Jeremiah 44:21

The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind? THE INCENSE THAT YE BURNED ... DID NOT THE LORD REMEMBER. Jeremiah owns that they did as they said, but in retort asks, Did not God repay their own evil-doing! Their very land in its present desolation attests this (), as was foretold (; 18:38 )....

_The incense, _he says, _which ye have burnt in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the whole people of the land, has not Jehovah remembered them? _Whence, he says, has this dreadful calamity proceeded, which has destroyed all your race? Even from the wrath of God, for it has not happened to you by chance, for God had by his servants predicted what afterwards has been really fulfilled. It then follows, that your city has been destroyed through the righteous judgment of God. And what has been the cause of so great and so grievous a vengeance? Even your incense....

20-30 Whatever evil comes upon us, it is because we have sinned against the Lord; we should therefore stand in awe, and sin not. Since they were determined to persist in their idolatry, God would go on to punish them. What little remains of religion were among them, would be lost. The creature-comforts and confidences from which we promise ourselves most, may fail as soon as those from which we promise ourselves least; and all are what God makes them, not what we fancy them to be. Well-grounded hopes of our having a part in the Divine mercy, are always united with repentance and obedience....

THEM - The various acts of idolatry involved in burning incense to an image....

EXPOSITION Jeremiah's debate with the Jewish fugitives in Pathros; his last prophecy. JEREMIAH 44:1 Accusation brought against the obstinately idolatrous people. JEREMIAH 44:1 WHICH DWELL; rather, _which dwelt. _It appears from this verse that the Jewish fugitives had separated in Egypt, some going to the two northern frontier cities, Migdol (on which see R.S. Poole, 'The Cities of Egypt,' Jeremiah 8:1.) and Tahpanhes or Daphnae, others further south to Noph, _i.e. _Memphis, or, less probably, Napata (see on Jeremiah 2:16), and

THAT INCENSE THAT YE BURNT IN THE CITIES OF JUDAH, AND IN THE STREETS OF JERUSALEM,.... To false gods, to the queen of heaven, to the host thereof: YE, AND YOUR FATHERS, YOUR KINGS, AND YOUR PRINCES, AND THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND; on which account they pleaded antiquity, authority, and the general consent of the people, as on their side, which the prophet allows; but it all signified nothing: DID NOT THE LORD REMEMBER THEM, AND CAME IT [NOT] INTO HIS MIND? either the incense they offered up to strange gods, or the persons that did it? did he take no notice of these idolatrous practices, and of these idolaters? he did; he laid up these things in his mind; he showed a proper resentment of them, and in due time punished for them....

CHAPTER 44 _ 1. The message to the Jews (Jeremiah 44:1) _ 2. Their punishment (Jeremiah 44:11) 3. Worshipping the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44:15) 4. Jehovah's answer (Jeremiah 44:20) 5. The sign: Pharaoh-Hophra's Defeat (Jeremiah 44:29) Jeremiah 44:1. The message is concerning all the Jews who were now dwelling in Egypt. Besides being in Tahpanhes, they were also in Noph (Memphis) and

JEREMIAH 44. DENUNCIATION OF THE JEWISH WORSHIP OF ISHTAR IN EGYPT. Jeremiah points to the desolation of Judah as the experienced consequence of idolatry, notwithstanding Yahweh's warnings (Jeremiah 44:1). Why, then, do they repeat the offence, forgetting the past? Yahweh will destroy the remnant in Egypt, leaving fugitives only (Jeremiah 44:7). The assembled men and women refuse to abandon the worship of Ishtar (the queen of heaven, Jeremiah 7:18 *), which they have vowed (Jeremiah 44:17, out of our mouth, Judges 11:36); prosperity of old acc

THEM: i.e. your fathers. IT: i.e. the incense. INTO HIS MIND. upon His heart. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia._....

Du., Erbt and Co. agree in considering that these _vv_. are a later addition, merely reproducing the thoughts contained in Jeremiah 44:2....