil and not for good, it is equally true that he watches over the righteous for good and not for evil. Not one life, going on patiently and bravely in uprightness, is unobserved by him. Whatever the appearances may be, the abiding realities of life are against the wicked and for the righteous.Y.
Jer 44:28
Human and Divine confidence.
I. IN WHAT THEY ARE ALIKE.
1. In the assurance with which they are expressed. Here are men, in their worldly wisdom, perfectly certain that the course they have adopted will turn out right. It is always important to notice the assured unquestioning spirit in which men will set out on their enterprises. They do not seem to see the failures, disgraces, and humiliations of others; such overwhelming troubles are not to come nigh them. And all this is great testimony to the use of faith to men. God means men to be confident. The confidence which he ever expresses himself is meant to find a correspondent confidence in us. We need never be dubious in matters of a spiritual kind, however dubious we have to be as to certain external results. If we only act in the right, divinely ordained way, then we can continually be confident that all will come right.
2. In the time of waiting needful to justify the confidence. God speaks words, the truth and profound significance of which it may take not merely generations but even millenniums to make manifest to the whole world. Everything immediately apparent to the outward eye may contradict what he says. And something of his own wisdom and insight into the future he gives to men of the right spirit, so that they may work for results which are to be developed through long periods. He makes it possible for men to go on believing, hopeful and patient through all discouragements, and even to die in the faith that what they have sown others will reap. Thus faith which God makes to stand in the beginning he strengthens and establishes even to the end. And that faith which makes men themselves to utter confident dogmatic words will not be shaken all at once. Time is to try all thingsthe wisdom of the wise and the folly of the fools, the result of that which is sown to the Spirit and that which is sown to the flesh.
II. IN WHAT THEY DIFFER. In respect of real and deep insight into the future. The man who is confident in worldly wisdom is simply confident in the doctrine of chances. His chance of stability and success is equally good with that of others. Some must fail, but some must succeed. But God would have us ever to understand that success el this sort is only a deferred failure. If men could only see far enough, success and honour and safety would be utterly transmuted into failure, disgrace, and ruin. But God’s confidence is based on certain and complete knowledge. The end of all unsettlement and change must be something stable and continuous, and when God sees men reckoning themselves on a true foundation, which after all is miserably brief and frail, he can only assert the truth. If men will not believe, the only thing remaining is to wait. The utter downfall of the Jewish nation from such a height to such a depth was predicted even in the days of their outward glory. The Word of God stands because he can discern the certain exhaustion of purely human resources even when those resources show themselves in exuberant exercise and impressive achievement.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 44:1. At Tahpanhes, &c. That is to say, At Daphne, and at Memphis, and in the country of Thebais. Migdol was also called Magdolus. Migdol is mentioned Exo 14:2 as situate near the Red Sea. But I do not take this to be the place here intended. Migdol properly signifies a tower, and may, in all probability, have been given as a name to different cities in Egypt, where there was a distinguished object of that kind. The city of Magdolus is mentioned by Herodotus, Hecataeus, and others, and placed by Antoninus at the entrance of Egypt from Palestine, about twelve miles from Pelusium. This was too far distant from the Red Sea, to be in the route of the Israelites; but its situation in the neighbourhood of Tahpanhes, or Daphne, and its distance from Judaea, favour the supposition of its being the Migdol here spoken of. For then, as Bochart observes, we shall find the four places mentioned exactly in the order of their respective distances from that country; first, Migdol, or Magdolus; secondly, Tahpanhes, or Daphne; thirdly, Noph, or Memphis; and lastly, the district of Pathros, or Thebais. See Bochart Phaleg. lib. 4: cap. 27.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
10. JEREMIAH AT THE FESTIVAL OF THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN IN PATHROS. THE LAST ACT OF HIS PROPHETIC MINISTRY
a. The charge against the stubbornly idolatrous people
Jer 44:1-14
1The word that came to Jeremiah concerning [for, to] all the Jews which dwell [who dwelt] in the land of Egypt, which dwell at, Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and 2at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye 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 3man dwelleth therein; because of their wickedness which they have committed to1 provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other 4gods, whom they knew not, neither they,2 ye, nor your fathers. Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, 5do not this abominable thing3 that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined 6their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. Wherefore my fury and mine 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 7this day. Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls,4 to cut off from you man 8and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain: In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense5 unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves6 off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all 9the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten the wickedness [evil]7 of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their [his]8 wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they9 have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?10They are not humbled even, unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in 11my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face12against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. And 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 all10 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, and13an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, 14and by the pestilence: So that none [there shall be none escaped or remaining] of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return [and then to 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.11
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The word of the Lord is communicated through Jeremiah to the Israelites dwelling in Egypt; ye have seen how I have punished Judah and Jerusalem for their idolatry (Jer 44:1-6). Why then do you continually commit the same wickedness? Have ye forgotten the lecture? It appears so, for they have not humbled themselves, nor endeavored to keep the law of God (Jer 44:7-10). Therefore shall the remnant of Judah in Egypt, even like unto Judah and Jerusalem, be destroyed by sword, famine and pestilence, and at most single fugitives shall return home (Jer 44:11-14).
Jer 44:1. The word saying. We have here the last document of Jeremiahs prophetic ministry. Far from home, after terrible judgments, he has still the same thing to say to the Jews as at first. They have not become wiser or better. From Tahpanhes they had spread abroad in the land. What occasion had brought them together in so large an assembly, is not indeed stated in the superscription, which is of the greater sort (comp. Jer 40:1; Jer 36:1; Jer 35:1; Jer 34:1, etc.), but is evident enough from what follows.Dwelt. The fugitives have already established themselves in fixed abodes. Comp. rems. on Jer 43:8Migdol (comp. Jer 46:14; Eze 29:10; Eze 30:6 coll. Exo 14:2; Num 33:7) was one of the north-eastern boundary points of Egypt [near Syene]. In Herodotus (II. 159) and the LXX. the place is called ; according to the Itiner. Anton. (p. 171) it was twelve Roman miles from Pelusium.On Tahpanhes comp. rems. on Jer 43:8.Noph is Memphis, the ancient capital of lower Egypt. Comp. rems. on Jer 2:16.Pathros (comp. Jer 44:15; Isa 11:11; Eze 29:14; Eze 30:14) is upper Egypt. Comp. Herzog, R.-Enc., I. S. 149. The assembly was held, according to Jer 44:15, in Pathros. A considerable time must have elapsed since the migration, because we find the colony already dispersed and settled in different places. On the other hand the meeting cannot have occurred so long after the migration that those who are addressed by Jeremiah can belong to the second generation. They were the Jews who had come into the country (Jer 44:8), and the longing for home was still strong in them. Comp. rems. on Jer 44:29-30
Jer 44:2-6. Thus saith as at this day. The prophet presents before the Jews first the great catastrophe, portraying its genesis in the order of its elements.Whom they know not. Comp. Jer 19:4I sent, etc. Comp. Jer 7:13; Jer 7:25; Jer 29:19.This abominable thing. Comp. Jer 32:35.Was poured forth. Comp. Jer 42:18.In the cities of Judah. Comp. Jer 44:9; Jer 44:17; Jer 44:21; Jer 7:17; Jer 11:6; Jer 33:10.As at this day. Comp. Jer 44:2; Jer 44:22-23; Jer 11:5.
Jer 44:7-10. Therefore now thus before your fathers. After the Jews had just learned in a different manner how fearfully Jehovah avenges apostasy from Him, how can they now again, to their unendurable shame and ruin, commit the same sins? It appears as if they had forgotten the lesson and not yet learned to bow in obedience to the divine law.Man and woman. Comp. 1Sa 15:3; 1Sa 22:19; Lam 2:11.The works of your hands. From Jer 1:16 coll. Jer 25:14 it is evident that the prophet wishes the expression to be understood in a physical sense of the idol images.Burning incense in the wider sense. Comp. rems. on Jer 1:16.That ye might be, etc. Comp. Jer 42:18; Zec 8:13.Have ye forgotten, etc. The present unlawful conduct of the people is explained only by their forgetfulness of the former calamities occasioned by their idolatry.Hitzig well calls attention to the fact, that the royal wives played an important part in the history of Jewish idolatry. Comp. the wives of Solomon (1Ki 11:1 sqq.) Maachah, the mother of Asa (Jer 15:13) and Athaliah (Jer 11:1).
Jer 44:10. They are not humbled. Comp. Isa 57:15. How unwillingly does the prophet turn away and address his discourse concerning these, to whom he has hitherto spoken, to others. Comp. Mic 1:2; Jer 50:8.Nor walked. Comp. Jer 9:12; Jer 26:4.
Jer 44:11-14. Therefore shall escape. Because the Jews, notwithstanding they had experienced the fearful severity of Gods punitive justice, again committed the same sins, therefore ( Jer 44:11) will the Lord set his face against them, the last remnant of Judah, and by the destruction of this utterly exterminate the nation. Comp. Jer 44:7.And I will take. The expression involves an antithesis to set their faces to go. They thought in their own power to take a path which would lead them away from the punitive hand. But the Lord seizes them as He once did the prophet Jonah.Shall be an execration. Comp. rems. on Jer 42:18.Them that dwell. Comp. Jer 9:24-25; Jer 46:25.None escaped. The Jews had gone to Egypt to remain there temporarily, and then return home. On which are gone then depends not only to sojourn there but also and to return with the following relative sentence.To the which. Comp. Jer 22:27.But such as shall escape. Comp. Textual Note.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 44:3.In and the is the gerundial (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 95, e), in it is the supinal (Ib., 93, f.). Comp. Jer 11:17; Jer 32:32.
[2]Jer 44:3. is not to be regarded as accusative, since this has been already expressed by the suffix in , but as nominative. The third person stands in close connection with the preceding, the with the sudden change of person (comp. infra Jer 44:5; Jer 44:10 and Naegelsb. Gr., 101 Anm.) is however explained by , with which a return is made to the second person used in the beginning of the sentence (Jer 44:2).
[3]Jer 44:4. as in Jdg 19:24.
[4]Jer 44:7. must here have the same sense as , Jer 44:9. For the connection is: the that ye now do can only be explained, by your having forgotten the of the past. Since now must necessarily be taken in a double sense, so must also in this passage. is a gerundial infinitive. On comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 81, 1 c.
[5]Jer 44:8. and are also gerundial infinitives (comp. Jer 44:3).
[6]Jer 44:8.In Jer 44:7 has a definitely expressed object. Many would supply this here. Others take for , according to the analogy of Jer 40:2. may, however, also be taken in a directly causative sense=prepare extermination, so that the dative would have nothing abnormal in it. Comp. Jer 50:34; Isa 2:4; Isa 51:11 with ; Naegelsb. Gr., 69, 1 Anm. 2.
[7]Jer 44:9.From it would follow that is to be taken in a moral sense. But can it be said of those who are censured on account of their persistence in these sins: Have you forgotten your sins? J. D. Michaelis is therefore disposed to read , with a marginal reading of a Knigsberg Codex: mijus peccando memoriam peccatorum ante commissorum obliterastis. But this reading is not sufficiently authenticated. We must therefore take , as in Jer 44:7, in a double sense, so as to designate at the same time the mala pn and the mala culp (comp. Gen 50:15). Their forgetfulness of the sufferings which they had drawn on them by their sins is the cause of their obstinate persistence in the latter.
