Jeremiah 44:17

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, all the women standing by-a great assembly-along with all the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros, answered Jeremiah, ¹⁶"As for the word you spoke to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! ¹⁷Instead, we will do everything we said: We will burn incense to the queen of heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.¹⁸But from the time we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine." ¹⁹"Moreover," said the women, "when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

whatsoever: Jeremiah 44:25, Numbers 30:2, Numbers 30:12, Deuteronomy 23:23, Judges 11:36, Psalms 12:4, Mark 6:26

queen of heaven: or, frame of heaven. As the Sun was worshipped, not only under the name of baal shamayim "Lord of heaven," but also by that of Molech or King; it is likely also that the Moon was adored as melecheth hashshamayim "the Queen of heaven." So the Orphic hymn addressed to the Moon begins כץטי טוב , "Hear, goddess Queen." And Homer, in his Hymn to the Moon, addresses her, ביסו, בםבףףב, טוב "All hail, Queen, goddess." In Epiphanius, we find some women of Arabia, towards the end of the fourth century, had set up another queen of heaven, the Virgin Mary, too well known since under that name and character, whom they likewise worshipped as a goddess, by holding stated assemblies every year to her honour, and by offering a cake of bread in her name; whence these heretics were called Collyridians, from the Greek ךןככץסיע, a cake. Jeremiah 7:18, 2 Kings 17:16

as we: Jeremiah 19:13, Jeremiah 32:29-32, 2 Kings 22:17, Nehemiah 9:34, Daniel 9:6-8

our fathers: Nehemiah 9:34, Psalms 106:6, Ezekiel 20:8, Daniel 9:5, Daniel 9:6, Daniel 9:8, 1 Peter 1:18

in the cities: Jeremiah 44:9, Jeremiah 44:21

then: Exodus 16:3, Isaiah 48:5, Hosea 2:5-9, Philippians 3:19

victuals: Heb. bread

Reciprocal: Exodus 5:2 - neither Numbers 25:6 - in the sight of Moses Deuteronomy 28:48 - in hunger Deuteronomy 29:19 - that he bless Judges 17:6 - right 2 Kings 17:11 - burnt 2 Kings 22:13 - because our fathers 2 Kings 23:5 - all the host Nehemiah 9:29 - yet they Job 31:26 - the moon Psalms 49:13 - approve their sayings Psalms 81:12 - they walked Proverbs 13:13 - despiseth Proverbs 14:18 - inherit Proverbs 21:29 - hardeneth Ecclesiastes 7:10 - What Ecclesiastes 8:3 - stand Ecclesiastes 11:9 - walk Isaiah 3:9 - and they declare Isaiah 28:15 - We have Isaiah 30:15 - and ye Isaiah 57:6 - to them Isaiah 57:10 - There is Jeremiah 1:16 - and have Jeremiah 2:25 - after Jeremiah 3:3 - a whore's Jeremiah 8:2 - and all Jeremiah 9:14 - which Jeremiah 11:8 - obeyed Jeremiah 11:12 - go Jeremiah 18:12 - we will walk Jeremiah 18:18 - and let us not Jeremiah 44:5 - burn Jeremiah 44:28 - shall know Ezekiel 8:16 - their faces Ezekiel 18:14 - that seeth Ezekiel 20:32 - We will Ezekiel 23:41 - whereupon Ezekiel 24:12 - her great Hosea 2:8 - her corn Hosea 7:13 - spoken Hosea 9:1 - thou hast loved Hosea 11:2 - they called Micah 1:7 - the hires Mark 7:9 - Full Luke 6:49 - that heareth Acts 14:18 - scarce

Cross-References

Genesis 18:25
Far be it from You to do such a thing-to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?"

Genesis 26:29
that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD."

Genesis 42:18
and on the third day he said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God.

Genesis 44:32
Indeed, your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father, saying, 'If I do not return him to you, I will bear the guilt before you, my father, all my life.'

Genesis 44:33
Now please let your servant stay here as my lord's slave, in place of the boy. Let him return with his brothers.

2 Samuel 23:3
The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, 'He who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God,

Psalms 75:2
"When I choose a time, I will judge fairly.

Proverbs 17:15
Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous-both are detestable to the LORD.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth,.... And not what went out of the mouth of God, or his prophet: but whoever they had resolved on within themselves to do, and had declared with their mouths they would, or had vowed with their lips; so Abarbinel interprets it of a vow; this they were determined to perform, let God and his prophet say what they would:

to burn incense unto the queen of heaven; which, according to Abarbinel, was the moon, which is the queen of heaven, as the sun is king; it was called by the Heathens Coelestis and Urania: but there are some that think that some great star in heaven, that is king over the rest, is meant; so the Targum renders it, the star of heaven; which they understand of the sun, as Kimchi observes; the sun being much worshipped in Egypt; but Kimchi himself derives the word for "queen", here used, not from the root which signifies "to reign"; but from another, which signifies "to work"; and so renders it, "the work", or "frame of heaven"; the sun, moon, and stars; and so the Syriac version is "the host of heaven"; :-; and to this deity, be it what it will, they burned incense; and they were determined to continue it, and all other idolatrous rites and practices particularly:

and to pour out drink offerings unto her; which was another part of ceremonial worship, which the true God required of the people of Israel; but were here resolved to give it to another god:

as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; they plead custom and prescription, antiquity and authority; the examples of ancestors and kings; the general practice of their nation, both in the metropolis of it, and in its several cities, where it not only universally obtained, but was visibly and openly done; and, more, they plead the temporal advantage of it:

for [then] had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil: had fulness of bread, and of all provisions; health, peace, and safety; and no judgment was upon them, seen or felt by them; the sword, famine, or pestilence. The goddess Coelestis, or the moon, which seems to be here meant, was, as Tertullian d says "pluviarum pollicitatrix", "the promiser of rains" and so of all good things: or, "were merry" e, as the Heathens were at their new moons, when they indulged to their cups, and lived jovially; hence that of Horace f.

d Apolog. c. 23. e וגהיה טובים "et eramus hilares", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. f "Da lunae propere novae, Da noctis mediae, [poculum]". Carmin. l. 3. Ode 19.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whatsoever thing ... - Or, the whole word (or thing) which hath gone forth out of our mouth; i. e., the vows we have made. They would not let Jeremiah’s expostulations prevent the carrying out of the special object which had brought them together: otherwise the Queen of heaven would be offended, and avenge himself.