Jeremiah 44, Last Message to the Jews in Egypt

What do you do if someone contradicts your understanding of things with their own narrative of what is true? If you are the prophet Jeremiah, you give them a sign that will prove you are right and they are wrong.

^44:1 This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis—and in Upper Egypt: ² “This is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins ³ because of the evil they have done. They aroused my anger by burning incense to and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew. ⁴ Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ ⁵ But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. ⁶ Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.

⁷ “Now this is what Yahweh God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant? ⁸ Why arouse my anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations on earth. ⁹ Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your ancestors and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.

¹¹ “Therefore this is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah. ¹² I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach. ¹³ I will punish those who live in Egypt with the sword, famine and plague, as I punished Jerusalem. ¹⁴ None of the remnant of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, to which they long to return and live; none will return except a few fugitives.”

Jeremiah was taken to Egypt against his will by those remnant of Judahites who feared Babylon and sought peace and safety in Egypt. He is still a prophet of Yahweh and so he prophecies to them that their flight to Egypt for safety would not spare them. They would perish as their fellow countrymen did in Judah, because of all their idolatry.

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh! ¹⁷ We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. ¹⁸ But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

¹⁹ The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”

The Jews in Egypt counter that they will not give up their idolatry, particularly their worship of the Queen of Heaven (Ishtar in Egypt, Asherah in Israel), but will fulfill their oath to her (as if they have no oath to Yahweh). They believe that it was failure to burn incense to her that resulted in suffering harm (death by sword and famine). None of that happened, they aver, when they were worshiping her.

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him, ²¹ “Did not Yahweh remember and call to mind the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials and the people of the land? ²² When Yahweh could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became a curse and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today. ²³ Because you have burned incense and have sinned against Yahweh and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including the women, “Hear the word of Yahweh, all you people of Judah in Egypt. ²⁵ This is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have done what you said you would do when you promised, ‘We will certainly carry out the vows we made to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.’

“Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows! ²⁶ But hear the word of Yahweh, all you Jews living in Egypt: ‘I swear by my great name,’ says Yahweh, ‘that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, “As surely as the Sovereign Yahweh lives.” ²⁷ For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed. ²⁸ Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.

²⁹ “‘This will be the sign to you that I will punish you in this place,’ declares Yahweh, ‘so that you will know that my threats of harm against you will surely stand.’ ³⁰ This is what Yahweh says: ‘I am going to deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who want to kill him, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who wanted to kill him.’”

Jeremiah gives them a sign, which if it comes true, will prove the falsity of their claims. Pharaoh Hophra (the Jews name for him, but otherwise known as Apries) will be killed by his enemies. The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary notes:

Classical sources such as Herodotus and Diodorus report that Apries was assassinated in a military coup led by his successor, Amasis II, who ruled from about 570 – 526 b.c. A slightly different version records that Amasis, realizing how much Apries was loathed by the people, turned Apries over to the people, who was then strangled by the mob.

This is the last prophecy of Jeremiah. Those that follow in the book were made earlier. As far as we know, Jeremiah died in Egypt.

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Discussion Questions:

1. Why do so many presidential candidates get away with claiming people were worse off during the current administration’s leadership?
2. How frustrated would you be if you were Jeremiah?
3. If the Jews were better off when they worshiped Asherah, should they worship her?