Jeremiah 44:1-14

B. A Prophetic Admonition Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 44:1-14) and the rejection of that warning by the incorrigible people (Jeremiah 44:15-19).

1. The warning Presented (Jeremiah 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 God's wrath in 587 B.C. Now the remnant which had survived that disaster by God's 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 (Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 44:1-6). Then he expostulates with them concerning their present sin (Jeremiah 44:7-10). Finally he declares that judgment will yet befall them even in Egypt (Jeremiah 44:11-14).

a) Explanation of past calamity (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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] (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 44:7). The nation will become an object of cursing and a reproach among all the nations of the earth (Jeremiah 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? (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 44:11-14). The maxim They who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it is vividly illustrated in Jeremiah 44:11-14. God declares that He will set His face against His people. All Judah will be cut off (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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.