Jeremiah 44:13

44:1-14 God reminds the Jews of the sins that brought desolations upon Judah. It becomes us to warn men of the danger of sin with all seriousness: 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 the hour of temptation. The Jews whom God sent into the land of the Chaldeans, were there, by the power of God's grace, weaned from idolatry; but those who went by their own perverse will into the land of the Egyptians, were there more attached than ever to their idolatries. When we thrust ourselves without cause or call into places of temptation, it is just with God to leave us to ourselves. If we walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us. The most awful miseries to which men are exposed, are occasioned by the neglect of offered salvation.

For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt,.... Or "visit"; in a way of wrath and vengeance; meaning not the native inhabitants of Egypt; though these should be punished, and in whose punishment the Jews would be involved; but here it means the Jews that dwelt in Egypt, who went thither contrary to the will of God, and there settled: as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; signifying that the same punishment that came upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and other cities of Judea, should come upon these Jews in Egypt, and as sure as they came upon them; even those which they thought to have escaped, by leaving Judea, and going to Egypt.

In Jeremiah 44:7-10 follows the application of what has been said to those present, who are asked how they come to continue in the old sins, to their own destruction, "doing evil in regard to your souls," i.e., for the injury, destruction of your souls, yourself; cf. Jeremiah 26:19 , where על־נ' stands for אל־נ'. This is immediately afterwards more exactly specified by 'להכרית וגו, to exterminate the whole of you, without an exception. As to the enumeration "man and woman," etc., cf. 1 Samuel 15:3 ; 1 Samuel 22:19 . The infs. להכעיסני and לקטּר are used as gerundives: "inasmuch as (through this that) ye provoke me." For the expression "the works of your hands," see on Jeremiah 1:16 . In Jeremiah 44:8 , an object must be supplied from Jeremiah 44:7 for the expression למען הכרית לכם; for, to take לכם (with Hitzig) in a reflexive sense is a very harsh construction. On 'לקללה וגו, cf. Jeremiah 42:18 ; Jeremiah 26:6 . The answer to the question now asked follows in Jeremiah 44:9 and Jeremiah 44:10 , in the form of the further question, whether they have forgotten those former sins, and that these sins have been the cause of the evil which has befallen the land. The interrogation expresses the reproach that they have been able to forget both, as is evidenced by their continuance in sin. In Jeremiah 44:9 , the expression "the evil deeds of his wives" (נשׁיו) is remarkable.

Hitzig and Ngelsbach, following Kimchi, refer the suffix to the kings, since there was always but one king at a time. But this is an unnatural explanation; the suffix refers to Judah as a nation, and is used in order to comprehend the wives of the fathers and of the kings together. It is quite arbitrary in Ewald and Graf to change נשׁיו to שׂריו, following the lxx τῶν ἀρχόντων ὑμῶν; for these translators have mutilated the text by the omission of the following ואת רעתיכם. רעות נשׁיו is not merely conserved, but even required, by ואת רעת נשׁיכם. But the prophet gives special prominence to the evil deeds of the wives, since it was they who were most zealous in worshipping the queen of heaven; cf. Jeremiah 44:15 and Jeremiah 44:19 . לא דכּאוּ, "they have not been crushed," viz., by repentance and sorrow for these sins. The transition to the third person is not merely accounted for by the fact that the subject treated of is the sins of the fathers and of the present generation, - for, as is shown by the expression "till this day," the prophet has chiefly his own contemporaries in view; but he speaks of these in the third person, to signify the indignation with which he turns away from men so difficult to reform. On the expression, "they had not walked in my law," cf. Jeremiah 26:4 ; Jeremiah 9:12 . For this the Lord will punish them severely, Jeremiah 44:11-14 . All those who have fled to Egypt, with the intention of remaining there, will be quite exterminated.

10 . obeyed (lit. hearkened to ) the voice , &c.] So Exodus 15:26 ; Exodus 19:5 ; and especially in Deut. (as Deuteronomy 4:30 , Deuteronomy 9:23 , Deuteronomy 28:1-2 ; Deuteronomy 28:15 ), and Jer. (as Jeremiah 3:13 , Jeremiah 9:13 , Jeremiah 44:23 ). Cf. with this verse Bar 1:18 ; Bar 2:10 . to walk in his laws ] Cf. Jeremiah 26:4 ; Jeremiah 32:23 ; Jeremiah 44:10 ; Jeremiah 44:23 . which he set before us ] See Deuteronomy 4:8 ; Deuteronomy 11:32 ; Jeremiah 9:13 ; Jeremiah 44:10 , and esp. Jeremiah 26:4 (cf. the last clause). Daniel 9:10