Jeremiah 44:20-23

c. The Rejoinder of the Prophet (Jeremiah 4:20-30)

a. Refutation of the Popular Assertions

Jeremiah 44:20-23

20Then Jeremiah said unto16 all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to 21all the people which had given him that answer, saying, Is it not so? The incense17 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? [Jehovah remembered 22it,18 and it came into his mind].19 So that the Lord [Jehovah] could no longer bear20 because of the evil of your doings,21 and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation,22 and an astonishment [a waste] and 23a curse, without an inhabitant,23 as at this day. 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 happened24 unto you, as at this day.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

To the assertion of the people that it had gone well with them so long as they had served the queen of heaven, and that their misfortunes dated from their cessation of this service, the prophet answers with a non post hoc sed propter hoc. It was precisely on account of this idolatrous cult (Jeremiah 44:21) which Jehovah could no longer suffer, that their misfortunes had come upon them (Jeremiah 44:22). And for the sake of emphasis Jeremiah repeats this bitter truth once more (Jeremiah 44:23).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. “Obfirment animum suum ministri ecclesiæ hujus capitis meditatione, ne pertinacia auditorum se territuri patiantur, sed ut potius dehortando, objurgando, comminando intrepide instent ex præcepto apostoli 2 Timothy 4:2.” Förster.

2. On Jeremiah 44:2-13. A mirror of the stubborn heart of man! For centuries unceasingly warned by the prophets—and how warned! Not by sentimental talk, but by words of thunder and strokes of power,—think only of Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Isaiah, etc.!—yet Judah bowed not his stubborn neck. Then at last when long-suffering love was exhausted, the judgment of just love was executed. And yet in the wretched remnant the old root of unbelief and disobedience remains still unbroken.

3. On Jeremiah 44:9. “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle as vetches, yet will his foolishness not depart from him (Proverbs 27:22). And he that sings songs to a heavy heart, it is like a torn garment in winter, and vinegar on nitre (Proverbs 25:20).” Cramer.

4. On Jeremiah 44:15. “Hoc loco imaginem quandam conspicere licet seditionis, de qua Ethnicus: ἐν τῆστάσει πᾶσα ἰδέα κακον͂ ἔνεστιν,—itemque confusionis plus quam cyclopicæ, de qua notum est illud tritum: οὐδεὶς οὐδενὸς οὐδὲν .” Förster.

5. On Jeremiah 44:16. “Ungodliness continually extends and even goes beyond itself. In the foregoing chapter they wish it to be considered as having to do only with Jeremiah’s private person, but now they are become bolder so that they contradict him officially and thus God Himself, not considering that they know what he says to be spoken not on his own, but on God’s account, which is a great blasphemy of God.” Cramer.

6. On Jeremiah 44:17. “The ungodly are blind. For they ascribe all their good fortune to their idolatry. When, however, a misfortune comes God and His word must be to blame, and they say: It is vain to serve God (Malachi 3:14). The charge of the Papists is used again now-a-days. when times are dear and the country suffers such like chastisements, that it is the fault of the Gospel; since on the other hand their mass is regarded as a regular Egyptian Meleket, by which they think to obtain temporal and eternal blessings both for the living and the dead.” Cramer.

7. On Jeremiah 44:17. “Non ovum ovo tam simile est atque huic Judæorum orationi nostrorum hominum vox contendentium, sub papatu aureum fuisse sæculum, cum tamen contrarium testentur historæ de bellis, peste et fame in papatu, præsertim ea, quæ incidit in annum Christi 1315, quo tempore fere tertia pars Germaniæ partim fame, partim peste extincta. Hinc versus: Ut lateat nullum tempus famis, ecce cucullum” Förster.

8. On Jeremiah 44:17. “Non mirum, quod urbes peste vexentur, cum Æsculapius et Dii ab iis procul absint, nam ex quo Jesus colitur, nihil jam utilitatis a Diis consequimur. Porphyrius.” MS. note in my copy of Cramer’s Bible.

9. On Jeremiah 44:19. “There is no doubt that the inconstant, frivolous women were the first to be seduced into idolatry, as Eve (2 Corinthians 11:3). When these are taken captive, he then proceeds farther, and knows how to bring in the Adam also. Therefore keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom (Micah 7:5).” Cramer.