[8]Jer 44:9. . Both the introduction of the wives and the singular suffix are surprising. The LXX. read . or would certainly correspond better to the connection, as well as to the usage of the prophet elsewhere (comp. Jer 44:17; Jer 44:21; Jer 1:18; Jer 2:26; Jer 24:8; Jer 25:18; Jer 32:32; Jer 34:21). But the more difficult reading is to be preferred. The singular suffix is not to be referred to Judah, since the expression wives of Judah is neither used elsewhere nor suitable to the connection, but to the king of the time. Comp. Hos 4:8; Zec 14:12; Naegelsb. Gr., 105, 7, Anm. 2.
[9]Jer 44:9. . Change of person as in Jer 44:3; Jer 44:5. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 101, 2, Anm.
[10]Jer 44:12. . According to the accents the sentence is to be construed as in the translation. On comp. Isa 30:5; Ewald, 286, e.
[11]Jer 44:14. . Strictly taken these words form a direct contradiction to the beginning of the verse, which declares that there shall be a or , and the words are no other than the confirmation of this statement. It is therefore natural to regard the words as a later addition, as Hitzig does. The brevity of the previous sentence, and its apparent contradiction of Jer 44:28 seemed to require this supplementation. In Jer 44:28 it is expressly stated that some, having escaped, will return, and it is hence evident that the declaration here, Jer 44:14, is not to be taken with absolute literalness.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Obfirment animum suum ministri ecclesi hujus capitis meditatione, ne pertinacia auditorum se territuri patiantur, sed ut potius dehortando, objurgando, comminando intrepide instent ex prcepto apostoli 2Ti 4:2. Frster.
2. On Jer 44:2-13. A mirror of the stubborn heart of man! For centuries unceasingly warned by the prophetsand how warned! Not by sentimental talk, but by words of thunder and strokes of power,think only of Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Isaiah, etc.!yet Judah bowed not his stubborn neck. Then at last when long-suffering love was exhausted, the judgment of just love was executed. And yet in the wretched remnant the old root of unbelief and disobedience remains still unbroken.
3. On Jer 44:9. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle as vetches, yet will his foolishness not depart from him (Pro 27:22). And he that sings songs to a heavy heart, it is like a torn garment in winter, and vinegar on nitre (Pro 25:20). Cramer.
4. On Jer 44:15. Hoc loco imaginem quandam conspicere licet seditionis, de qua Ethnicus: ,itemque confusionis plus quam cyclopic, de qua notum est illud tritum: . Frster.
5. On Jer 44:16. Ungodliness continually extends and even goes beyond itself. In the foregoing chapter they wish it to be considered as having to do only with Jeremiahs private person, but now they are become bolder so that they contradict him officially and thus God Himself, not considering that they know what he says to be spoken not on his own, but on Gods account, which is a great blasphemy of God. Cramer.
6. On Jer 44:17. The ungodly are blind. For they ascribe all their good fortune to their idolatry. When, however, a misfortune comes God and His word must be to blame, and they say: It is vain to serve God (Mal 3:14). The charge of the Papists is used again now-a-days. when times are dear and the country suffers such like chastisements, that it is the fault of the Gospel; since on the other hand their mass is regarded as a regular Egyptian Meleket, by which they think to obtain temporal and eternal blessings both for the living and the dead. Cramer.
7. On Jer 44:17. Non ovum ovo tam simile est atque huic Judorum orationi nostrorum hominum vox contendentium, sub papatu aureum fuisse sculum, cum tamen contrarium testentur histor de bellis, peste et fame in papatu, prsertim ea, qu incidit in annum Christi 1315, quo tempore fere tertia pars Germani partim fame, partim peste extincta. Hinc versus: Ut lateat nullum tempus famis, ecce cucullum Frster.
8. On Jer 44:17. Non mirum, quod urbes peste vexentur, cum sculapius et Dii ab iis procul absint, nam ex quo Jesus colitur, nihil jam utilitatis a Diis consequimur. Porphyrius. MS. note in my copy of Cramers Bible.
9. On Jer 44:19. There is no doubt that the inconstant, frivolous women were the first to be seduced into idolatry, as Eve (2Co 11:3). When these are taken captive, he then proceeds farther, and knows how to bring in the Adam also. Therefore keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom (Mic 7:5). Cramer.
10. On Jer 44:19. The harmony and complaisance of married people is never more easily secured than when it is against the Lord, and it is nothing unusual for domestic peace to be adduced as the cause of a lack of zeal in religion. It is an ancient custom; Ahab, Ahaziah and Solomon only followed Adam. The wife had to be deceived by a subtle serpent; the man was bound to keep peace in the family; she gave him and he ate. Zinzendorf.
11. On Jer 44:20. God remembers the good and the evil; the good that He may reward it, the evil that He may punish it. Cramer. [God will have the last word. The prophets may be run down, but God cannot. Henry.S. R. A]
12. On Jer 44:26. This is the severest punishment of all, that God takes away His holy name and word, as He says in Deu 32:20 : I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be. And this is the famine, not of bread, but of the word of God which they seek and yet do not find (Amo 8:11). Cramer.
13. On Jer 44:29-30. Between Moses and Jeremiah, between the exodus from Egypt and the return thither of the remnant, there lies a period of almost a thousand years, and what a history! But the Pharaoh, under whom Israel made the exodus, Menephthes (comp. Lepsius in Herz., R.-Enc, I., S. 146) is described by Herodotus as an arrogant and ungodly man (II., 111), just like Hophra. And at both times Israel was a poor despised heap in the land of Egypt. But the heathen were to know that the God of this despised heap is the only true God, and that their idols were naught, as also Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar and Darius the Mede had also to learn (Daniel 2-6.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 44:1-14. The holy love of God: 1. long-suffering; 2. just.
2. On Jer 44:9-14. How ruinous a course it is to forget the chastisements of the Lord. This will be shown, if we ponder that this forgetfulness 1. implies chastisement already suffered, 2. proves its want of good results, 3. calls forth severer chastisements from God.
3. On Jer 44:15-18. The utmost alienation of a people from their God, shown in the example of the Jews in Egypt. 1. They place the benefits received to the account of their idols. 2. The evils suffered they place to the account of the Lord. 3. They renounce their obedience to the Lord. 4. They vow their service to their idols.
4. On Jer 44:26-27. The severest punishment which the Lord can bring upon a people, who have hitherto served Him. 1. It consists in this, that the Lord removes the candlestick of His word from among this people, i.e. that by depriving them of the means of grace, He brings Himself into forgetfulness among the people. 2. It is founded in this, that this people on their part have striven to forget the Lord. 3. It has the effect, that this people is given up to the powers of evil to their complete destruction.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet is here preaching, though in Egypt, in the same strain of reproof as before. And the Lord foretells by him the destruction of that kingdom.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Never surely could anything be more gracious than the Lord’s repeated expostulations with the people. The Lord follows them into Egypt, whither they had fled in direct defiance of God’s word; and yet even here, the same patience and long suffering is set forth. Reader! do not overlook, in Israel’s history, our own. Every part and portion of God’s word, and every providence, preacheth now as much as then, to the same amount; I am God, and not man, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Mal 3:9 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XII
THE CLOSING SCENES IN THE LIFE OF JEREMIAH
Jeremiah 40-44
These closing scenes in the life of the prophet took place subsequent to the year 586 B.C. and probably before 580 B.C. They occupied a space of about four or five years, possibly a few more.
We commence this discussion by looking at the fate of Jerusalem, and the fate of Jeremiah immediately following that event. In Jer 40:6 we have an account of the fall of the city and its destruction by the men of the Babylonian army. Zedekiah and the chief captain, through a breach in the wall sought to make their escape into the valley of the Jordan and the plains of Moab beyond. The king and the remnant of his army were overtaken and captured by the Chaldeans and taken to Riblah, the headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar. Many of them doubtless escaped. Some of these found refuge in Moab, and some in the mountains of Judah. Thus there was a considerable number of the inhabitants that made their escape by fleeing in every direction.
When the forces of Nebuchadnezzar broke through the walls of the city and took it, the ruthless soldiers of the Chaldeans doubtless wreaked their vengeance upon the inhabitants. Judging from the picture in the book of Lamentations, many were slaughtered and many of the nobles were butchered, but they did not really sack the city. They took many captives. Their main object was to take the inhabitants alive, as there was value in them as slaves, and this was their aim more than mere butchery of the people. Of course, they sought to take the king’s family and all of his household; also the nobles and all the chief families.
When they were destroying the city and taking the royal families, they found Jeremiah, the prophet, for he was imprisoned in the court of the guard. He was bound and taken out as far as Ramah, Jer 40:2-4 : “The captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, Jehovah thy God pronounced this evil upon this place; and Jehovah hath brought it, and done accordingly as he spake. . . . And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which are upon thy hand.” According to the account in the previous chapter he had received direct orders from the king to set Jeremiah free.
This heathen speaks as if he were a very pious man; as if he thoroughly believed in Jeremiah’s doctrine: “The Lord hath brought this evil upon this place and done as he spoke because ye have sinned against Jehovah.” Those are almost Jeremiah’s very words. He speaks to Jeremiah and tells him to go back to Gedaliah, the governor, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land. This man that had been appointed governor was a member of the royal family and a great man, one of the princes of Jerusalem. Thus he returned and found that Gedaliah had called the people, and held a rally at Mizpah, about four or five miles from Jerusalem.
We have an account of the colony which was established at Mizpah (Jer 40:7-12 ). It is said that the people, when they heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, governor in the land, committed unto him the men and women and children. (Jer 40:8 gives the names of the princes and chief men. Gedaliah called the people together and made appointments as he had authority to do. It says in (Jer 40:9 , “And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam . . . [and this man, Ahikam, had saved the life of Jeremiah.] Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” Now, that was exactly what Jeremiah had been preaching for years.
Here was one man who was with Jeremiah. It was doubtless because of this fact that Nebuchadnezzar had appointed him to this position. He says in verse (Jer 40:10 : “As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chaldeans that shall come unto us.” They could not live in Jerusalem. The city was in ruins. He planned to live at Mizpah, to meet the Chaldeans that would come to him.
In the latter half of (Jer 40:10 , it says, “But ye, gather ye the wine and the summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that ye have taken.” In (Jer 40:11 he says, “The Jews that were in Moab, and among the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries, when they heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah, they returned to their native land.” In the latter part of (Jer 40:12 it says, “And gathered wine and summer fruits very much,” which seems to indicate that the people simply helped themselves to the fields and vineyards that had been left.
The king of Ammon, having heard of this new colony established at Mizpah, with Gedaliah as governor, set to work to induce a certain fanatical Jew by the name of Ishmael, to murder him. We do not know just why he desired the murder of the governor. It may be that he thought that it would mean increase of territory to him and that the people would rally to him and that would mean more power. Again, it may be that this man Ishmael was a fanatical Israelite who hated the Chaldeans and any one of his own people who was friendly to them. So he connived with the king of Ammon to do the deed. When Johanan found out this plot he warned Gedaliah, his friend) that Ishmael was about to take his life. But Gedaliah did not believe it. He felt that no one would dare to take his life, the life of the governor whom the great king of Babylon had appointed, for Nebuchadnezzar would not fail to punish a crime like that. But this man Johanan knew and so he says in (Jer 40:15 , “Let me go, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it.” He knew that if Ishmael should slay the royal governor, Nebuchadnezzar would take vengeance on the people, and all must suffer.
