Jeremiah 44

Whose Words Shall Stand

In Egypt, Jews who disobeyed the Lord to get there say they prospered while worshiping the queen of heaven. Jeremiah's last recorded prophecy tells them whose word will stand.

Undated. It follows the flight to Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C., Bible Dictionary) and the word at Tahpanhes in Jer. 43:8–13, and, on one reading, comes before Babylon occupied Egypt Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

The people addressed in this chapter are the survivors who should not have been in Egypt.

The people addressed in this chapter are the survivors who should not have been in Egypt. After Jerusalem fell, those left in the land asked Jeremiah to seek the Lord's will, promised to obey it, and were told to stay (Jer. 42:5–6; Jer. 42:15–16). They went to Egypt anyway, and took Jeremiah and Baruch with them (Jer. 43:5–7), Jeremiah “as a kind of fetish”; “according to tradition” they at last stoned him to death.

The chapter is addressed to Jews now scattered across four places in Egypt, and it reads as a last confrontation: “the Jews in Egypt, save a small remnant, will be destroyed because they worship false gods.” It falls in four movements: the Lord points to Jerusalem's ruin and asks why they repeat the sin that caused it (verses 1–14); the people answer that they will keep worshiping the queen of heaven, and that they did well when they did (verses 15–19); Jeremiah answers that the ruin is the proof (verses 20–23); and the Lord swears judgment and gives a sign (verses 24–30).

The chapter has no date. On one reading it is Jeremiah's last prophecy, spoken long after the word at Tahpanhes and before Babylon had taken Egypt.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 44 is a dispute about how to read history. Both sides look at the same ruined cities.

Jeremiah 44 is a dispute about how to read history. Both sides look at the same ruined cities. The Lord says the ruin is what idolatry costs; verses 2–6 say so, and verses 21–23 repeat it. The people say the ruin began when they stopped worshiping the queen of heaven (verses 17–18). Each side claims experience as its evidence, and the chapter's question is who gets to interpret it.

The answer is in who speaks. The people will do “whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth” (verse 17); the Lord replies with an oath “by my great name” (verse 26). Judah's own word is a vow to another god, and the Lord's word has been sent “rising early” through prophets (verse 4) and now stands in the sentence “ye shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs” (verse 28). The sign he gives, the fall of Pharaoh-hophra, is the same kind of event that has already happened to Zedekiah (verse 30): the proof the people need is the history they will live through.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–14

The Lord points to Jerusalem's ruin

In plain words

This is the word to all the Jews living in Egypt, at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and Pathros. “You have seen the evil I brought on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. They lie empty today, because of the evil they did, burning incense and serving gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers knew. I sent all my servants the prophets again and again, saying, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’ They would not listen, so my anger was poured out on Jerusalem. Why are you doing this great harm to yourselves, cutting off man and woman, child and infant from Judah, provoking me by burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, of the kings of Judah and their wives, of you and your wives? They have not humbled themselves to this day. So I will set my face against you and cut off all Judah. The remnant that set their faces to go to Egypt will be consumed there, from the least to the greatest, by sword and famine, and become a curse and a reproach. None of them will escape and return to Judah, though they long to; none will return except a few fugitives.”

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

Context #

Four places in Egypt

The four names stretch from Egypt's northern frontier to its far south.

The four names stretch from Egypt's northern frontier to its far south. Noph is Memphis, the “ancient capital of Egypt,” and Pathros is Upper Egypt, the south of the country. Migdol and Tahpanhes were frontier towns in the north: on one reading Migdol was “the most northerly place in Egypt,” and Tahpanhes, where Jeremiah hid the stones (Jer. 43:9), is Daphne. The Jews had settled “not merely in the two northern frontier towns” but well inland, so the word is addressed to a scattered and settled community.

Sources: “Noph”, Bible Dictionary. “Pathros”, Bible Dictionary. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,

3 Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.

4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.

Related Scriptures #

Rising early and sending

The Lord says He sent His prophets again and again. Chronicles tells the same story as compassion that was refused: the Lord “sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes,…

The Lord says He sent His prophets again and again. Chronicles tells the same story as compassion that was refused: the Lord “sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people,” but “they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets” (2 Chr. 36:15–16). The Church edition adds the Lord's words in our day to those who refused: “ye believed not my servants, and when they were sent unto you ye received them not” (D&C 133:71).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.

6 Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.

7 Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;

8 In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

11 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.

