Jeremiah 44:8

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.

In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands,.... Their sinful actions, particularly their idolatry, by worshipping images, the works of men's hands; and though it was the queen of heaven they worshipped, which their hands made not, yet it was before images they did that; besides, the things they did to her were the worlds of their hands, as sacrificing, pouring out drink offerings, and as follows: burning incense; which they did, not only to her, but to other gods in the land of Egypt; where they were very numerous: whither ye be gone to dwell; against the express will and command of God: that ye might cut yourselves off; as from the worship of God, so from being his people, and from being under his care and protection, and from all privileges temporal and spiritual: and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? not that this was their view, end, and design, but this was the event so it was, that they were looked upon as an accursed people of God and man, and their names were taken up for a proverb and a reproach everywhere.

Jeremiah 44:8-10 . Ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands — By making and setting up idols to worship. That ye might cut yourselves off, &c. — This is not to be so taken as if they did these things with a design to cut off themselves and their posterity: but only as signifying that their utter ruin would be the certain consequence of their continuing so to act. Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers? &c. — Have you forgotten what great wickedness your fathers committed, and what great punishments were in consequence thereof inflicted upon them? We may be truly said to have forgotten that the sight of which, or reflection thereon, makes no such impression upon us as produces a suitable practice. Which they have committed in the land of Judah, &c. — To have practised these things in any place would have been to contract great guilt; but to have done them in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, in the valley of vision, and in the holy city, where there were such means of information and such helps to piety, was still more aggravated and inexcusable wickedness. They are not humbled even unto this day — Neither they nor you are yet properly humbled, and prepared for receiving mercy.

Neither have they feared, nor walked in my law — Hence we learn, that reformation and obedience are the proper fruit of true contrition and humiliation; God does not account those to be humbled, but hardened, who are not reformed and made obedient, let their pretended contrition or humiliation be, in outward appearance, what it may.

(8) Burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt. —The words imply that the exiles were not only carrying on the old idolatrous practices with which they had been familiar in their own lands, but had adopted those of the Egyptians. This was the evil which the prophet had all along dreaded, and which had made him from the first, like his predecessor, Isaiah ( Isaiah 30:2 ; Isaiah 31:1 ), hostile to every plan of an alliance with Egypt.

Idols are usually thus defamed, and indeed nothing can argue a greater stupidity than for any to pay a homage (confessedly due to the Supreme Being) to what is the work of men’s hands, and therefore must be made by one superior to that order of beings in which idols are. But how doth the prophet say that they worshipped the works of men’s hands? for it is apparent, from Jeremiah 44:17 , that they paid this homage to the queen of heaven , which is not the work of men’s hands. Solut. It was before images, which are but the works of men’s hands. And this certainly was the idolatry of the generality of the heathens, they worshipped an unknown Divine Being before a creature, either as representing it, or rather putting them in mind of it. That ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth; the term that doth not denote the idolater’s end of intention, for none ever did any act intentionally to ruin themselves, it only signifies the end of their work, that their utter ruin would be the certain consequent of their work.

8. in … Egypt—where they polluted themselves to ingratiate themselves with the Egyptians. ye be gone—not compelled by fear, but of your own accord, when I forbade you, and when it was free to you to stay in Judea. that ye might cut yourselves off—They, as it were, purposely courted their own ruin.

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.