An account of the murder of Gedaliah and his friends is given in Jer 41:1-3 . Ishmael was a fanatical patriot. He came to see Gedaliah, and the chiefs of the king’s officers were with him. They came to Mizpah. So they ate bread together and among Orientals that is a sacred thing. But this man, Ishmael, did not scruple to violate this custom of his fellows. (Jer 41:2 says, “Then arose Ishmael . . . and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him.”
The murder of Gedaliah was concealed, verse Jer 41:4 : “And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it, that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even four score men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent.” They had frankincense and meal in their hands to bring them to the house of Jehovah. They were coming to worship. Note now the treachery of Ishmael. It is said in Jer 41:6 that he went forth to meet them, weeping all along as he went. He pretended to be in sorrow. He said to them when he met them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam,” and when they came in to the midst of the city Ishmael slew them and then cast them into the midst of the pit. But ten of them told this villain that they had stores of wealth, and begged him to spare them; so he saved them for the sake of their wealth. That gives us some idea of the character of this man, Ishmael. Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people and departed to go over to the children of Ammon (Jer 41:10 ).
Ishmael gathered together what people he had and started, but Johanan was not idle. He gathered others and pursued and when he came near, all the people who had been carried away captive by Ishmael came over to Johanan but Ishmael managed to escape.
Then the colony went to Bethlehem under the leadership of Johanan. We readily see the plight in which Johanan now found himself. Word would come to Nebuchadnezzar that his faithful governor had been slain. Johanan knew what that would mean, and so did the people. They knew that the great king would send his army, and then there would be no mercy shown. They were afraid of the Chaldeans because Ishmael had slain the governor, Gedaliah (Jer 41:18 ).
An account of the colony at Bethlehem and Jeremiah’s relation to it is found in Jer 42:1-43:7 . We are following the nucleus of the nation, that part of the nation which constituted the organized body of Israel. There were thousands of the Jews in other nations at that time, but we are following here the nucleus. This nucleus constituted the organized germ of the nation. The prophet had been forced to go with them. See verse Jer 42:2 : “Let, we pray thee, our supplication be presented before thee, and pray for us unto Jehovah thy God.” Again, in verse Jer 42:3 : “That Jehovah thy God may show us the thing we should do and wherein we should walk.” It looks now as if they were actually turning to the prophet; that they were on his side; that they were coming to his terms. Has he at last succeeded in winning the nation? Not at all, as we shall see.
The prophet said, Well, I will inquire of Jehovah for you. I will do this if you will promise me that you will do what he says. Ten days passed, and the prophet doubtless spent them in prayer, while the people spent them in consultation. At the end of the ten days Jeremiah received his message, and they had likewise made up their minds as to what they were going to do. We have that message in Jer 42:10-11 : “If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith Jehovah: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hands.” Note also Jer 42:13 : “But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land; so that ye obey not the voice of your God, but say, We will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no more war, . . . So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.”
The prophet is able to see through their motive. Notice particularly verse Jer 42:20 : “For ye have dealt deceitfully against your souls; . . . saying unto me, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God.” In other words, he says, While begging me to inquire of God you have already made up your minds what you are going to do. Verse Jer 42:21 : “And I have this day declared it unto you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of God.” Now, that is like many people in modern life. They may want to know what God is going to do, what his will is, and yet at the same time have made up their minds already as to what they are going to do.
They refused to remain in Judah. “Then they spake to Jeremiah and said unto him, Ye have spoken falsely, for Jehovah your God hath not sent you unto us to say, Ye shall not dwell in the land of Egypt, to sojourn there.” Now, that was a very strange saying. Jeremiah had prophesied during forty years that the city would be destroyed, and his prophecy had been fulfilled to the letter, and other things that he had foretold had come to pass, and here he is giving another prophecy, and they listen to him; then tell him that he prophesies falsely; that he is a lying prophet. Notice in Jer 43:3 : “But Baruch setteth thee on against us, to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans to carry us away.” So they went into Egypt.
Jeremiah’s symbolic action in Egypt is described in Jer 43:8-13 . As soon as they arrived Jeremiah performed another of his symbolic actions, verse Jer 43:9 : “Take great stones in thy hand and hide them in mortar in the brickwork, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah.” Professor Petrie, perhaps the greatest of all Egyptologists, found a few years ago in the mortar of the brickwork of the ruins of that very city, great stones hidden in mortar. We do not know that these were the very stones that Jeremiah put there, but certainly it is very suggestive. It looks as if Jeremiah’s prophecy was verified. That city is in ruins. Verse Jer 43:12 : “I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captive.”
Now let us look at Jeremiah’s message to the Jews in Egypt (Jer 44:1-14 ). There was a great assembly at Tahpanhes. Jeremiah seizes this opportunity to deliver his message to them about idolatry. Their sins brought punishment upon them. He urges them to repent and turn from idolatry. Verse Jer 44:4 : “Oh, do not this abominable thing.” But the people were determined to remain in idolatry (Jer 44:15-23 ). The men had gathered together and their idolatrous wives were gathered with them. Verse Jer 44:16 : “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us, we will not hearken unto thee.” In Jer 44:17 he says, “But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven.” Now, we come to a remarkable passage. These people argue that because they stopped worshiping the queen of heaven, their calamities had come upon them. Jeremiah said that it was because they turned from Jehovah; they said that it was because they learned from the queen of heaven. That was the issue. They said that when Josiah made them stop worshiping the queen of heaven, then their troubles began. Then the women began to make their excuse. They said that their husbands allowed them to worship the queen of heaven. They did that, maybe, to keep peace in the family, and now they were being charged with the trouble. The meaning of it all was that these people had simply made up their minds that they would be idolaters, and no power in the universe could turn them from it. Jeremiah had been preaching against it for forty years, and they would not hearken. Now, they tell him that they will not listen, they will not obey. Then Jeremiah presented his argument in answer to their excuses and reasons: You have sinned and this is the reason for your calamity.
This is Jeremiah’s last sermon, that is, it is the last one that we have any record of. He speaks to the people another word: “Hearken to this word: I have sworn by my great name, saith Jehovah, that my name shall no more be named by any man of Judah in Egypt. . . . And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt few in number.” He continues as to Egypt: “Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra into the hands of his enemies, as I gave Zedekiah, the king of Judah, into the hands of his enemies.” Indeed, it was only a few years till Nebuchadnezzar did invade Egypt and took it. There were Jews in Egypt until the time of Christ, but unquestionably very few of these Jews in Jeremiah’s time escaped the perilous times that followed. According to the last trustworthy account we have of Jeremiah he was in Egypt. Tradition says that he died at the hands of his own people.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the date of this section?
2. Give an account of the capture of Zedekiah and the chief captain, and those who escaped.
3. What disposition did the Chaldeans make of the inhabitants of Jerusalem ?
4. Give an account of Jeremiah’s capture and release.
5. Give an account of the colony which was established at Mizpah (Jer 40:7-12 ).
6. Give an account of the plot against Gedaliah and the work of Johanan.
7. Give an account of the murder of Gedaliah and his friends (Jer 41:1-8 ).
8. Give an account of the murder of the seventy pilgrims (Jer 41:4-10 ).
9. Describe the counter-attack of Johanan and Ishmael’s escape (Jer 41:11-15 ).
10. What is the result of this murder to Johanan and the people?
11. Give an account of the colony at Bethlehem and Jeremiah’s relation to it (Jer 42:1-43:7 ).
12. What was Jeremiah’s symbolic action in Egypt? (Jer 43:8-13 .)
13. What was Jeremiah’s message to the Jews in Egypt? (Jer 44:1-14 .)
14. How did they receive his message and what reason did they assign? (Jer 44:15-23 .) Give details.
15. What the last words of Jeremiah, where did he die, and what tradition respecting his death?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
Ver. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah. ] No word of comfort – how could it be, as long as they lived in open rebellion against the Lord? – but all of reproof and threatening. For what reason? they were obdurate and obstinate, and did daily proficere in peius, grow worse and worse.
Which dwell at Migdol.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 44
The path of unbelief is a rapid descent when the heart hardens itself against a direct warning of the Lord; and the greater the profession of piety before, the more profound the fall. To go down into Egypt for safety was not natural in those who had ever reluctantly bowed to Babylon, and dreaded the wrath of the Chaldean king because of the murder of the governor and the rest. But it was a fatal step when the prophet gave them the word of Jehovah, and they were assured of safety in the land subject to Nebuchadnezzar, of destruction in Egypt whither their impulse, yea determination, was to go prudentially for shelter. God loves to be the Saviour of those who bear His name; if they desert Him for another, woe to them! It cannot but be to their shame, sorrow and ruin. Even when they have revolted to the uttermost, they are not left without a message, if peradventure any might yet hear and escape.
“The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye 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 dwelleth therein, because 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 know not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers. Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. Wherefore my fury and mine 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.” (Ver. 1-6.) Such was the wretched part of the chosen people and their king.
Had God pleasure in recounting their sins, and His judgments as well as warnings? Nay, it was His pity and desire that those in Egypt might at length hearken. “Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut of from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain: In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have ye 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? They 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.” (Ver. 7-10.) Imminent peril hung over them; Egypt would be a vain shelter, but meanwhile it was too sure a decoy into idolatry.
Let it be noted here that the prophet lays stress on the wickedness of wives, and the place it had in precipitating the disasters of Israel before and now. Women are more ready to hear and feel, for good or ill, than men. The brighter side we see in the Acts of the Apostles, and also in the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament. The darker side appears here as elsewhere. It is a great grace from the Lord when they receive the truth and are saved; it is an awful sign of speedy judgment when they, renouncing the truth, are bold and shameless in their resolution to serve a false god. But we shall see more presently.
“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. And 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. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: so 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.” (Ver. 11-14.) Alas! they had ears, but they heard not. The remnant was rotten to the core.
“Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 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, 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. But 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. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we mike her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?” (Ver. 15-19.) Thus they gloried in their shame, regarding not the works of Jehovah nor the operation of His hands, to their own destruction. Their calamities they interpreted as the consequence of slighting the queen of heaven,* for their will was thoroughly committed to a so-called religion, which consecrated mere depravity and passion.
*This was the female form of Baal or Bel, named Beltic, Ashtaroth, Astarte, Alitta, Mylitta, Aphrodite, etc., Whose worship was attended by the grossest immorality.
Why did they not attribute their troubles, as was the truth, to the chastening hand of God? This is precisely what the prophet charges home with the simplicity and force of truth. “Then 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 incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, 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? So that the Lord could no longer hear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. Because ye have burned incense, and because ye 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.” (Ver. 20-23.)
Next the prophet solemnly lays before all of Judah in Egypt the inevitable end of their idolatry, as in former chapters of their unbelief and rebellious disobedience. “Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Ye 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: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows. Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith 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 liveth. Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine or their’s. And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life: as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.” (Ver. 24-30.) The sign should be the utter downfall of Pharaoh-hophra (Apries in Herodotus, and Uaphris in Manetho), who was then reigning, and historically known as a singularly self-confident monarch; and yet he was put down ignominiously by a revolt of his own subjects, who set up a rival king; and he finally, spite of intervening kindness, gave him up to the Egyptians, who strangled him. Those who forgot the ruin of Zedekiah should soon see the arrogant reed of Egypt break before the blast which was not to spare their own guilt.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 44:1-10
1The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying, 2Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them, 3because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers. 4Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate. 5But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods. 6Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day. 7Now then thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant, 8provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside, so that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and 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? 10But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have set before you and before your fathers.’
