@Jer 44:1-30. JEREMIAH REPROVES THE JEWS FOR THEIR IDOLATRY IN EGYPT, AND DENOUNCES GOD'S JUDGMENTS ON THEM AND EGYPT ALIKE.
1. Migdol--meaning a "tower." A city east of Egypt, towards the Red
Sea (@Ex 14:2 Nu 33:7).
Noph--Memphis, now Cairo (@Jer 2:16).
Pathros--Upper Egypt (@Isa 11:11).
2. evil . . . upon Jerusalem--If I spared not My own sacred city, much less shall ye be safe in Egypt, which I loathe.
3. they went--implying perverse assiduity: they went out of their way to burn incense (one species of idolatry put for all kinds), &c.
4. (@2Ch 36:15).
7. now--after so many warnings.
commit . . . this . . . evil against your souls--(@Jer 7:19 Nu 16:38 Pr 8:36). It is not God whom you injure, but
yourselves.
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.
9. Have you forgotten how the wickednesses of your fathers were
the source of the greatest calamities to you?
their wives--The Jews' worldly queens were great promoters of
idolatry (@1Ki 11:1-8 15:13 16:31).
the land of Judah--They defiled the land which was holy unto God.
10. They . . . you--The third person puts them to a distance from
God on account of their alienating themselves from Him. The second
person implies that God formerly had directly addressed them.
humbled--literally, "contrite" (@Ps 51:17).
neither . . . feared--(@Pr 28:14).
11. Behold, I will set my face against you for evil--(See on Le 17:10).
and to cut off all Judah--that is, all the idolaters; @Jer 44:28
shows that some returned to Judea (compare @Jer 42:17).
14. none . . . shall escape . . . that they should return, &c.--The
Jews had gone to Egypt with the idea that a return to Judea, which
they thought hopeless to their brethren in Babylon, would be an easy
matter to themselves in Egypt: the exact reverse should happen in the
case of each respectively. The Jews whom God sent to Babylon were there
weaned from idolatry, and were restored; those who went to Egypt by
their perverse will were hardened in idolatry, and perished there.
have a desire--literally, "lift up (their) soul," that is,
their hopes (compare @Jer 22:27, Margin; @De 24:15,
Margin).
none shall return but such as shall escape--namely, the "small number"
(@Jer 44:28) who were brought by force into Egypt, as Jeremiah and
Baruch, and those who, in accordance with Jeremiah's advice, should flee
from Egypt before the arrival of the Chaldeans
(see on Jer 42:17).
CALVIN less probably refers the words to
the return of the exiles in Babylon, which the Jews in Egypt regarded as
hopeless.
15. their wives--The idolatry began with them (@1Ki 11:4 1Ti 2:14). Their husbands' connivance implicated them in the guilt.
16. we will not--(@Jer 6:16).
17. whatsoever . . . goeth . . . out of our . . . mouth--whatever
vow we have uttered to our gods (@Jer 44:25 De 23:23 Jud 11:36).
The source of all superstitions is that men oppose their own will and
fancies to God's commands.
queen of heaven--(See on Jer 7:18); Ashtaroth or Astarte.
we . . . fathers . . . king, &c.--The evil was restricted to no one
class: all from the highest to the lowest shared the guilt.
then had we plenty--Fools attribute their seeming prosperity to God's
connivance at their sin: but see @Pr 1:32 Ec 8:11-13. In fact, God had
often chastised them for their idolatry (see @Jud 2:14); but it is
the curse of impiety not to perceive the hand of God in calamities.
victuals--Men cast away the bread of the soul for the bread that
perisheth (@De 8:3 Joh 6:27). So Esau (@Heb 12:16).
18. They impute their calamities to their service of God, but these are often marks of His favor, not of wrath, to do His people good at their latter end (@De 8:16).
