Jeremiah 44
44
Judgment for Idolatry
1This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis,#44:1a Hebrew Noph. and in southern Egypt#44:1b Hebrew in Pathros. as well: 2“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. 3They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known.
4“Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’ 5But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. 6And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.
7“And now the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, asks you: Why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive—not a man, woman, or child among you who has come here from Judah, not even the babies in your arms. 8Why provoke my anger by burning incense to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations of the earth. 9Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in Judah and Jerusalem? 10To this very hour you have shown no remorse or reverence. No one has chosen to follow my word and the decrees I gave to you and your ancestors before you.
11“Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to destroy every one of you! 12I will take this remnant of Judah—those who were determined to come here and live in Egypt—and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. 13I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease. 14Of that remnant who fled to Egypt, hoping someday to return to Judah, there will be no survivors. Even though they long to return home, only a handful will do so.”
15Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols—a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt#44:15 Hebrew in Egypt, in Pathros.—answered Jeremiah, 16“We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! 17We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like—just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! 18But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine.”
19“Besides,” the women added, “do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!”
20Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike, who had given him that answer, 21“Do you think the Lord did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 22It was because the Lord could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing—a desolate ruin without inhabitants—as it is today. 23All these terrible things happened to you because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the Lord. You have refused to obey him and have not followed his instructions, his decrees, and his laws.”
24Then Jeremiah said to them all, including the women, “Listen to this message from the Lord, all you citizens of Judah who live in Egypt. 25This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have said, “We will keep our promises to burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven,” and you have proved by your actions that you meant it. So go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her!’
26“But listen to this message from the Lord, all you Judeans now living in Egypt: ‘I have sworn by my great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that my name will no longer be spoken by any of the Judeans in the land of Egypt. None of you may invoke my name or use this oath: “As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives.” 27For I will watch over you to bring you disaster and not good. Everyone from Judah who is now living in Egypt will suffer war and famine until all of you are dead. 28Only a small number will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. Then all those who came to Egypt will find out whose words are true—mine or theirs!
29“‘And this is the proof I give you,’ says the Lord, ‘that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here.’ 30This is what the Lord says: ‘I will turn Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar#44:30 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar. of Babylon.’”
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Jeremiah 44: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Jeremias (Jeremiah) 44
44
1The word that came to Jeremias, concerning all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, dwelling in Magdal and in Taphnis and in Memphis and in the land of Phatures, saying:
2Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all this evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Juda. And, behold, they are desolate this day, and there is not an inhabitant in them:
3Because of the wickedness which they have committed, to provoke me to wrath, and to go and offer sacrifice and worship other gods which neither they, nor you nor your fathers knew.
4And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending, and saying: Do not commit this abominable thing which I hate.
5But they heard not nor inclined their ear to turn from their evil ways and not to sacrifice to strange gods.
6Wherefore my indignation and my fury was poured forth and was kindled in the cities of Juda and in the streets of Jerusalem: and they are turned to desolation and waste, as at this day.
7And now thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, that there should die of you man and woman, child and suckling, out of the midst of Juda, and no remnant should be left you:
8In that you provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands, by sacrificing to other gods in the land of Egypt, into which you are come to dwell there: and that you should perish and be a curse and a reproach to all the nations of the earth?
9Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers and the evils of the kings of Juda and the evils of their wives and your evils and the evils of your wives, that they have done in the land of Juda and in the streets of Jerusalem?
10They are not cleansed even to this day: neither have they feared nor walked in the law of the Lord nor in my commandments which I set before you and your fathers.
11Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil: and I will destroy all Juda.
12And I will take the remnant of Juda that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt and to dwell there: and they shall be all consumed in the land of Egypt. They shall fall by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be consumed from the least even to the greatest. By the sword, and by the famine shall they die: and they shall be for an execration and for a wonder and for a curse and for a reproach.
13And I will visit them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have visited Jerusalem, by the sword and by famine and by pestilence.
14And there shall be none that shall escape and remain of the remnant of the Jews that are gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt, and that shall return into the land of Juda, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there. There shall none return but they that shall flee.
15Then all the men that knew that their wives sacrificed to other gods, and all the women of whom there stood by a great multitude, and all the people of them that dwelt in the land of Egypt in Phatures, answered Jeremias, saying:
16As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken to thee:
17But we will certainly do every word that shall proceed out of our own mouth, to sacrifice to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink-offerings to her, as we and our fathers have done, our kings, and our princes in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem: and we were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw no evil.
18But since we left off to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink-offerings to her, we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.
19And if we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and pour out drink-offerings to her: did we make cakes to worship her, to pour out drink-offerings to her, without our husbands?
20And Jeremias spoke to all the people, to the men and to the women and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying:
21Was it not the sacrifice that you offered in the cities of Juda and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, which the Lord hath remembered: and hath it not entered into his heart?
22So that the Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land is become a desolation and an astonishment and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
23Because you have sacrificed to idols and have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have not walked in his law and in his commandments and in his testimonies: therefore are these evils come upon you, as at this day.
24And Jeremias said to all the people and to all the women: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all Juda, you that dwell in the land of Egypt.
25Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have spoken with your mouth and fulfilled with your hands, saying: Let us perform our vows which we have made, to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink-offerings to her. You have fulfilled your vows and have performed them indeed.
26Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Juda, you 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 Juda, in the land of Egypt, saying: The Lord God liveth.
27Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good: and all the men of Juda that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine till there be an end of them.
28And a few men that shall flee from the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Juda: and all the remnant of Juda that are gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs.
29And this shall be a sign to you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place: that you may know that my words shall be accomplished indeed against you for evil.
30Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver Pharao Ephree king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of them that seek his life: as I delivered Sedecias king of Juda into the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon his enemy and that sought his life.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.