Jeremiah 44:18, commentary and pictures

The Jews left after Zedekiah's captivity fled into Egypt to Pathros against the express command of the Lord and fell in with burning incense to the gods of the country. They vowed that while they and their fathers and kings and princes burned incense and poured drink offerings to the queen of heaven they had plenty and saw no evil, but since leaving it off they have wanted all things and been consumed by sword and famine. Jeremiah by divine inspiration rebuked them, reminded them of past judgments for departing from God, and warned that God would bring like punishment on them and defeat Egypt. The queen of heaven is the moon, while those who held her to be the sun taught that she is the sun. Their calamity of hunger and want and sword and ruin and exile came because they had worshiped idols and disobeyed the Lord, not because they had ceased those offerings, and the plenty given while they worshiped false gods was God's patience to lead them to repentance. The claim exposes short-sighted reasoning that treats present prosperity and plenty as proof of God's pleasure, which Sunday advocates repeat when they argue that blessing while keeping Sunday proves it cannot be sin.

Setting and Plain Meaning

Jeremiah 44:18 belongs to the account of the Jews left after Zedekiah's captivity and their flight into Egypt to Pathros in Egypt against the express command of the Lord. Having refused Jeremiah's counsel to remain in the land under the protection of the king of Babylon, which they would have kept so long as they heeded Jeremiah whom the king had learned to highly esteem, they chose to go down into Egypt and there fell in with the customs of the country by burning incense to Egyptian gods and went hilariously into idolatry. It is classified as part of the history of the two years before the fall of Jerusalem.

The verse is the answer of that great multitude to Jeremiah's rebuke, spoken by all the men who knew their wives had burned incense to other gods and all the women standing by in Pathros. It records their vow to keep burning incense and pouring drink offerings to the queen of heaven as they and their fathers, kings and princes did in Judah and Jerusalem, and their claim that then they had plenty of victuals and food and were well and saw no evil. It records further their claim that since leaving off that worship they have wanted all things and lacked everything and lacked necessities and have been consumed by sword and famine and suffered hunger. Their coming to Jeremiah for advice exposed insincerity and inability to discern between right and wrong, for they desired only advice in harmony with their own wishes and purposes and their promises were nothing, while the discernment of the Spirit of God laid bare the secrets of their hearts.

Jeremiah by divine inspiration rebuked them, reminded them of the judgments brought on Israel in the past for departing from God, and warned that God would bring similar punishments on them. His reply identified their idolatry, together with their sin against the Lord and disobedience to his commands and refusal to heed God, as the reason their land became desolate. Against this idolatry he predicted the futility of their plans by prophesying the defeat of Egypt and pointing out the very place where Nebuchadnezzar would set his standard in the capital of Egypt.

Queen of Heaven Identified

The queen of heaven is the moon, to whom the people burned incense and poured drink offerings and to whom they credited their former prosperity and plenty, claiming want and consumption by sword and famine only since they left off that worship. Their temporal blessings while worshiping false gods were in truth an act of divine patience meant to lead them to repentance, until their wickedness could no longer be borne and judgment came in famine, pestilence and death by the sword. Their argument was a self-seeking policy that put prosperity, numbers and popularity above obedience and laid aside and trampled the moral law, against which Jeremiah stood for the first commandment while his opposers denied it. The same line of reasoning is followed by advocates of Sunday, who deny the first commandment in principle and the fourth openly, rely on great numbers and popularity, and by keeping the sun's day worship the sun.

The queen of heaven is also identified with the sun, so that the people's claim that their troubles began when they stopped its incense and drink offerings is met by Jeremiah's reply that their idolatry together with refusal to heed God made their land desolate, a warning against sun worship and against forsaking God's Sabbath. The weight of teaching holds the moon identification, with the sun identification set beside it as held by those who apply the verse directly against sun worship. The queen of heaven is the same as Ashtoreth and Astarte, joined with the worship of Baal, which God abhorred and opposed in past ages in regard for His holy name. This ancient false worship is no different from the greater part of the Christian world singing praises to Easter, the Saxon goddess of spring, with pagan offerings of flowers, eggs and other heathen names and customs, which profanes the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

The queen of heaven is a title of an idol worshiped by the heathen in ancient times with wicked and abominable rites and ceremonies. She belongs to the same cult and character as Semiramis, Venus, and Diana of the Ephesians, while the historical traditions connecting Semiramis with Nimrod and Babylon remain uncertain. The worship described around the verse included cakes made for the queen of heaven, described as an unbloody sacrifice and compared with the wafer used in the mass.

False Reasoning Reproved and Applied

The people reversed cause and effect, blaming hunger, want, famine, pestilence, sword, the ruin of Zion, captivity and enforced exile on having ceased their offerings, when those calamities came because they had worshiped idols, sinned against the Lord and disobeyed His commands. The plenty of victuals and well-being they remembered from the time they and their fathers, kings and princes burned incense and poured drink offerings was not approval of false worship and false education, but temporal blessing given while they worshiped false gods as an act of God's patience meant to lead them to repentance. When their wickedness and evil sowing could no longer be borne, judgment came in famine, pestilence, death by the sword, and the sad fruit of ruin and enforced exile as the harvest of idolatry and other evil practices.

The verse exposes short-sighted worldly reasoning that treats present numbers, prosperity, well-being, bread, peace and plenty of food and seeing no evil as proof of God's pleasure and blessing. That self-seeking policy puts prosperity, numbers and popularity above obedience, lays aside and tramples the moral law, and denies the first commandment, against which Jeremiah stood. Prosperity alone does not prove that a practice pleases God.

The same prosperity argument is made by Sunday advocates, who claim the nation has been greatly blessed while keeping Sunday and must hallow the first day of the week to triumph over infidelity, intemperance, lawlessness and other evils and to retain blessing. They argue that keeping Saturday cannot please God because He does not prosper it more, and that Sunday observance cannot be sin because He remarkably blesses those who persist in it, treating Sunday as far more important than the old Jewish Sabbath. Sunday is traced to Persian sun-worshipers establishing a new sabbath, baptized by the mother of harlots and now pressed by the daughters of Rome to be legalized as the true and veritable holy Sabbath of the Lord, so that its advocates deny the first commandment in principle and the fourth openly, rely on great numbers and popularity, and by keeping the sun's day worship the sun.

This ancient false worship of burning incense and pouring drink offerings, which God abhorred and opposed in past ages, is no different from the greater part of the Christian world singing praises to Easter, the Saxon goddess of spring, with pagan offerings of flowers, eggs and other heathen names and customs, which profanes the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. The queen of heaven stands as an ancient pagan worship later invoked to urge honor for Mary, when women claimed that after stopping incense and drink offerings they suffered want, sword and famine. That same idolatrous offering theme, connecting offerings to the queen of heaven with scarcity and death by sword and famine, applies to veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe.