Jeremiah 44:15, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures a great multitude dwelling in Egypt, in Pathros, answering Jeremiah together, even all the people there, made up of all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods and all the women standing by. The speakers were the Jews left after Zedekiah's captivity in their flight into Egypt. Instead of remaining in the land under the king of Babylon, who would have given them every necessary protection so long as they heeded the voice of Jeremiah, whom the king had learned to highly esteem, they chose to go down into Egypt. In suggested chronological order the verse belongs to the account of events in Egypt and Pathros placed after Jeremiah 43, and it belongs to the historical section covering the two years before Jerusalem fell.

They had gone down to Egypt against the express command of the Lord. They were insincere, unable to discern between right and wrong, with promises that were nothing, coming to Jeremiah for advice while desiring only advice in harmony with their own wishes and purposes, while the discernment of the Spirit of God through Jeremiah laid bare the secrets of their hearts. By divine inspiration Jeremiah rebuked their wickedness, reminded them of the judgments brought on Israel in the past for departing from God, warned that God would bring like punishment on them, and labored with strong, faithful work. Yet many entered eagerly into idolatry in burning incense to other gods.

The idolatry at issue was worship of the queen of heaven, identified as the moon and also described as Egyptian gods and sun worship. It was widespread in Jeremiah's time, with many of Jehovah's people having adopted it, and it was practiced openly among the people in Egypt. The worship involved the women and was known to their husbands. It is deliberate idolatry learned and taken up in Egypt, while also continuing what they and their fathers, kings, and princes had done in Judah and Jerusalem.

Their answer was a stubborn refusal to hearken to the word spoken in the name of the Lord and to the prophets' warnings. They insisted on keeping their vow to burn incense and pour drink offerings to the queen of heaven. They claimed that when they did so they had plenty of food, were well, saw no evil and prospered, but since leaving it off they had lacked all things, suffered want, and been consumed by sword and famine. Their plans would prove futile, for Jeremiah prophesied the defeat of Egypt and pointed out the very place where Nebuchadnezzar would set his standard in the capital of Egypt, and their refusal to heed God's warning brought desolation upon their land, as an example of the destruction that follows forgetting God and disregarding the Sabbath. Present numbers and prosperity prove nothing about God's approval, exposing as short-sighted worldly reasoning the claim that Sunday-keeping must be right and Sabbath-keeping wrong because Sunday-keepers are more numerous and more prospered.