Jer 44:1 The cities of Migdol and Tahpanhes are in the eastern delta region. Memphis is about 100 miles up the Nile. The Land of Pathros is another 100 miles up the Nile (i.e., city of No-Amon). These locations would represent most of Egypt.
It is surprising that the expected full phrase the word. . .from the LORD is shortened but it still reflects the full revelatory formula of Jer 7:1; Jer 11:1; Jer 18:1; Jer 21:1; Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:1; Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1.
Jer 44:2 the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel This extended title using YHWH and Elohim is repeated four times in this chapter (cf. Jer 44:2; Jer 44:7; Jer 44:11; Jer 44:25). He is creator and covenant-making Deity. See Special Topic: Names for Deity .
Jer 44:3 Israel and Judah’s problem was covenant disobedience.
1. not listening to and obeying YHWH (cf. Jer 44:23)
2. going after other gods (cf. Jer 44:3; Jer 44:5; Jer 44:15-19)
burn sacrifices This VERB (BDB 882, KB 1094, Piel INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT) can mean (cf. Jer 1:16)
1. the smoke of a sacrifice
2. the smoke of incense (cf. Jer 44:17-18)
Jer 44:4 again and again This is literally rising early and sending (cf. Jer 7:13; Jer 7:25; Jer 25:4; Jer 26:5; Jer 35:15). The Judeans knew YHWH’s will through previous revelations to the Patriarchs and Moses/Joshua, as well as the messages of the prophets.
abominable thing For this phrase see Jer 16:18; Jer 32:34-35 and Special Topic: Abomination .
Jer 44:6 The fall of Judah was not because of the power of the Babylonian god Marduk or the power of the Babylonian army. It was Judah’s continued covenant disobedience that caused YHWH to bring to bear the curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27-30.
Jer 44:7 This verse is parallel to Jer 42:20 (cf. Jer 26:19). One’s choices determine the consequences (cf. Deu 30:15; Deu 30:19). These Judeans’ choice will bring their lineage to an end (hyperbolic, some did survive)!
Jer 44:8 The idolatry of the Judeans continues in Egypt! The Jews have changed the worship of the gods of Canaan to the gods of Egypt (cf. Jer 2:13).
become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth See note at Jer 42:18. The covenant people were to be a blessing to all the nations (cf. Gen 12:3), but they had become a curse. They were meant to reveal the mercy and goodness of YHWH to the nations, but all they revealed was His anger (cf. Eze 36:22-36)!
Jer 44:10 But they have not become contrite The VERB (BDB 193, KB 221, Pual PERFECT) usually means to crush; here it is uniquely used to denote a crushed, repentant spirit.
Their lack of repentance is characterized as
1. they have not feared YHWH
2. they have not walked in His revelation (i.e., law, statutes; see Special Topic: Terms for God’s Revelation )
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
The Thirty-Ninth Prophecy of Jeremiah (see book comments for Jeremiah).
This was Jeremiah’s Thirty-Ninth and latest prophecy (see book comments for Jeremiah) relating to Israel. Chapters 46-51 relate to the Gentiles.
which dwell, &c. See longer note below.
Migdol. See note on Exo 14:2.
Tahpanhes. See note on Jer 43:7.
Noph. A contraction of the Egyptian Manu fr = the abode of the good. Hebrew. Moph in Hos 9:6; afterward = Memphis; now Abu Sir. Compare Jer 2:16; Jer 46:14, Jer 46:19.
Pathros. A part of Upper Egypt, south of Memphis. Compare Isa 11:11. Eze 29:14; Eze 30:14.
LONGER NOTE ON JEREMIAH: Chapters 42-44.
“The Jews which dwell in the land op Egypt ” (Jer 44:1).
As the end of the kingdom of Judah drew near, many of the Jews were determined to go into Egypt ; and this in spite of the warning given by Jehovah through Jeremiah. In Jer. 44 we have the latest prophecy concerning those who had gone thither; which declared that they should not escape, but should be consumed there (Jer 44::27, &c). This prophecy must have been fulfilled concerning that generation; but their successors, or others that subsequently followed, continued there a little longer, until the time came for Egypt itself to fall into the hands of Babylon. Recent discoveries of Papyri in the ruins of Elephantine (an island in the Nile, opposite Assouan), dating from the fifth century BC, bear witness to two great facts:
(1) That Jews were then dwelling there (in 424-405 BC).
(2) That they were observing the Feast of the Passover, “as it is written in the law of Moses”.
The importance of these Papyri lies in the fact that modern critics confidently assert and assume that the greater part of the Pentateuch was not written till after the Exile ; and even then neither collectively as a whole, nor separately in its distinctive books.
In App-92. it is shown that all through the prophets (who lived at the time of the kings in whose reigns they prophesied) there is a constant reference to the books of the Pentateuch, which conclusively proves that their contents were well known both to the prophets themselves and those whom they addressed. The Pentateuch, being full of legal expressions, technical ceremonial terms, and distinctive phraseology, affords abundant evidence of the above fact, and makes it easy to call continuous attention to it in the notes of The Companion Bible.
But there is further evidence found in the Papyri now discovered in the ruins at Elephantine in Upper Egypt.
They show that the Jews who dwelt there had a temple of their own and offered up sacrifices therein. That once, when this their temple was destroyed by the Egyptians, they appealed to the Persian governor of Judah, asking permission to restore it (Papyrus I).
There is a list preserved, registering the contributions towards the upkeep of the temple (containing the names of many ladies).
But the most interesting and important of these Papyri is one dated in the year 419 BC which is a Passover “announcement” of the approaching feast, such as were made from the earliest times to the present day (see Neh 8:15), containing a brief epitome of its laws and requirements. This particular announcement shows that the following passages were well known : Exo 12:16. Lev 23:7-8. Num 9:1-14. Deu 16:6.
This Papyrus has been recently published by Professor Edward Sachau, of Berlin: Aramdische Papyrus una Ostraka aus einer jildischen Militarkolonie zu Elephantine. Altorientalische Sprachdenkmaler des 5. Jahrhunderts vor Chr., mit 75 Lichtdrucktafalein. Leipzig, 1911. A small edition (texts only) by Professor Ungnad, of Jena, is published also under the title of Aramaische Papyrus aus Elephantine.
Nearly 2,400 years, since this announcement by Hananjah to the Jews in Egypt, have gone by. Elephantine is now a heap of ruins. The colony of Jews has passed away (unless the “Falashas” of Abyssinia are their descendants), but the Jewish nation still exists, and continues to keep the Passover, a standing witness to their truth of holy Scripture.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 44
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt ( Jer 44:1 ),
And this is Jeremiah’s final message to the people. God’s last word to the nation that have turned their backs on Him and have gone to Egypt. Back to the place from which God had delivered them, and God gives to them His final word. “The word which came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which were in the land of Egypt.”
which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, Thus saith 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 desolate, and no man is dwelling there; Because 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, ye, nor your fathers ( Jer 44:1-3 ).
You see what’s happened. You see the desolation of the land and it all took place because the people forsook Me, God said, and they began to worship these other gods.
Howbeit I sent warnings to you through my servants the prophets, who rose early, and they said, Don’t do this abominable thing that God hates. But they did not hearken, they did not incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, and they continued to burn their incense to these other gods. Wherefore my fury and mine 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 they are this very day. Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Why do you commit this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and nursing child, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain; In that you are continuing to provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, [because you are still] burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have 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? ( Jer 44:4-8 )
“Why are you doing this?” God said, “It was because of the burning of the incense and the worshipping of these other gods that you were driven from the land, that your land is desolate today. But you’ve continued these very practices now that you’ve come into Egypt. The very thing that brought the judgment of God upon you, you’ve not ceased doing. Even though you are here in Egypt, suffering the judgment of God, as your land is desolate. Yet you continue in these abominations.”
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? ( Jer 44:9 )
Now it is interesting at this point where Jeremiah joins the wives in his indictment, for they were guilty of these same abominations. And in fact, as we read on the account, it would seem that the women were perhaps rather forward and leading in these abominations.
Corrupted womanhood is usually the final straw that breaks the back of a nation. Women have a capacity, because of that fine, delicate temperament, of greater heights of spiritual experience and of deeper depths of moral depravity than men. When a woman goes bad, it’s usually horrible. Like the little girl with a curl, when she is bad she’s horrible. Men are coarser in their nature. And man’s spectrum is rather narrow in a coarse median. Whereas a woman capable by her fine, beautiful temperament of higher highs, she’s also capable of lower lows. The spectrum of the woman moves in a much broader spectrum than does man. So that when the woman falls, she so often goes to the bottom. And when that takes place, it’s all over. It is interesting that women so often in the churches take leading roles of spirituality, in the prayer groups, in service groups and all. And that’s because of this beautiful, fine temperament that when tuned to the Spirit is so beautiful and so glorious, so inspiring, so beautiful to behold. A woman walking with the Lord in that beautiful, fine, keen temperament that is so sensitive and attune to the things of God and the things of the Spirit.
So often because I am in this coarser, denser nature, I’ll be in a situation and just sort of plodding through and we’ll get home and my wife said, “Did you notice what was happening there tonight?” “What? I didn’t notice anything.” “Oh, well, when this happened, you know,” and she can pick up on the fine spiritual tuning. Great spiritual insights. “Oh, this took place.” And as I look back I say, “Well, yeah, I can remember.” It didn’t mean anything. It didn’t say anything to me. But with this keen spiritual sensitivity, she has a capacity of picking up on spiritual attunement much better than I do. Because I’m just this rugged, push-through and plod along. But women attune to the Spirit. What high capacities they have. What keen spiritual insights. And how beautiful it is to see a woman walking in the Spirit because of the highs that she is capable of and that spiritual sensitivity. It’s fantastic. But on the other end of the spectrum, it’s tragic.
Now Jeremiah is speaking how that the wives had joined in and he joins them in this indictment. The wickedness of their wives and of your wives.
They are not humbled ( Jer 44:10 )
He’s talking about their wives. Verse ten:
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. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and I’m going to cut off all of Judah. And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell 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. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: so that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to dwell 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 ( Jer 44:10-14 ).
Only a very small group that escapes.
Then all the men which knew that their wives were burning incense to the other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that were dwelling in the land of Egypt, they answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word which you have spoken to us in the name of Jehovah, we are not going to listen to you. But we will certainly do whatever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven [to Semiramis who is known queen of heaven, mother of God], and to pour out drink offerings unto her ( Jer 44:15-17 ),
This is that Babylonian religious system that Israel was caught up in. The worship of Tammuz and Semiramis, these Babylonian deities, the mother-child concept. Worshipping Semiramis as the mother of heaven or queen of heaven, the mother of God. And this is, incidentally, where the worship of Mary stems from. Nowhere in the scripture are we told to worship Mary. But it stems from this worship of Semiramis, the queen of heaven. And you can trace it back. I don’t have to do your homework for you. You can get the book, The Two Babylons by Hislop, and he traces so thoroughly the pagan Babylonian practices that have been brought into the church. The very things that God indicted Israel for are now going on in many churches in the name of the Lord. And we’ll wait till we get to Revelation to deal with that more fully.