12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

Context #

Asked, promised, refused

These Jews had been given the right answer and had promised to follow it.

These Jews had been given the right answer and had promised to follow it. They asked Jeremiah to seek the Lord and swore, “we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee” (Jer. 42:6). The Lord's answer was that the sword and the famine they feared would find them in Egypt (Jer. 42:16). Their leaders replied, “Thou speakest falsely,” and went (Jer. 43:2).

The prophecy of this chapter “was fulfilled among yet another group of Jews who could have received blessings at the Lord's hand if they would have obeyed His prophet. But instead, they trusted in their own judgment.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeremiah 37–44: Babylon Conquers Judah, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide.

13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:

14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.

Verses 15–19

The people's answer

In plain words

All the men who knew their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women standing by, a great crowd, answered: “We will not listen to the word you have spoken to us in the Lord's name. We will certainly do everything we have said we would do: burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in Judah. Then we had plenty of food and no harm. But since we stopped, we have lacked everything and have been destroyed by sword and famine. And when we burned incense and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her and pour out offerings without our husbands?”

15 Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.

Latter-day Prophets #

A prophet that people would rather not hear

The refusal in verse 16 is the refusal of a living prophet, and prophets in our day have said why it happens.

The refusal in verse 16 is the refusal of a living prophet, and prophets in our day have said why it happens. Ezra Taft Benson taught that “Popularity is never a test of truth. Many a prophet has been killed or cast out,” and that “How we respond to the words of a living prophet when he tells us what we need to know, but would rather not hear, is a test of our faithfulness.”

Spencer W. Kimball said of the Church that “many are prone to garnish the sepulchres of yesterday's prophets and mentally stone the living ones.” Jeremiah is the example: the leaders of Judah “cast aside his words as naught,” and “eventually he was driven out of Israel and compelled to live in Egypt.”

Sources: Ezra Taft Benson, “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, BYU devotional, Feb. 26, 1980. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

Context #

The queen of heaven

The queen of heaven is a goddess of fertility, and the Church edition names Ishtar as an example.

The queen of heaven is a goddess of fertility, and the Church edition names Ishtar as an example. She was worshiped in Judah before the exile: the same cakes appear in Jeremiah's temple sermon, where “the children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven” (Jer. 7:18). Under Manasseh “there was introduced the worship of the heavenly planets in accordance with the dictates of the Assyro-Babylonian religion,” and the worship of the queen of heaven was part of the idolatry Jeremiah found in Judah.

So when the people say “as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes,” they are telling the truth about a practice that had royal sponsors, and Jeremiah does not deny it.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Related Scriptures #

Their own mouth

The people choose their own word over the Lord's, and the Church edition links the verse to the Lord's description of idolatry in our day: “every man walketh in his own way, and…

The people choose their own word over the Lord's, and the Church edition links the verse to the Lord's description of idolatry in our day: “every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god” (D&C 1:16). Spencer W. Kimball quoted that verse in teaching that “Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if his god doesn't also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in idolatry.” In his words, carnal man “has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things,” and these Jews do so by their own account (“we had plenty of victuals”).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship”, Ensign, June 1976.

Context #

Why it seemed to work

Their argument is from experience, and Jeremiah answers it with the same experience read differently.

Their argument is from experience, and Jeremiah answers it with the same experience read differently. One reading is that they reasoned “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” (after this, therefore because of this) from the fact that “after idolatry had been rooted out by Josiah, adversity had befallen the land of Judah.” The text itself gives only their claim.

Jeremiah's reply in verses 21–23 does not argue about the goddess. He says the Lord remembered the incense, “could no longer bear” it, and that the ruin is “as at this day,” visible to them now. The chapter is “a good example of how people rationalize their disobedience.”

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Jeremiah 34–52, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual. Lesson 137: Jeremiah 42–52, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual.

18 But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?

Language #

Without our men

On one reading the women are insisting that their husbands knew and approved, as a self-vindication: “without our men” means “without their knowledge and approval,” since under…

On one reading the women are insisting that their husbands knew and approved, as a self-vindication: “without our men” means “without their knowledge and approval,” since under the law a husband could “declare not binding” a vow his wife made without his knowledge. Verse 15 fits it: the men “knew that their wives had burned incense,” and the large gathering may have been “a festival in honour of the queen of heaven.” The verse itself shows only that husbands and wives answered together.

