Chapter 44

¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the district of Pathros. ² Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen the immense disaster that I have inflicted on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. Today they lie in ruins and are left uninhabited. ³ This was the result of all the wicked deeds your ancestors committed that provoked me to anger, as they went forth to serve other gods and offer sacrifices to them whom neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors ever had known before.

⁴ Even though I continued to send to them all my servants the prophets with this plea, “Do not do this abominable thing that I hate,” ⁵ they would not listen or pay any heed to my warning to refrain from their wicked deeds and cease to offer sacrifices to other gods. ⁶ Therefore, my fury and my wrath poured forth, burning to ashes the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and reducing them to the desolate wasteland they are today.

⁷ And now this is what the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, has to say: Why are you inflicting such a total disaster upon yourselves? Why are you uprooting men and women, children and babies, from Judah, thus leaving yourselves without a remnant? ⁸ Will you continue to provoke me to anger by the works of your hands as you make sacrifices to strange gods in Egypt where you have come to settle, cutting yourselves off and becoming an object of cursing and ridicule among all the nations of the earth?

⁹ Have you forgotten the wicked crimes committed by your ancestors and by the kings of Judah and their wives, and also your own crimes and those of your wives, all of them committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ To this very day they have shown no remorse or fear, nor have they observed my law and my statutes which I prescribed for you and for your ancestors.

¹¹ Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am determined to inflict disaster upon you and to destroy Judah completely. ¹² I will take the remnant of Judah who were determined to come to the land of Egypt and settle there, and in Egypt, they will all perish. They will fall by the sword and by famine. From the least to the greatest they will die by the sword and by famine, and they will become an object of execration and horror, a curse and a reproach.

¹³ I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence. ¹⁴ None of the remnant of Judah who have come to settle in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, even though they may long to return and live there. None will be allowed to return, except for a few refugees.

¹⁵ Then all the men who were aware that their wives had been burning incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there in a great assemblage, and all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt replied to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We have no intention of giving credence to the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord. ¹⁷ Rather, we will continue to do everything we have vowed to do. We will make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. In those days we used to have an abundance of food; we prospered and endured no misfortune. ¹⁸ But from the time we ceased to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her, we have been in great need, and we have perished by the sword and by famine.”

¹⁹ The women added, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, do you think that our husbands were not aware that we made cakes depicting her image and that we poured out libations to her?”^[a]

²⁰ Then to all the people, both men and women, who had given him this answer, Jeremiah said, ²¹ “In regard to the incense offerings that you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the Lord certainly remembered them and kept them in mind. ²² When the Lord could no longer endure your wicked deeds and your loathsome practices, your land became a desolate waste, an accursed object of horror without inhabitants, as it is to this day. ²³ The disaster you are now enduring has befallen you because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord, refusing to obey the voice of the Lord and failing to live in accordance with his law, his statutes, and his decrees.”

²⁴ Jeremiah then said further to all the people, and in particular to all the women, “Listen to the word of the Lord, all you Judeans in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have accomplished with your hands what you promised with your mouths when you said, ‘We are determined to fulfill the vows we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her.’ Very well, keep your vows and do what you promised.

²⁶ “However, listen attentively to the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. I swear by my great name, says the Lord, that my name will never issue forth from the lips of any of the people of Judah throughout the land of Egypt. No one of them will ever say, ‘As the Lord God lives.’

²⁷ “I intend to watch over them to ensure their harm rather than their well-being. All the people of Judah who have settled in the land of Egypt will perish either by the sword or by famine, until not a single one remains. ²⁸ Those who escape the sword and return from the land of Egypt to Judah will be few in number. Then the entire remnant of Judah who were determined to settle in Egypt will come to the realization that it has been my word that prevailed, and not theirs.

^29 [b]“This is the sign from me to you that I will punish you in this place, says the Lord, in order that you may realize that my promise to you will be carried out. ³⁰ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will hand over Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, to his enemies, to those who seek his life, just as I handed over Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to his enemy who sought his life, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.”