Now listen to what they’re saying. “We will certainly do what we please, to burn incense to the queen of heaven 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 we had plenty of food, and were well, and we did not see evil. But when we quit burning incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and we have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And 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? ( Jer 44:17-19 )
In other words, “Didn’t our husbands know what we were doing? Didn’t we have the consent of our husbands as we were doing it? They knew what we were doing.” The women are answering Jeremiah now. And it is interesting how that they so totally twisted the facts. They were attributing the demise and the destruction to their ceasing to burn incense to the queen of heaven. How man can so totally twist the truth and blame God for the tragedies that come upon his life and accuse God for the things that have gone wrong. And say, “Man, things went well. I was doing great until I started serving God. Then He wiped me out.” And here they were blaming their destruction upon the fact that they had quit burning the incense to the queen of heaven. “As long as we were faithful to her, she was blessing us. We had plenty of food. Things were great until we ceased burning incense to her and now all of this calamity has come upon us. And after all, our husbands knew what we were doing.”
Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, that had given him this answer, 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, did not the LORD remember them, did it not come into his mind? So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land a desolation ( Jer 44:20-22 ),
Jeremiah sets the record straight. “Look, it’s because you were burning this that God has brought His judgment upon you. Therefore is your land a desolation.”
and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and you 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 ( Jer 44:22-23 ).
Keep the record straight. It’s your forsaking God and your turning after these other gods that cause this judgment of God to fall.
Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all of Judah and all that are in the land of Egypt: Thus saith 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: and you will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows ( Jer 44:24-25 ).
You’ve made your vows to the queen of heaven and you’ll be sure to keep them.
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name ( Jer 44:26 ),
Look out when God swears by His name, because He can swear by no higher.
saith Jehovah, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Jehovah God lives. Behold, I’m going to watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there is an end of them. And yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt ( Jer 44:26-28 )
God always has His faithful remnant, you notice that? In the midst of a world of apostasy and sin, there are always the faithful remnant of God. Remember Elijah said, “Lord.” God says, “Elijah, what are you doing down here in this cave Sinai desert?” “Oh, I’ve been jealous for You. And they’ve killed all of Your prophets. And I, only I am left of all of Israel.” God says, “That’s not true, Elijah. I have seven thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal.” God knew them. There was the faithful remnant. A lot of times we think we’re the only ones, but God has His faithful remnant always.
God pronounces this desolation that is coming, and yet a small number, His faithful remnant that will escape and will return out of the land of Egypt.
into the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words will stand, mine, or theirs ( Jer 44:28 ).
You’ll find out who’s telling the truth.
Now, of course, time is always that great factor. False prophets so often profit for a while. You know, for a time they get along great and they can gather a following. But time is always against them. In time it will show up. Jimmy Jones did great for a while. Gathered quite a following. Popular move. A lot of people joining in. Off the wall. He could get by with it for a while, but ultimately it catches up with you. And there are flashes that come on the scene. They draw a lot of attention to themselves. They come with some off-the-wall kind of a doctrine. Everybody is going. They’ve got the ear of the crowd. They’re popular. They have their day, but time is against them. In time it shows up. So that’s what the Lord said, “Okay, time will be a witness. The time will come when you’ll find out who’s telling the truth. Me or you.”
And this will be the sign, I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: Thus saith Jehovah; Behold, I will give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life ( Jer 44:29-30 ).
Now we have the advantage of history and hindsight and we can see that it was God’s Word that stood. Nebuchadnezzar came down and conquered Egypt. God’s Word stood. It always will. Never set yourself against God’s Word. You’ll lose every time.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 44:1-14
Jer 44:1-7
DESTRUCTION — THE PRICE OF DISOBEDIENCE
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, that dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Ye 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 dwelleth therein, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, [and] to serve other gods, that they knew not, neither they, nor ye, nor your fathers. Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. Wherefore my wrath and mine 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. Therefore now thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Wherefore commit ye [this] great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining;
The scene of this paragraph was at Pathros, in the southern end of Egypt, where, apparently, the Jews had gathered from all over Egypt to attend a festival honoring the Queen of Heaven. The women seem to have been taking the leading part in it. Into that wicked company Jeremiah came, challenging them to repent and turn to God, citing Jerusalem and the cities of Judah in their state of devastation as their certain penalty if they continued in their wickedness.
Migdol… Tahpanhes… Memphis… Pathros…
(Jer 44:1). The first three are in Lower Egypt, near Cairo; Pathros signifies Upper Egypt, all the way to Aswan.
No man dwelleth therein…
(Jer 44:2). Jeremiah had prophesied that this desolation would overtake Jerusalem (Jer 24:8-10); and that fact should have conditioned some of the people, at least, to believe the prophet; but it did not.
They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness…
(Jer 44:5). Israel’s refusal to ‘walk in’ the law and the statutes of Yahweh is a central theme in Jeremiah F3 In this very last message of the great prophet, how wonderful it is to see that not a syllable has disappeared from his prophecies. In spite of the rebellious hatred of his own people, Jeremiah has been true to God all the way. The message here at the end is what it always was, Repent or Perish. It is still the message of God, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish! (Luk 13:5).
Jer 44:8-10
GOD’S HATRED OF IDOLATRY
in that ye provoke me unto anger with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye are gone to sojourn; that ye may be cut off, and that ye may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have ye 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 committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? They 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 wickedness of their wives. of your wives …..
(Jer 44:9). The mention of the wives of their kings as being leaders in wickedness brings to mind the hundreds of wives and concubines of Solomon who demanded and received the building of pagan temples for themselves in Israel; and it will be remembered that Jezebel the wife of Ahab brought with her from Sidon an entire institution of pagan priests of Baal.
My law.., and my statutes…
(Jer 44:10) We have often noted that the long shadow of the Pentateuch falls over every single subsequent word in the Holy Bible; and here we have specific reference to it.
Ye provoke me… burning incense to other gods…
(Jer 44:8). What is wrong with burning a little incense to some pagan god? However innocent and harmless it may sound to some ears, there are the most shameful implications in such actions, as we shall note further under Jer 44:15.
Jer 44:11-14
SWORD, PESTILENCE AND FAMINE THREATENED
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah. And 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; 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 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. For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; so that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.
The thrust of this paragraph is the emphasis on the hopelessness of any of the Jewish sojourners in Egypt of having any part whatever in the future plans of God for the salvation of all mankind. All of the sacred promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were at this point to be severed completely from the Jewish remnant in Egypt, and would rest solely with the captives in Babylon.
The reasons for this are easy to see. The temptations to idolatry in Egypt would be stronger than Israel would resist. As for God’s eternal purpose of human redemption, it was of no further concern to those selfish sensualists sojourning in Egypt. They still dreamed of going back to Judah, but they were in Egypt forever.
A Prophetic Admonition Jer 44:1-19
Nothing is more inspiring than to see an old soldier of God faithful until death on the battlefield for the Lord. Chapter 44 offers the reader the last glimpse of Jeremiah. He is still fighting for the God he serves; he is still appealing to the people he loves. The present paragraph contains his warning to remnant in Egypt (Jer 44:1-14) and the rejection of that warning by the incorrigible people (Jer 44:15-19).
1. The warning Presented (Jer 44:1-14)
How grieved Jeremiah must have been to see the remnant in Egypt persisting in idolatry. For an entire lifetime he had tried to guide this people in the paths of covenant faithfulness to the Lord, But Jeremiah had failed to stem the tide of national apostasy. Jerusalem was made to drink of the bitter cup of Gods wrath in 587 B.C. Now the remnant which had survived that disaster by Gods grace have turned from Him to serve gods of their own making. It is with a heavy burden upon his heart that the old prophet tries once again to warn the miserable remains of his people of the error of their ways.
The Jews who had fled to Egypt had settled all over that land. Besides the colony at Tahpanhes, where Jeremiah seems to have resided, Jews had settled at Migdol, Noph, and the country of Pathros (Jer 44:1). Migdol is located near the northeastern boundary of Egypt, about twelve miles south of Pelusium. Noph or Memphis was located about 125 miles south of the Mediterranean Sea. Pathros means land of the south and refers to the region still further south of Memphis called Upper Egypt. From these widely scattered places the Jews had assembled for some kind of religious festival in honor of the heathen deity, the queen of heaven. Probably Tahpanhes was the site of the gathering. On the basis of Jer 44:15 some suggest that the festival was held in Pathros or Upper Egypt. This may have been the last opportunity that Jeremiah had to address the entire remnant which had fled to Egypt.
The warning of the prophet passes through three distinct phases. First he offers to these Jews an explanation of the past calamity which has befallen the nation (Jer 44:1-6). Then he expostulates with them concerning their present sin (Jer 44:7-10). Finally he declares that judgment will yet befall them even in Egypt (Jer 44:11-14).
a) Explanation of past calamity (Jer 44:1-6). As was his usual custom Jeremiah turned first to history. He reminds his hearers that Jerusalem and the cities of Judah were uninhabited and in ruins (Jer 44:2). The people of God had provoked His wrath by their wickedness. They had committed the sin that God detested above all others-they had burned incense to strange deities and had rendered homage to gods of their own making (Jer 44:3). Even though they had violated the First Commandment, God had earnestly and persistently sent prophets to plead with His people to turn from their abominable idolatry; but still they persisted in this wickedness (Jer 44:5). Because of this stubborn refusal to turn from the path of idolatry, the anger and fury of God was poured out upon the cities of Judah (Jer 44:6). The rubble and ruins of those once proud cities should serve for all time as a warning of the consequences of sin and apostasy-death, destruction, and desolation.
b) Expostulation concerning present sin (Jer 44:7-10). Turning from the explanation of past calamity the prophet begins to make an application of the lessons of history to the remnant in Egypt. Jeremiah found it hard to understand why the people continued to offer incense to pagan deities in view of the terrible consequences of that action in the past. The bewilderment of the prophet is reflected in the two questions he addresses to the remnant in this paragraph. Why do you continue to commit this great evil against yourselves?” (Jer 44:7). A Hebrew participle implies continuous action. Against your souls (KJV) is but another way of saying in Hebrew against yourselves. Persistence in this violation of the most elemental commandment of the word of God will result in national suicide. If it continues every man, woman, child and infant of Judah will be cut off in the wrath of God (Jer 44:7). The nation will become an object of cursing and a reproach among all the nations of the earth (Jer 44:8). Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers? he asks, and then, using the technique of emphasis by enumeration, he adds and the wickedness of your kings . and their ,wives . and your own wickedness and of your wives? (Jer 44:9). Surely they had not so soon forgotten that the wages of sin is death! But alas it is true. They have not humbled themselves (lit., bruised themselves) i.e. made themselves contrite in repentance. They do not fear God nor walk in his law and statutes (Jer 44:10).
c) Declaration of future judgment (Jer 44:11-14). The maxim They who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it is vividly illustrated in Jer 44:11-14. God declares that He will set His face against His people. All Judah will be cut off (Jer 44:11). Throughout the paragraph the judgment of God upon the remnant in Egypt is represented as absolute. One must wait until the final clause to find any note of hope. An awesome trinity of verbs in verse twelve spells out the disaster: they shall fall, they shall die, they shall be consumed. What irony! They fled to Egypt in order to escape bloodshed, privation, carnage, and exile. But these Jews who had stubbornly set their will against that of their God and had emigrated to Egypt would meet with war and famine, destruction and death in that land. Whatever imagined horrors drove them from their homeland following the death of Gedaliah would overtake them in reality. From the least to the greatest, none would escape the terrible onslaught. Though the remnant in Egypt would die, their memory would live on in the minds of men for use in expressions of astonishment, execration, cursings, and reproach (Jer 44:12). Just as God had punished Jerusalem by sword, famine, and pestilence, so God would now pour out His wrath upon those Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt (Jer 44:13). None would escape the judgment in order that they might return to Judah even if they might have a desire so to do.
