Our Father's Warning to the Jews in Egypt
44 1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt — those settled at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros: 2 This is what the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel, says: You yourselves have seen all the disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah. Look at them — today they are a ruin, with no one living in them, 3 because of the evil they did to provoke me to anger — making offerings and serving other gods that neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors had known. 4 Yet I sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them again and again, saying, 'Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!' 5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their evil and stop making offerings to other gods. 6 So my fury and my anger were poured out and blazed in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and they became the wasteland and ruin they still are today.
7 Now this is what the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel, says: Why are you bringing such great harm on yourselves — cutting off every man, woman, child, and infant from among your own people, leaving yourselves no remnant? 8 You provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live — so that you cut yourselves off and become a curse and an object of scorn among all the nations of the earth. 9 Have you forgotten the evils of your ancestors, the evils of the kings of Judah and the evils of their wives, your own evils and the evils of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 To this very day they have not been humbled, nor have they feared, nor followed my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your ancestors.
11 Therefore this is what the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel, says: Look, I am setting my face against you for harm — to cut off all of Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed; in the land of Egypt they will fall. By sword and by famine they will be consumed; from the least to the greatest, by sword and famine they will die, and they will become an object of cursing and horror, of reproach and scorn. 13 I will punish those living in the land of Egypt just as I punished Jerusalem — with the sword, with famine, and with plague 14 —so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, where they long to return and live. They will not return, except for a few who escape.
15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were making offerings to other gods, and all the women standing there — a great assembly — and all the people living in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah: 16 "As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of our Father, we will not listen to you. 17 Instead, we will certainly do everything we have vowed: we will make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, just as we did — we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials — in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, we prospered, and we saw no disaster. a a v17 The Queen of Heaven was a popular ancient Near Eastern fertility goddess, likely Astarte or Ishtar, widely worshiped in Judah. 18 But ever since we stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by sword and famine."
19 And the women added, "When we were making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' knowledge that we made cakes shaped like her and poured out drink offerings to her?"
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people — the men and the women, all the people who had given him this answer 21 —"The offerings you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem — you and your fathers, your kings and your officials and the people of the land — did our Father not remember them? Did they not come into his mind? 22 When our Father could no longer bear the evil of your deeds and the abominations you committed, your land became a desolation, a horror, and a curse, with no one living in it, as it is today. 23 Because you made these offerings and sinned against our Father, and did not obey his voice or walk in his law, his statutes, and his testimonies, this disaster has come upon you, as it is today."
24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, "Hear the word of our Father, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 This is what the Father of heaven's armies, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and carried out with your hands what you said — 'We will surely keep the vows we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.' Very well — keep your vows! Go ahead and carry out your vows!
26 But listen to the word of our Father, all you people of Judah living in the land of Egypt: Look, I have sworn by my great name, says he, that my name will never again be called upon by any person of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, 'As the Sovereign Father lives.' 27 Look, I am watching over them for harm and not for good. Every man of Judah in the land of Egypt will be consumed by sword and famine until not one remains. 28 Those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number; then all the remnant of Judah who came to the land of Egypt to live there will know whose word stands — mine or theirs.
29 And this will be the sign to you, declares our Father, that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that my words of judgment against you will surely come true: 30 This is what our Father says: Look, I am going to hand over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to his enemies — to those who want to kill him — just as I handed over Zedekiah king of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who wanted to kill him.