Jeremiah 44:17

Here is the root of all sinners disobedience, their resolution to please and humour themselves, not knowing how in any thing to deny themselves; hence it is that denying ourselves is by Christ made the first law or condition of his disciples. By the queen of heaven some here understand the sun, which notion is favoured from the words being of the feminine gender, which signifieth the sun in Hebrew; others reading it not the queen, but the frame of heaven, by it understanding the sun, moon, and stars. Drink-offerings were a Divine homage which God had commanded to be paid to him, Leviticus 23:13 Numbers 6:17. Their arguments for it were,

1. Custom and antiquity, they and their fathers had used to do it.

2. The example of their kings and princes.

3. The plenty and prosperity they had while they did so, as if their idolatry had been the cause of it.