In this dark picture of judgment there is but one, ever so tiny, ray of hope. Just as a minister who preaches on judgment might delay any mention of saving grace until the conclusion of his message, so Jeremiah waits until the very last clause of his judgment speech to temper the absolute tones of his message. None shall return but such as shall escape, i.e., be delivered by the grace of God. Only a handful of the present remnant will ever see their homeland again. Even the most optimistic Jew among them would not have been able to find much consolation in this exceptive clause. Jeremiah did not intend to offer consolation. It was his purpose here to shock, to jar and hopefully thereby to lead these people to repentance.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The next prophecy in Egypt was of a fiery protest against the persistent rebellion of the people of God. The prophet reminded them of the patience of God, and of how His anger had already been poured out on Jerusalem, and declared that the rebellious remnant which had found its way into Egypt would be wholly cut off.
This message was answered by a defiant and persistent declaration of rebellion, in which they misinterpreted their own history by declaring that all the evils that had befallen them resulted from attacks on idolatry, and deliberately declared their intention to continue their idolatrous practices.
This drew from Jeremiah his final prophecy, in which he answered their argument by declaring that their sorrows were the result of their idolatry rather than, as they affirmed, the result of turning from idols. He foretold the determined judgment of God, saying that they would be consumed, only a small remnant escaping from Egypt; and ended by announcing that the sign of Jehovah to them would be the defeat of Pharaoh-Hophra, and his being handed over to those who sought his life.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Again the Word of the Lord came to His servant “concerning all the Jews which dwelt in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros” (Jer 44:1). Migdol was a royal fortress, not far from the place where the Red Sea was parted for the deliverance of the redeemed host under Moses. Noph is supposed to be the same as Memphis, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt. The general term Pathros covered a considerable district in Upper Egypt, inhabited originally by the Pathrusim. It will be seen from the mention of these various localities that the Jews had in a very short time, a few months at most, spread themselves over a large part of the country; though there may have been several earlier colonies planted there prior to the movement we have been considering.
The Lord’s expostulation is recorded in Jer 44:2-14. He bids them consider the evil which He brought upon Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah because of the frightful wickedness there perpetrated. “Rising early,” (Jer 44:4) He had sought their good, sending prophets saying, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!” (Jer 44:4) It was idolatry that provoked His special abhorrence. But they would neither give heed to the warnings and entreaties of the prophets nor turn from their iniquitous ways. Therefore His fury had been poured forth and the land now lay waste and desolate. Their present course was but an aggravation of the evil, and would, if persisted in, result in national suicide. In Egypt they were fast relapsing into idolatry. Unless they repented, He could but cut them off from the face of the earth. Yea, by their folly, they were cutting themselves off.
How short their memory! Had they already forgotten the wickedness of their fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and their own wickedness, and the wickedness of their wives in the land of Judah, which had drawn down so awful a punishment? They were not humbled, even after all the past; nor was there any evidence of godly fear; neither had they walked in His law, nor in His statutes, which He had set before them and their fathers. Because of this persistency in wrongdoing, He would set His face against them for evil, to cut them all off. From the least to the greatest, all the men of Judah who dwelt in Egypt should be consumed – those, of course, who had gone there of their own volition. Jeremiah and Baruch, together with many of Gedaliah’s former followers, were there by force, and hence could not be included with the self-willed captains and their retainers. Even should the latter desire to return, they would not be permitted so to do. “None shall return but such as shall escape” (Jer 44:11-14).
Open and unblushing defiance greeted this serious warning and earnest expostulation. The true state of the people was at once made manifest, and the hypocritical nature of their former protestations became clearly apparent.
Idolatry of the most degrading character had already been secretly practiced by them; the women leading, and the men abetting, as formerly in the land (Jer 44:15). The latter boldly declared, “‘As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee” (Jer 44:16). It was willful, deliberate, high-handed opposition to the truth!
The reasons given illustrate the grave danger of trusting in experience rather than going to the Word of GOD, in spite of all outward appearances. Walking by sight, not faith, they reasoned that when, in the cities of Judah, they ignored the Lord’s word and burned incense unto the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, they had a measure of prosperity; at least they had “plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.” (Jer 44:17)
On the other hand, since they had left off so to do, they “have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine” (Jer 44:18-19). Therefore they argue, it is clear that the blessings of the gods of the heathen were theirs while they thus served the queen of heaven. This blessing had been withdrawn when they gave up the outward symbols of idolatry and professed to worship the Lord. How plausible and specious was their sophistry! Yet are there not many who reason in similar ways now? It was the appeal to a momentary experience, instead of to the Word of GOD – the only safe guide.
Jeremiah’s answer is ready and convincing, whether they will own it or not. It was their idolatrous practices which brought down the wrath of the Lord upon them. He stood it until He could no longer bear it; then His judgment fell. For this very cause all the evil they complained of had come upon them (Jer 44:20-23).
For the women He had a special word. Because they were the leaders in thus dishonoring His Name, that Holy Name should “no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord God liveth” (Jer 44:26). He would give them up to destruction, watching over them for evil, and not for good, until they should all be consumed, save a small number, who, escaping the sword, should return unto the land of Judah. Thus “all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, Mine, or theirs” (Jer 44:27-28).
A sign of the coming destruction was also given, that, when it came to pass, they might know the hour of their judgment was no more to be delayed. Pharaoh-hophra, the king of Egypt, was to be given into the hand of his enemies. Thus the bruised reed upon which they leaned should be broken (Jer 44:29-30).
How vain the effort of man to withstand his Maker! What folly to strive with Him! Truly:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding.” (Job 28:28)
~ end of chapter 22 ~
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jer 44:4
Natural indications of God’s hatred of sin.
I. There are in this world gigantic tendencies which reveal themselves to our perception only by gentle and slight manifestations. The great magnetic influence which courses over the world will manifest itself to us in making a floating straw, cast loose on still water, gradually turn north and south. The vast tidal wave, that raises the ocean’s level for thousands of miles along the coastline, reveals itself by a gradual cease of the ripple of some little brook up among inland cornfields. Now the tremendous truth that God sides with right against wrong, that right will ultimately vanquish and supplant and annihilate wrong, that any wrong-doer is in fact knocking his head against the universe-that truth is made plain to us by gentle indices oftentimes and by little things, and that truth is not much perceived by coarse and bad natures.
II. Yet there are indications. There is-(1) the serious judgment of our own conscience against all wrong, a testimony hardly ever wholly quenched. (2) The effect of many forms of sin in wrecking the health and abridging the life of the transgressor. A life of vice will not be a merry one, but it is likely to be a short one. (3) If you unscrupulously drive to the utmost the capacities of enjoyment that are in us, utter satiety and disgust will come speedily. Those capacities which, used in righteous moderation, yield enjoyment, overdriven bring loathing. (4) All the deeds we do go to strengthen the dispositions and habits from which they spring, forming us into a character from which, good or evil, we cannot escape; and thus already we see that wrong-doing, persevered in, ties the wrong-doer to misery and degradation, always growing more miserable and more degraded. You see at a glance how awful is the outlook here, and how it makes an end of the recreant thought that, after all, the sinner sometimes makes the best at least of this world, and he may make a quite new start elsewhere, none the worse. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
A. K. H. B., From a Quiet Place, p. 140.
Why does God hate sin?
I. Because it is contrary to His own nature.
II. Because it is unnatural in His creatures.
III. It transgresses holy, just, and good laws.
IV. It defiles and injures the entire human nature.
V. It makes men curses to each other.
VI. It ignores or rejects the Divine government.
VII. Wherever sin exists, except as it is checked by God’s mercy, it has the dominion.
VIII. Wherever sin is introduced, it spreads.
IX. Sin requires God to inflict upon men of every class and kind, that which He assures us, upon His oath, He has no pleasure in.
X. Men’s continuing in sin tramples under foot the blood of Jesus.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 8.
References: Jer 44:4.-W. M. Taylor, Old Testament Outlines, p. 248; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 24; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii.. p. 235. Jer 44:29, Jer 44:30.-P. Thomson, Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 397. Jer 45:5.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 293. Jer 45-S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 205. Jer 46:17.-Christian Chronicle, March 27th, 1884.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 44
1. The message to the Jews (Jer 44:1-10)
2. Their punishment (Jer 44:11-14)
3. Worshipping the queen of heaven (Jer 44:15-19)
4. Jehovahs answer (Jer 44:20-28)
5. The sign: Pharaoh-Hophras Defeat (Jer 44:29-30)
Jer 44:1-10. The message is concerning all the Jews who were now dwelling in Egypt. Besides being in Tahpanhes, they were also in Noph (Memphis) and in Pathros, which was in the upper Egypt. Not long ago ancient papyri in Aramaic were discovered which show that there was a Jewish colony in that part of Egypt. Jeremiah reminds them in his message how God had dealt with Jerusalem and Judah on account of their idolatries, though He had sent prophets to warn them. And now they were doing the same thing in Egypt. You too bring now utter ruin upon yourselves and all your own.
Jer 44:11-14. This announces their coming punishment. Behold I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Israel. They are to be punished as Jerusalem was.
Jer 44:15-19. What heart-hardness to say to the man of God, We will not hearken. They intended to perform their vows to worship the queen of Heaven. All they said was, it was well with us when we worshipped the queen of Heaven in the homeland. The women seem to have been concerned mostly in this, but they did so with the knowledge and the consent of their husbands. See about the queen of Heaven and the worship, chapter 7 and the annotations there. They claimed that all the disaster which had come on them was the result of abandoning their evil practices. What defiance and wickedness, the fruit of their unbelieving hearts! Still greater is the defiance and wickedness of today, when the cross and the gospel of Christ are deliberately rejected.
Jer 44:20-28. The answer is plain enough, and they heard what their fate would be for their deliberate unbelief and disobedience. These are solemn words, and the Lord said, They shall know whose Word shall stand, Mine or theirs. Gods Word will always stand, and so will those who stand by the Word of God and put their trust in it.
