Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 44

1. The message to the Jews (Jeremiah 44:1-10)

2. Their punishment (Jeremiah 44:11-14)

3. Worshipping the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44:15-19)

4. Jehovah’s answer (Jeremiah 44:20-28)

5. The sign: Pharaoh-Hophra’s Defeat (Jeremiah 44:29-30)

Jeremiah 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.”

Jeremiah 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.

Jeremiah 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.

Jeremiah 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.” God’s Word will always stand, and so will those who stand by the Word of God and put their trust in it.

Jeremiah 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.