10. On Jeremiah 44:19. “The harmony and complaisance of married people is never more easily secured than when it is against the Lord, and it is nothing unusual for domestic peace to be adduced as the cause of a lack of zeal in religion. It is an ancient custom; Ahab, Ahaziah and Solomon only followed Adam. The wife had to be deceived by a subtle serpent; the man was bound to keep peace in the family; she gave him and he ate.” Zinzendorf.

11. On Jeremiah 44:20. “God remembers the good and the evil; the good that He may reward it, the evil that He may punish it.” Cramer. [“God will have the last word. The prophets may be run down, but God cannot.” Henry.—S. R. A]

12. On Jeremiah 44:26. “This is the severest punishment of all, that God takes away His holy name and word, as He says in Deuteronomy 32:20 : I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be. And this is the famine, not of bread, but of the word of God which they seek and yet do not find (Amos 8:11).” Cramer.

13. On Jeremiah 44:29-30. Between Moses and Jeremiah, between the exodus from Egypt and the return thither of the remnant, there lies a period of almost a thousand years, and what a history! But the Pharaoh, under whom Israel made the exodus, Menephthes (comp. Lepsius in Herz., R.-Enc, I., S. 146) is described by Herodotus as an arrogant and ungodly man (II., 111), just like Hophra. And at both times Israel was a poor despised heap in the land of Egypt. But the heathen were to know that the God of this despised heap is the only true God, and that their idols were naught, as also Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar and Darius the Mede had also to learn (Daniel 2-6.).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1. On Jeremiah 44:1-14. The holy love of God: 1. long-suffering; 2. just.

2. On Jeremiah 44:9-14. How ruinous a course it is to forget the chastisements of the Lord. This will be shown, if we ponder that this forgetfulness 1. implies chastisement already suffered, 2. proves its want of good results, 3. calls forth severer chastisements from God.

3. On Jeremiah 44:15-18. The utmost alienation of a people from their God, shown in the example of the Jews in Egypt. 1. They place the benefits received to the account of their idols. 2. The evils suffered they place to the account of the Lord. 3. They renounce their obedience to the Lord. 4. They vow their service to their idols.

4. On Jeremiah 44:26-27. The severest punishment which the Lord can bring upon a people, who have hitherto served Him. 1. It consists in this, that the Lord removes the candlestick of His word from among this people, i.e. that by depriving them of the means of grace, He brings Himself into forgetfulness among the people. 2. It is founded in this, that this people on their part have striven to forget the Lord. 3. It has the effect, that this people is given up to the powers of evil to their complete destruction.

Footnotes:

Jeremiah 44:20; Jeremiah 44:20.—On the interchange of עַל and אֵל comp. rems. on Jeremiah 10:1.

Jeremiah 44:21; Jeremiah 44:21.—The Piel form קִטֵּר, which occurs here only (comp. Olsh. § 182, e) corresponds to the German “Geraücher” [fumigating, incensing]. Observe also the emphatic position of the word at the beginning of the sentence [the incensing that ye did].

Jeremiah 44:21; Jeremiah 44:21.—The plural suffix in אוֹתֹם refers to the plural idea contained in the intensive form. Compare remarks on Jeremiah 11:4.

Jeremiah 44:21; Jeremiah 44:21.—Comp. rems. on Jeremiah 3:16.

Jeremiah 44:22; Jeremiah 44:22.—יובל ולא. The imperf. is evidently used here in an aoristic sense, but since the fact in question is removed from all objective human perception, it is consequently founded, notwithstanding its undoubted correctness, on a subjective conception, Comp. Isa 37:4; 1 Kings 8:5.

Jeremiah 44:22; Jeremiah 44:22.—לשּאת. With מִפְּנֵי following, here only. It seems to be used in the absolute sense of “endure, hold out,” also in Isaiah 1:0. Proverbs 30.—21—וגו׳ רע. Comp. Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 21:12; Jeremiah 23:2; Jeremiah 23:22; Jeremiah 24:2 sqq.; Jeremiah 26:3.

Jeremiah 44:22; Jeremiah 44:22.—לחרבה. Comp. Jeremiah 44:6; Jeremiah 44:12.

Jeremiah 44:22; Jeremiah 44:22.—יושׁב מאין. Comp. rems. on Jeremiah 2:15.

Jeremiah 44:23; Jeremiah 44:23.—קראת Comp. Olsh. S. 449, 478.—Ges., § 74, Anm. 1; Ewald, § 194, b.