19. make . . . cakes to worship
her--MAURER translates, "to form her
image." Crescent-shaped cakes were offered to the moon. Vulgate supports English Version.
without our men--The women mentioned (@Jer 44:15); "a great
multitude" here speak: we have not engaged in secret night orgies which
might justly be regarded unfavorably by our husbands: our sacred
rites have been open, and with their privity. They wish to show how
unreasonable it is that Jeremiah should oppose himself alone to the act
of all, not merely women, but men also. The guilty, like these
women, desire to shield themselves under the complicity of others.
Instead of helping one another towards heaven, husband and wife often
ripen one another for hell.
21. The incense . . . did not the Lord remember--Jeremiah owns that they did as they said, but in retort asks, did not God repay their own evil-doing? Their very land in its present desolation attests this (@Jer 44:22), as was foretold (@Jer 25:11,18,38).
23. law--the moral precepts.
statutes--the ceremonial.
testimonies--the judicial (@Da 9:11,12).
25. Ye . . . have both spoken with . . . mouths, and fulfilled with
. . . hand--ironical praise. They had pleaded their obligation to
fulfil their vows, in excuse for their idolatry. He answers, no one can
accuse you of unsteadiness as to your idolatrous vows; but steadfastness
towards God ought to have prevented you from making, or, when made, from
keeping such vows.
ye will surely accomplish . . . vows--Jeremiah hereby gives them up
to their own fatal obstinacy.
26. I have sworn--I, too have made a vow which I will fulfil.
Since ye will not hear Me speaking and warning, hear Me swearing.
by my great name--that is, by Myself (@Ge 22:16), the greatest
by whom God can swear (@Heb 6:13,14).
my name shall no more be named--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 (@Eze 20:39): there shall be none left there to profane His
name thus any more.
27. watch over . . . for evil--(@Jer 1:10 Eze 7:6). The God, whose providence is ever solicitously watching over His people for good, shall solicitously, as it were, watch for their hurt. Contrast @Jer 31:28 32:41.
28. small number--(see on Jer 44:14; and
@Jer 42:17 Isa 27:13); compare "all-consumed"
(@Jer 44:27).
A band easily counted, whereas they were expecting to return
triumphantly in large numbers.
shall know--most of them experimentally, and to their cost.
whose words . . . mine, or theirs--Hebrew, "that from Me and them."
Jehovah's words are His threats of destruction to the Jews; theirs, the
assertion that they expected all goods from their gods (@Jer 44:17),
&c. "Mine"; by which I predict ruin to them. "Theirs"; by which they
give themselves free scope in iniquity.
shall stand--(@Ps 33:11).
29. this . . . sign unto you--The calamity of Pharaoh-hophra (see on Jer 44:30) shall be a sign to you that as he shall fall before his enemy, so you shall subsequently fall before Nebuchadnezzar (@Mt 24:8) [GROTIUS]. CALVIN makes the "sign" to be simultaneous with the event signified, not antecedent to it, as in @Ex 3:12. The Jews believed Egypt impregnable, so shut in was it by natural barriers. The Jews being "punished in this place" will be a sign that their view is false, and God's threat true. He calls it "a sign unto you," because God's prediction is equivalent to the event, so that they may even now take it as a sign. When fulfilled it would cease to be a sign to them: for they would be dead.
30. Hophra--in
HERODOTUS called Apries. He succeeded Psammis, the
successor of Pharaoh-necho, who was beaten by Nebuchadnezzar at
Carchemish, on the Euphrates. Amasis rebelled against, and overcame him,
in the city Sais.
them that seek his
life--HERODOTUS, in curious accordance with this,
records that Amasis, after treating Hophra well at first, was
instigated, by persons who thought they could not be safe unless he were
put to death, to strangle him. "His enemies" refer to Amasis, &c.; the
words are accurately chosen, so as not to refer to Nebuchadnezzar, who
is not mentioned till the end of the verse, and in connection with
Zedekiah (@Eze 20:3 30:21). Amasis' civil war with Hophra pioneered
the way for Nebuchadnezzar's invasion in the twenty-third year of his
reign [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10.11].