CHAPTER 44

¹The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judahites dwelling in the land of Egypt, dwelling in Migdol and in Tahpanes and in Noph and in the region of Pathros, saying, ²“Thus said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the towns of Judah, and look, they are a ruin to this day and none dwells in them ³because of their evil that they did to Me, to go to burn incense to serve other gods which neither you nor your fathers knew. ⁴And I sent to you all My servants the prophets, continually sent, saying, ‘Pray, do not do this abhorrent thing that I hate.’ ⁵But they did not heed and did not bend their ear to turn back from their evil, not to burn incense to other gods. ⁶And My wrath and My anger poured out and burned through the towns of Judah and through the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a ruin and a desolation as on this day. ⁷And now, thus said the LORD God of Armies, God of Israel: Why are you doing this great evil to yourselves to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, from the midst of Judah, so as not to leave for yourselves a remnant, ⁸to vex Me with the work of your hands, to burn incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you came to sojourn, so as to cut off for yourselves and so that you become a curse and a disgrace among all the nations of the earth? ⁹Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers and the evils of the kings of Judah and the evils of their wives and your own evils and the evils of your own wives that they did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.? ¹⁰They have not been contrite to this day and they have not feared, and they have not walked by My teaching and by My statutes that I set before them and before their fathers. ¹¹Therefore, thus said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel: I am about to set My face against you for evil to cut off all of Judah. ¹²And I will take the remnant of Judah who set their face to go to the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and all shall come to an end in the land of Egypt. They shall fall by the sword and come to an end by famine. From the least to the greatest, by sword and by famine they shall die, and they shall become an imprecation and a desolation and a curse and a disgrace. ¹³And I will reckon with those dwelling in the land of Egypt, as I reckoned with Jerusalem, by the sword and by famine and by pestilence. ¹⁴And there shall be no fugitive and no survivor for the remnant of Judah coming to sojourn there in the land of Egypt to go back to the land of Judah to which they long to go back to dwell there, for they shall not go back except as fugitives.” ¹⁵And all the men knowing that their wives were burning incense to other gods and all the women standing, a great assembly, and all the people dwelling in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, ¹⁶“The word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD—we will not heed you. ¹⁷For we will surely do every word that comes out of our mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of the Heavens and to pour out libations to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our nobles, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and we ate our fill of bread, and we were good, and evil we did not see. ¹⁸And ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of the Heavens and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by famine we have come to an end. ¹⁹And when we burn incense to the Queen of the Heavens and pour out libations to her, is it without our husbands that we have made cakes for her, framing her image and pouring out libations to her?” ²⁰And Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the men and all the women and all the people who answered in speech, saying, ²¹“Why, the incense that you have burned in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your nobles and the people of the land, that is what the LORD recalls and brings to mind. ²²And the LORD shall no longer bear it because of the evil of your acts, because of the abominations that you have done, and your land has become a ruin and a desolation and a curse with no dweller as on this day ²³because you have burned incense and have offended the LORD and have not heeded the voice of the LORD, and by His teaching and His statutes and His precepts you have not gone. Therefore has this evil befallen you as on this day.” ²⁴And Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women: “Listen to the word of the LORD, all Judah that is in the land of Egypt. ²⁵Thus said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel, saying, you and your women, who have spoken with your mouths and with your hands you have fulfilled it, saying, ‘We will surely carry out our vows to burn incense to the Queen of the Heavens and to pour out libations to her.’ Then indeed fulfill your vows, you women, and carry out your vows. ²⁶Therefore listen to the word of the LORD, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt. Look, I vow by My great name, said the LORD, that My name shall no longer be called by the mouth of any man of Judah, saying, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in all the land of Egypt. ²⁷Look, I am vigilant over them for evil and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall come to an end by the sword and by famine until they are no more. ²⁸And the fugitives of the sword shall come back from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah as a handful of men. And all the remnant of Judah who have come to the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall know whose word shall be fulfilled, Mine or theirs. ²⁹And this is the sign for you, said the LORD, that I am reckoning with you in this place, so you may know that My word concerning you shall surely be fulfilled for evil. ³⁰Thus said the LORD: I am about to give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia, his enemy and the one who sought his life.”