Jer 44:29-30. He gives them a sign that such will be the case. Hophra is to be given into the hands of his enemies. This happened a few years before Nebuchadrezzar defeated Amasis, who had succeeded Hophra.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Cir, am 3433, bc 571
The word: Dahler supposes this discourse to have been delivered in the seventeenth or eighteenth year after the taking of Jerusalem.
concerning: Jer 42:15-18, Jer 43:5-7
Migdol: Jer 46:14, Exo 14:2, Eze 29:10,*Heb:
Tahpanhes: Tahpanhes rendered and by the LXX, is no doubt the of Herodotus, a royal city of Lower Egypt, situated, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus, sixteen miles south from Pelusium, from which it was called Daphne Pelusice. Forster says that there is now a place situated in the vicinity of Pelusium called Safnas, which may be a vestige of the ancient name. It appears to have been the very first town in Egypt, in the road from Palestine, that afforded tolerable accommodation for the fugitives. It was at this place that, according to Jerome and several of the ancients, tradition says the faithful Jeremiah was stoned to death by these rebellious wretches, for whose welfare he had watched, prayed, and suffered every kind of indignity and hardship. Jer 43:7, Eze 30:18, Tehaphnehes
Noph: Jer 2:16, Jer 46:14, Jer 46:19, Isa 19:13, Eze 30:16
Pathros: Gen 10:14, Pathrusim, Isa 11:11, Eze 29:14, Eze 30:14
Reciprocal: Eze 30:13 – Noph
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 44:1. The closing verses of the preceding chapter were a prediction against Egypt, doubtless because the country harbored the fugitives of Judah who fled there contrary to the wishes of the Lord. This chapter is directed against the Jews who had thought to avoid the wrath of God by fleeing to this heathen land.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 44:1. The word which came to Jeremiah The patience and goodness of God to this remnant of his ancient people are very remarkable; he leaves them not even in their rebellion, but commissions his prophet, whom he had before sent to forbid their going into this idolatrous country, to try if in Egypt they could be brought to repentance and reformation; concerning all the Jews which dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, &c. They were now dispersed into divers parts of the country, and Jeremiah is sent with a message from God to them, which he delivered, either by going about from place to place to them; or when he had many of them together in Pathros, as is mentioned Jer 44:15. We find a place termed Migdol, mentioned Exo 14:2, as situate near the Red sea. But I do not take this, says Blaney, to be here intended. Migdol properly signifies a tower, and may, in all probability, have been a name given to different cities in Egypt where there was a distinguished object of that kind. The city of Magdolus is mentioned by Herodotus, Hecatus, and others, and placed by Antoninus at the entrance of Egypt from Palestine, about twelve miles from Pelusium. This was too far distant from the Red sea to be in the route of the Israelites; but its situation in the neighbourhood of Tahpanhes, or Daphn, and its distance from Judea, favour the supposition of its being the Migdol here spoken of. For then, as Bochart observes, we shall find the four places mentioned exactly in the order of their respective distances from that country; 1st, Migdol, or Magdolus; 2d, Tahpanhes, or Daphn; 3d, Noph, or Memphis; and lastly, the district of Pathros, or Thebais. Near Memphis stands one of the pyramids which are yet remaining.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 44:1. Migdol was not far from the Red sea. Exo 14:2. It was now a great city, being in several places put first by Jeremiah, situate only twelve hundred paces from Damiette. Pathros was the district surrounding Noph or Memphis; but Cairo is built not far from the ancient Memphis. See on Isa 19:11. Pathros is by others called Theboid, or the country surrounding Thebes.
Jer 44:13. I will punish them that dwell in Egypt. The whole land of the Egyptians, and by consequence all the Jews who took refuge there, in contempt of the word of the Lord by Jeremiah, as in the preseding chapter. When the Chaldeans invaded Egypt, the whole country was overrun, and its thousand cities ruined with military devastations.
Jer 44:17. We willburn incense to the queen of heaven; that is, we will adhere to the Sabean worship, as in Job 1:15, Jer 7:18. Poole understands by the queen of heaven, the sun; but the Hebrew word shemeosh being feminine, Dr. Spencer has sufficiently proved, out of Herodotus and Lucian, that this was a worship paid to the new moon. The word is also often understood of the hosts of heaven. See on Jer 7:18.
Jer 44:19. Did we make cakeswithout our men, or husbands. The law gave the husband a power to disannul the vows of his wife, provided he did so when he first knew of the vow. But now the men, though they might laugh at this lunar worship, would not laugh when Pharaoh-hophra could no longer protect them.
Jer 44:30. Pharaoh-hophra is called, says Dr. Wall, Apries by Herodotus, and Vaphres by Eusebius. His people and his son Amasis rebelled against him. Then Nebuchadnezzar followed, and ravaged the whole country with the greater ease. See on Jer 32:1.
REFLECTIONS.
We have seen the remnant of the Jews under Johanan despise the promised protection of the Lord in their own land, and presumptuously taking refuge in Egypt. They found from Pharaoh, it would seem, an hospitable reception, being allowed to reside in the royal cities. Jeremiahs prediction of famine and sword seemed no way likely to overtake them; they were therefore emboldened in vice and unbelief, and triumphed for a moment over the man of God. The degenerate Jews, thus caressed in their sins, most readily transferred their devotion from the gods of Syria to the gods of Egypt: it is a pity that the wicked should quarrel about devotion.
The Lord, with a view that a remnant might escape, was graciously pleased to trouble them in their sins by tidings of an invasion and inevitable destruction. And what measures less severe could he adopt? They were wicked by habit, they were superstitious by principle, they were hardened by judgments. Therefore no remedy remained but to give warning to any who were willing to fly, and to deliver the rest to famine, pestilence, and carnage in the sieges. Here is the issue of infidel principles, and of disregarding the word of the Lord; here is the termination of a hardened and impious career. Thus some men are given up to a spirit which hurries them into every sin, and ultimately to destruction, as the swine which ran down a steep place, and perished in the lake.
When men have attained a certain crisis of impiety, they will defend their wicked ways by arguments drawn from partial views of providence. They replied to Jeremiah, that while they worshipped idols in Judea they had plentiful harvests; for these were the objects of their devotion; and Jeremiah could not altogether deny the fact, though God had often smitten them with want of bread. But in a general view of providence over Israel, no fact could be more conspicuous, than that while they were faithful to the Lord, the Lord was faithful to them; and they prospered in all they did. On the other hand, whenever they worshipped idols and became profligate in morals, some national disaster assuredly came upon them. Let us therefore be cautions of error, through partial views of Gods dispensations, and let us judge nothing before the time.
While Jeremiah prophesied these things against Egypt, Ezekiel was doing the same in Chaldea, chap. 32.; and in language more copious and terrific. Here we see the unity of the spirit of prophecy, and how much cause we have to revere the holy scriptures as the word of God; for there is not the smallest reason to suspect, considering the hostile state of the two nations, that these prophets maintained any correspondence. They borrow nothing one from the other: all is original, flowing in new torrents from the spirit of truth. Oh most illustrious prophets, who dared to tell an infidel age the most terrific truths of God. Their melting hearts had cried in vain, Oh do not this abominable thing.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jeremiah 44. Denunciation of the Jewish Worship of Ishtar in Egypt.Jeremiah points to the desolation of Judah as the experienced consequence of idolatry, notwithstanding Yahwehs warnings (Jer 44:1-6). Why, then, do they repeat the offence, forgetting the past? Yahweh will destroy the remnant in Egypt, leaving fugitives only (Jer 44:7-14). The assembled men and women refuse to abandon the worship of Ishtar (the queen of heaven, Jer 7:18*), which they have vowed (Jer 44:17, out of our mouth, Jdg 11:36); prosperity of old accompanied that worship, whereas, since its abandonment (i.e., in Jer 6:21, at the Deuteronomic Reformation) there has been nothing but disaster (Jer 44:15-19). Jeremiah urges his point, i.e. that the true connexion is between Jewish idolatry and Jewish disaster (Jer 44:20-23), and ironically tells them to fulfil their vows of idolatrous worship. Yahweh solemnly declares (Jer 44:26) that all Jewish reference to Him in Egypt shall cease (a grim hint that no Jews will be left). He is wakeful (Jer 1:12, Jer 31:28) to bring this penalty; as its token, He asserts that the fate of the Egyptian king shall be like that of the Jewish. Pharaoh Hophra (589564) was defeated in 570 by a rebellion under Amasis (his successor), and was strangled in 564; see Herod, ii. 169.
Jer 44:1. Migdol: E. of Tahpanhes, Jer 43:7; Noph: Memphis, near Cairo, Jer 2:16; Pathros: S. or Upper Egypt.
Jer 44:2. The first ye is emphatic.
Jer 44:3. burn incense: rather offer sacrifice, Jer 1:16; so Jer 44:8; Jer 44:17, etc.
Jer 44:9. Read princes for the first wives with LXX; cf. Jer 44:17; Jer 44:21.
Jer 44:15. Egypt must denote Lower, Pathros Upper, Egypt; but such a gathering is improbable.
Jer 44:19. Some MSS of LXX, with Syr., put this verse into the mouth of the women, as the closing words require, by prefixing And (all) the women answered and said. The cakes were perhaps star-shaped; cf. RVm. For the point of the womens reference to their husbands, see the later law of vows in Num 30:3-16.
Jer 44:25. Ye and your wives: read, with LXX, ye women.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, and at {a} Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
(a) These were all famous and strange cities in Egypt, where the Jews that fled dwelt for their safety but the prophet declares that there is no hold so strong that can preserve them from God’s vengeance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Jewish refugees did not all stay in Tahpanhes. Some of them moved on and took up residence in the Egyptian towns of Migdol (probably about 25 miles east-northeast of Tahpanhes; cf. Exo 14:2; Num 33:7; Eze 29:10; Eze 30:6), Noph (Gr. Memphis, the chief city of lower or northern Egypt, about 13 miles south of Cairo on the western bank of the Nile), and in the territory of Pathros (lit. land of the south, i.e., upper or southern Egypt; cf. Jer 44:15). Other Jews had migrated to Egypt earlier to escape the Babylonians. The Lord gave Jeremiah another message for all of them.
A sizable Jewish community existed at Elephantine, in the Pathros region, during the fifth century B.C. Archaeologists have discovered important documents there that provide helpful information about their society. Their cult consisted of a mixture of Israelite and Canaanite religious elements. [Note: See Leon J. Wood, A Survey of Israel’s History, pp. 409-11; and A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XV
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN
Jer 44:1-30
“Since we left off burning incense and offering libations to the Queen of Heaven,
we have been in want of everything, and have been consumed by the sword and the famine.”- Jer 44:18
THE Jewish exiles in Egypt still retained a semblance of national life, and were bound together by old religious ties. Accordingly we read that they came together from their different settlements-from Migdol and Tahpanhes on the northeastern frontier, from Noph or Memphis on the Nile south of the site of Cairo, and from Pathros or Upper Egypt-to a “great assembly, no doubt a religious festival. The list of cities shows how widely the Jews were scattered throughout Egypt.”
Nothing is said as to where and when this “great assembly” met; but for Jeremiah, such a gathering at all times and anywhere, in Egypt as at Jerusalem, became an opportunity for fulfilling his Divine commission. He once again confronted his fellow countrymen with the familiar threats and exhortations. A new climate had not created in them either clean hearts or a right spirit.
Recent history had added force to his warnings. He begins therefore by appealing to the direful consequences which had come upon the Holy Land, through the sins of its inhabitants:-
“Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah.
Behold, this day they are an uninhabited waste,
Because of their wickedness which they wrought to provoke Me to anger,
By going to burn incense and to serve other gods whom neither they nor their fathers knew.”
The Israelites had enjoyed for centuries intimate personal relations with Jehovah, and knew Him by this ancient and close fellowship and by all His dealings with them. They had no such knowledge of the gods of surrounding nations. They were like foolish children who prefer the enticing blandishments of a stranger to the affection and discipline of their home. Such children do not intend to forsake their home or to break the bonds of filial affection, and yet the new friendship may wean their hearts from their father. So these exiles still considered themselves worshippers of Jehovah, and yet their superstition led them to disobey and dishonour Him.
Before its ruin Judah had sinned against light and leading:-
“Howbeit I sent unto you all My servants the prophets,
Rising up early and sending them, saying,
Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ears, so as to turn from their evil,
That they should not burn incense to other gods.
Wherefore My fury and my anger was poured forth.”
Political and social questions, the controversies with the prophets who contradicted Jeremiah in the name of Jehovah, have fallen into the background; the poor pretence of loyalty to Jehovah which permitted His worshippers to degrade Him to the level of Baal and Moloch is ignored as worthless: and Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, finds the root of the peoples sin in their desertion of Jehovah. Their real religion was revealed by their heathenish superstitions. Every religious life is woven of many diverse strands; if the web as a whole is rotten, the Great Taskmaster can take no account of a few threads that have a form and profession of soundness. Our Lord declared that He would utterly ignore and repudiate men upon whose lips His name was a too familiar word, who had preached and cast out devils and done many mighty works in that Holy Name. These were men who had worked iniquity, who had combined promising externals with the worship of “other gods,” Mammon or Belial or some other of those evil powers, who place
“Within His sanctuary itself their shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profane;
And with their darkness dare affront His light.”
