---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Jeremiah 44"
description: "CHAPTER 44   :-. JEREMIAH
REPROVES THE JEWS
FOR THEIR IDOLATRY
IN EGYPT, AND
DENOUNCES GOD"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/jeremiah/44"
---

CHAPTER 44

. 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 ([Exodus 14:2](../../../kjv/exodus/14/2);
[Numbers 33:7](../../../kjv/numbers/33/7)).
**Noph**—Memphis, now Cairo
([Jeremiah 2:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/2/16)).
**Pathros**—Upper Egypt
([Isaiah 11:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/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.** ().

**7. now**—after so many warnings.
**commit . . . this . . . evil
against your souls**— ([Jeremiah 7:19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/7/19);
[Numbers 16:38](../../../kjv/numbers/16/38); [Proverbs 8:36](../../../kjv/proverbs/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 ([1 Kings 11:1-8](../../../kjv/1-kings/11/1-8);
[1 Kings 15:13](../../../kjv/1-kings/15/13); [1 Kings 16:31](../../../kjv/1-kings/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" ([Psalms 51:17](../../../kjv/psalms/51/17)).
**neither . . . feared**—
([Proverbs 28:14](../../../kjv/proverbs/28/14)).

**11. Behold, I will set my face
against you for evil**—(See on ).
**and to cut off all Judah**—that
is, all the idolaters; [Jeremiah 44:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/28)
shows that some returned to Judea (compare [Jeremiah 44:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/28)).

**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 [Jeremiah 22:27](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/27), *Margin;*
[Deuteronomy 24:15](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/24/15), *Margin*).
**none shall return but such as
shall escape**—namely, the "small number" ([Deuteronomy 24:15](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/24/15)) 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 [Deuteronomy 24:15](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/24/15)). 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 ([1 Kings 11:4](../../../kjv/1-kings/11/4);
[1 Timothy 2:14](../../../kjv/1-timothy/2/14)). Their husbands'
connivance implicated them in the guilt.

**16. we will not**— ().

**17. whatsoever . . . goeth . . . out
of our . . . mouth**—whatever *vow* we have uttered to our
gods ([Jeremiah 44:25](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/25); [Deuteronomy 23:23](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/23/23);
[Judges 11:36](../../../kjv/judges/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
[Jeremiah 7:18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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 [Proverbs 1:32](../../../kjv/proverbs/1/32) [Ecclesiastes 8:11-13](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/8/11-13).
In fact, God had often chastised them for their idolatry (see [Ecclesiastes 8:11-21](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/8/11-21)); 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 ([Deuteronomy 8:3](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/8/3);
[John 6:27](../../../kjv/john/6/27)). So Esau ([John 6:27](../../../kjv/john/6/27)).

**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 ().

**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 ([Jeremiah 44:15](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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 (), as was foretold ([Jeremiah 25:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/25/11);
[Jeremiah 25:18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/25/18); [Jeremiah 25:38](../../../kjv/jeremiah/25/38)).

**23. law**—the moral precepts.
**statutes**—the
ceremonial.
**testimonies**—the
judicial ([Daniel 9:11](../../../kjv/daniel/9/11); [Daniel 9:12](../../../kjv/daniel/9/12)).

**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 ([Genesis 22:16](../../../kjv/genesis/22/16)), the
greatest by whom God can swear ([Hebrews 6:13](../../../kjv/hebrews/6/13);
[Hebrews 6:14](../../../kjv/hebrews/6/14)).
**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 ([Hebrews 6:14](../../../kjv/hebrews/6/14)): there shall be none left there to profane His name thus
any more.

**27. watch over . . . for evil**—
([Jeremiah 1:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/1/10); [Ezekiel 7:6](../../../kjv/ezekiel/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 [Jeremiah 31:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/31/28); [Jeremiah 32:41](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/41).

**28. small number**—(see on ; and [Jeremiah 42:17](../../../kjv/jeremiah/42/17);
[Isaiah 27:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/13)); compare
"all-consumed" ([Isaiah 27:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/13)). *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 ([Isaiah 27:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/13)), c. "Mine" by which I predict ruin to them.
"Theirs"; by which they give themselves free scope in
iniquity.
**shall stand**— ([Isaiah 27:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/13)).

**29. this . . . sign unto you**—The
calamity of Pharaoh-hophra (see on ) shall be a sign to you that as he shall fall before his
enemy, so you shall subsequently fall before Nebuchadnezzar () [GROTIUS].
CALVIN makes the "sign"
to be simultaneous with the event signified, not antecedent to it, as
in [Exodus 3:12](../../../kjv/exodus/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 ([Ezekiel 20:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/20/3);
[Ezekiel 30:21](../../../kjv/ezekiel/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].

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