Verses 20–23

Jeremiah's reply

In plain words

Jeremiah answered all the people, men and women: “The incense you burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land: the Lord remembered it. He could no longer bear your evil and your abominations, and so your land became a ruin and a curse, without inhabitants, as it is today. It is because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord and did not obey him that this disaster has come on you.”

20 Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying,

21 The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind?

22 So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.

23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.

Verses 24–30

The oath and the sign

In plain words

Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women: “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah in Egypt. You and your wives have said it with your mouths and done it with your hands: ‘We will keep our vows to the queen of heaven.’ You will surely keep them! But hear this: I swear by my great name that no man of Judah in Egypt will ever again say, ‘As the Lord God lives.’ I am watching over them for harm and not for good. All the men of Judah in Egypt will die by sword and famine until they are finished. A few who escape the sword will return to Judah, and the whole remnant will know whose word stands, mine or theirs. This will be the sign that I will punish you here: I will give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, his enemy.”

24 Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:

25 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.

26 Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth.

Related Scriptures #

The oath by His great name

The Lord answers their vows with His own oath. Their vows are made to the queen of heaven; His is made by His own name, as when He promised Abraham and “sware by himself” because…

The Lord answers their vows with His own oath. Their vows are made to the queen of heaven; His is made by His own name, as when He promised Abraham and “sware by himself” because “he could swear by no greater” (Heb. 6:13). The verse says that “The Lord GOD liveth” will no more be said by any man of Judah in Egypt, and verse 27 gives the reason: they will be consumed “until there be an end of them,” so no one will be left to say it. The Church edition links it to the Lord's statement, which Nephi reads from Isaiah, that “I will not suffer my name to be polluted” (1 Ne. 20:11).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

27 Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.

Language #

The same watching as in chapter 31

The verb “watch” in verse 27 is the one used for restoration in chapter 31.

The verb “watch” in verse 27 is the one used for restoration in chapter 31. The Hebrew in verse 27 and in Jer. 31:28 is the same verb, shaqad, “keep watch of, be wakeful over,” with the Lord watching over people “to benefit or injure”; it is also the verb of the Lord watching over His word in Jer. 1:12. In chapter 31 the Lord says, “like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant.” The Church edition links the two verses. The Lord's watching works in both directions: in chapter 31 it ends in building and planting, and here, “for evil, and not for good.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

28 Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.

29 And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:

30 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.

Context #

The sign of Pharaoh Hophra

The sign is the fall of the king of the land where they sought refuge.

The sign is the fall of the king of the land where they sought refuge. Pharaoh Hophra is the king who sent an army to help Zedekiah during the siege (Jer. 37:5–11). The Lord compares it to Zedekiah, whom the Chaldeans overtook and brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah (Jer. 39:5). Jeremiah's oracle against Egypt also names Pharaoh among those to be delivered “into the hand of those that seek their lives” (Jer. 46:25–26).

How the sign was met is less certain. One reading identifies Hophra with the king classical writers call Apris, whom his successor Amasis “took … prisoner, and gave him up to the common people, who killed him”; on that reading the verse's words “do not require us to assume that Hophra was killed by Nebuchadnezzar.” The verse itself promises only that Hophra will be given to those who seek his life.

Sources: “Pharaoh”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 44

The chapter shows what it costs to turn away from the God who sends. He sent His servants early and often out of compassion, and Hebrews says that after the prophets He has spoken by His Son: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1–2). Nephi the son of Helaman uses Jeremiah in the same way. Jerusalem was destroyed “according to the words of Jeremiah,” and so he asks, “why not the Son of God come, according to his prophecy?” (Hel. 8:20). The Lord who says “my words shall surely stand” in verse 29 is the one whose words about His own coming have also stood.

Worth exploring next

The stones at Tahpanhes. Read Jer. 43:8–13 to see the earlier word spoken in the same city.
The refugees' request. Read Jer. 42 and set the people's promise beside their answer here.
Egypt's turn. Read Jer. 46, Jeremiah's longer oracle against Egypt.
Idolatry named in our day. Read Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship” (Ensign, June 1976), for how a prophet applies the same charge.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Noph”, Bible Dictionary.
“Pathros”, Bible Dictionary.
“Pharaoh”, Bible Dictionary.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Ezra Taft Benson, “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, BYU devotional, Feb. 26, 1980.
Jeremiah 37–44: Babylon Conquers Judah, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide.
Lesson 137: Jeremiah 42–52, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual.
Jeremiah 34–52, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual.
Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship”, Ensign, June 1976.

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