44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who
dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, and at a
Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros,
saying,
(a) These were all famous and strange cities in Egypt,
where the Jews that fled dwelt for their safety but the
prophet declares that there is no hold so strong that
can preserve them from God's vengeance.
44:4 Yet I sent to you all my servants the prophets, b rising
early and sending [them], saying, O, do not this abominable
thing that I hate.
44:6 Wherefore c my fury and my 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.
(c) He sets before their eyes God's judgments against Judah
and Jerusalem for their idolatry that they might beware
by their example, and not with the same wickedness
provoke the Lord: for then they would be double
punished.
44:9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the
wickedness of the d 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?
(d) He shows that we ought to keep in memory God's plagues
from the beginning that considering them, we might live
in his fear, and know if he did not spare our fathers,
yea kings, princes, rulers and also whole countries and
nations for their sins that we vile worms cannot look
to escape punishment for ours.
44:12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that e 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 to the
greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall
be an execration, [and] an horror, and a f curse, and a
reproach.
(e) Which have fully set their minds and are gone there on
purpose. By which he excepts the innocents as
Jeremiah and Baruch that were forces: therefore the
Lord shows that he will set his face against them:
that is, purposely destroy them.
(f) Read (Jer 26:6,41:18).
44:14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into
the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or
remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to
which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for
none shall return but g such as shall escape.
(g) Meaning but a few.
44:16 [As for] the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name
of the LORD, we will h not hearken to thee.
(h) This declares how dangerous a thing it is to decline
once from God and to follow our own fantasies: for
Satan ever solicits such and does not leave them till
he has brought them to extreme impudency and madness,
even to justify their wickedness against God and his
prophets.
44:17 But we will certainly do whatever thing proceedeth from
our own mouth, to burn incense to i the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings to 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] we had k plenty of food, and were well, and saw
no evil.
(i) Read (Jer 7:18) it seems that the papists gathered
of this place "Salbe Regina" and "Regina caeli latare"
calling the virgin Mary Queen of heaven and so out of
the blessed virgin and mother of our saviour Christ,
made an idol; for here the prophet condemns their
idolatry.
(k) This is still the argument of idolaters who esteem
religion by the belly and instead of acknowledging
God's works who sends both plenty and famine, health
and sickness. They attribute it to their idols and so
dishonour God.
44:19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and
poured out drink offerings to her, did we make for her
cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her,
without l our husbands?
(l) This teaches us what a great danger it is for the
husbands to permit their wives anything of which they
are not assured by God's word: for by it they take an
opportunity to justify their doings and their husbands
will give an account of it before God.
44:25 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 m 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 to
her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely
perform your vows.
(m) You have committed double evil in making wicked vows,
and in performing the same.
44:26 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 n shall no more
be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land
of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth.
(n) This declares a horrible plague toward idolaters,
seeing that God will not vouchsafe to have his Name
mentioned by such as have polluted it.
44:28 Yet a small number that escape the sword o shall return
from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the
remnant of Judah, that have gone into the land of Egypt to
sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine,
or theirs.
(o) We see therefore that God has a perpetual care over
his, wherever they are scattered: for though they are
but two or three, yet he will deliver them when he
destroys his enemies.
44:30 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will p give Pharaohhophra
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 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
his enemy, and that sought his life.
(p) He shows the means by which they would be destroyed to
assure them of the certainty of the plague and yet
they remain still in their obstinacy till they perish:
for Josephus writes that five years after the taking
of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar the younger having
overcome the Moabites and the Ammonites went against
Egypt and slew the king and so brought these Jews and
others into Babylon.