This profuse blending of idolatry with a profession of zeal for Jehovah had provoked the Divine wrath against Judah: and yet the exiles had not profited by their terrible experience of the consequences of sin; they still burnt incense unto other gods. Therefore Jeremiah remonstrates with them afresh, and sets before their eyes the utter ruin which will punish persistent sin. This discourse repeats and enlarges the threats uttered at Bethlehem. The penalties then denounced on disobedience are now attributed to idolatry. We have here yet another example of the tacit understanding attaching to all the prophets predictions. The most positive declarations of doom are often warnings and not final sentences. Jehovah does not turn a deaf ear to the penitent, and the doom is executed not because He exacts the uttermost farthing, but because the culprit perseveres in his uttermost wrong. Lack of faith and loyalty at Bethlehem and idolatry in Egypt were both symptoms of the same deep-rooted disease.
On this occasion there was no rival prophet to beard Jeremiah and relieve his hearers from their fears and scruples. Probably indeed no professed prophet of Jehovah would have cared to defend the worship of other gods. But, as at Bethlehem, the people themselves ventured to defy their aged mentor. They seem to have been provoked to such hardihood by a stimulus which often prompts timorous men to bold words. Their wives were specially devoted to the superstitious burning of incense, and these women were present in large numbers. Probably, like Lady Macbeth, they had already in private
“Poured their spirits in their husbands ears,
And chastised, with the valour of their tongues,
All that impeded.”
those husbands from speaking their minds to Jeremiah. In their presence, the men dared not shirk an obvious duty, for fear of more domestic chastisement. The prophets reproaches would be less intolerable than such inflictions. Moreover the fair devotees did not hesitate to mingle their own shrill voices in the wordy strife.
These idolatrous Jews-male and female-carried things with a very high hand indeed:-
“We will not obey thee in that which thou hast spoken to us in the name of Jehovah. We are determined to perform all the vows we have made to burr incense and offer libations to the Queen of Heaven, exactly as we have said and as we and our fathers and kings and princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.”
Moreover they were quite prepared to meet Jeremiah on his own ground and argue with him according to his own principles and methods. He had appealed to the ruin of Judah as a proof of Jehovahs condemnation of their idolatry and of His power to punish: they argued that these misfortunes were a Divine spretae injuria formae, the vengeance of the Queen of Heaven, whose worship they had neglected. When they duly honoured her, –
“Then had we plenty of victuals, and were prosperous and saw no evil; but since we left off burning incense and offering libations to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in want of everything, and have been consumed by the sword and the famine.”
Moreover the women had a special plea of their own:-
“When we burned incense and offered libations to the Queen of Heaven, did we not make cakes to symbolise her and offer libations to her with our husbands permission?”
A wifes vows were not valid without her husbands sanction, and the women avail themselves of this principle to shift the responsibility for their superstition on the mens shoulders. Possibly too the unfortunate Benedicts were not displaying sufficient zeal in the good cause, and these words were intended to goad them into greater energy. Doubtless they cannot be entirely exonerated of blame for tolerating their wives sins, probably they were guilty of participation as well as connivance. Nothing, however, but the utmost determination and moral courage would have curbed the exuberant religiosity of these devout ladies. The prompt suggestion that, if they had done wrong, their husbands are to blame for letting them have their own way, is an instance of the meanness which results from the worship of “other gods.”
But these defiant speeches raise a more important question. There is an essential difference between regarding a national catastrophe as a Divine judgment and the crude superstition to which an eclipse expresses the resentment of an angry god. But both involve the same practical uncertainty. The sufferers or the spectators ask what god wrought these marvels and what sins they are intended to punish, and to these questions neither catastrophe nor eclipse gives any certain answer.
Doubtless the altars of the Queen of Heaven had been destroyed by Josiah in his crusade against heathen cults; but her outraged majesty had been speedily avenged by the defeat and death of the iconoclast, and since then the history of Judah had been one long series of disasters. Jeremiah declared that these were the just retribution inflicted by Jehovah because Judah had been disloyal to Him; in the reign of Manasseh their sin had reached its climax:-
“I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the nations of the earth, because of Manasseh ben Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.” {Jer 15:4}
His audience were equally positive that the national ruin was the vengeance of the Queen of Heaven. Josiah had destroyed her altars, and now the worshippers of Istar had retaliated by razing the Temple to the ground. A Jew, with the vague impression that Istar was as real as Jehovah, might find it difficult to decide between these conflicting theories.
To us, as to Jeremiah, it seems sheer nonsense to speak of the vengeance of the Queen of Heaven, not because of what we deduce from the circumstances of the fall of Jerusalem, but because we do not believe in any such deity. But the fallacy is repeated when, in somewhat similar fashion, Protestants find proof of the superiority of their faith in the contrast between England and Catholic Spain, while Romanists draw the opposite conclusion from a comparison of Holland and Belgium. In all such cases the assured truth of the disputants doctrine, which is set forth as the result of his argument, is in reality the premiss upon which his reasoning rests. Faith is not deduced from, but dictates an interpretation of history. In an individual the material penalties of sin may arouse a sleeping conscience, but they cannot create a moral sense: apart from a moral sense the discipline of rewards and punishments would be futile:-
“Were no inner eye in us to tell,
Instructed by no inner sense,
The light of heaven from the dark of hell,
That light would want its evidence.”
Jeremiah, therefore, is quite consistent in refraining from argument and replying to his opponents by reiterating his former statements that sin against Jehovah had ruined Judah and would yet ruin the exiles. He spoke on the authority of the “inner sense,” itself instructed by Revelation. But, after the manner of the prophets, he gave them a sign-Pharaoh Hophra should be delivered into the hand of his enemies as Zedekiah had been. Such an event would indeed be an unmistakable sign of imminent calamity to the fugitives who had sought the protection of the Egyptian king against Nebuchadnezzar.
We have reserved for separate treatment the question suggested by the referents to the Queen of Heaven. This divine name only occurs again in the Old Testament in Jer 7:18, and we are startled, at first sight, to discover that a cult about which all other historians and prophets have been entirely silent is described in these passages as an ancient and national worship. It is even possible that the “great assembly” was a festival in her honour. We have again to remind ourselves that the Old Testament is an account of the progress of Revelation and not a history of Israel. Probably the true explanation is that given by Kuenen. The prophets do not, as a rule, speak of the details of false worship; they use the generic “Baal” and the collective “other gods.” Even in this chapter Jeremiah begins by speaking of “other gods,” and only uses the term “Queen of Heaven” when he quotes the reply made to him by the Jews. Similarly when Ezekiel goes into detail concerning idolatry {Eze 8:1-18} he mentions cults and ritual which do not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament. The prophets were little inclined to discriminate between different forms of idolatry, just as the average churchman is quite indifferent to the distinctions of the various Nonconformist bodies, which are to him simply “dissenters.” One might read many volumes of Anglican sermons and even some English Church History without meeting with the term Unitarian. It is easy to find modern parallels-Christian and heathen-to the name of this goddess. The Virgin Mary is honoured with the title Regina Caeli, and at Mukden, the Sacred City of China, there is a temple to the Queen of Heaven. But it is not easy to identify the ancient deity who bore this name. The Jews are accused elsewhere of worshipping “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” and one or other of these heavenly bodies-mostly either the moon or the planet Venus-has been supposed to have been the Queen of Heaven.
Neither do the symbolic cakes help us. Such emblems are found in the ritual of many ancient cults: at Athens cakes shaped like a full moon were offered to the moon goddess Artemis; a similar usage seems to have prevailed in the worship of the Arabian goddess Al-Uzza, whose star was Venus, and also in connection with the worship of the sun.
Moreover we do not find the title “Queen of Heaven” as an ordinary and well-established name of any neighbouring divinity. “Queen” is a natural title for any goddess, and was actually given to many ancient deities. Schrader finds our goddess in the Atarsamain (AtharAstarte) who is mentioned in the Assyrian descriptions as worshipped by a North Arabian tribe of Kedarenes. Possibly too the Assyrian Istar is called Queen of Heaven.
Istar, however, is connected with the moon as well as with the planet Venus. For the present, therefore we must be content to leave the matter an open question, but any day some new discovery may solve the problem. Meanwhile it is interesting to notice how little religious ideas and practices are affected by differences in profession. St. Isaac the Great, of Antioch, who died about A.D. 460, tells us that the Christian ladies of Syria-whom he speaks of very ungallantly as “fools”-used to worship the planet Venus from the roofs of their houses, in the hope that she would bestow upon them some portion of her own brightness and beauty. This experience naturally led St. Isaac to interpret the Queen of Heaven as the luminary which his countrywomen venerated.
The episode of the “great assembly” closes the history of Jeremiahs life. We leave him (as we so often met with him before) hurling ineffective denunciations at a recalcitrant audience. Vagrant fancy, holding this to be a lame and impotent conclusion, has woven romantic stories to continue and complete the narrative. There are traditions that he was stoned to death at Tahpanhes, and that his bones were removed to Alexandria by Alexander the Great; that he and Baruch returned to Judea or went to Babylon and died in peace; that he returned to Jerusalem and lived there three hundred years, -and other such legends. As has been said concerning the Apocryphal Gospels, these narratives serve as a foil to the history they are meant to supplement: they remind us of the sequels of great novels written by inferior pens, or of attempts made by clumsy mechanics to convert a bust by some inspired sculptor into a full-length statue.
For this story of Jeremiahs life is not a torso. Sacred biography constantly disappoints our curiosity as to the last days of holy men. We are scarcely ever told how prophets and apostles died. It is curious too that the great exceptions-Elijah in his chariot of fire and Elisha dying quietly in his bed-occur before the period of written prophecy. The deaths of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Peter, Paul, and John, are passed over in the Sacred Record, and when we seek to follow them beyond its pages, we are taught afresh the unique wisdom of inspiration. If we may understand Deu 34:1-12 to imply that no eye was permitted to behold Moses in the hour of death, we have in this incident a type of the reticence of Scripture on such matters. Moreover a moments reflection reminds us that the inspired method is in accordance with the better instincts of our nature. A death in opening manhood, or the death of a soldier in battle or of a martyr at the stake, rivets our attention; but when men die in a good old age, we dwell less on their declining years than on the achievements of their prime. We all remember the martyrdoms of Huss and Latimer, but how many of those in whose mouths Calvin and Luther ave familiar as household words know how those great Reformers died?
There comes a time when we may apply to the aged saint the words of Brownings “Death in the Desert”:-
“So is myself withdrawn into my depths,
The soul retreated from the perished brain
Whence it was wont to feel and use the world
Through these dull members, done with long ago.”
And the poets comparison of his soul to
“A stick once fire from end to end
Now, ashes save the tip that holds a spark”
Love craves to watch to the last, because the spark may
“Run back, spread itself
A little where the fire was
And we would not lose
The last of what might happen on his face.”
Such privileges may be granted to a few chosen disciples, probably they were in this case granted to Baruch; but they are mostly withheld from the world, lest blind irreverence should see in the aged saint nothing but
“Second childishness, and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”