Jeremiah 44:18

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

we have: Jeremiah 40:12, Numbers 11:5, Numbers 11:6, Job 21:14, Job 21:15, Psalms 73:9-15, Malachi 3:13-15

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:48 - in hunger Isaiah 48:5 - Mine idol Isaiah 57:10 - There is Jeremiah 44:23 - ye have burned Jeremiah 44:27 - shall be Hosea 2:5 - give Hosea 2:8 - her corn Hosea 7:13 - spoken Micah 1:7 - the hires Haggai 1:6 - eat

Cross-References

Genesis 18:30
Then Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?" He answered, "If I find thirty there, I will not do it."

Genesis 18:32
Finally, Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?" And He answered, "On account of the ten, I will not destroy it."

Genesis 41:40
You shall be in charge of my house, and all my people are to obey your commands. Only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you."

Genesis 41:44
And Pharaoh declared to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your permission, no one in all the land of Egypt shall lift his hand or foot."

Genesis 44:19
My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?'

Genesis 44:23
But you said to your servants, 'Unless your younger brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.'

Exodus 32:22
"Do not be enraged, my lord," Aaron replied. "You yourself know that the people are intent on evil.

2 Samuel 14:12
Then the woman said, "Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?" "Speak," he replied.

Esther 1:12
Queen Vashti, however, refused to come at the king's command brought by his eunuchs. And the king became furious, and his anger burned within him.

Job 33:31
Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven,.... Or were restrained from it, as the Targum, through the force of the prophet's sermons, or by the authority of their governors: this Abarbinel thinks was in the times of Jehoiakim, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah; but perhaps it only regards some space of time in the latter part of Zedekiah's reign, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, when they refrained from their idolatry; fearing the wrath of God, and what was coming upon them; though Kimchi is of opinion that they never ceased; but they would say, when any evil came upon them, it was because they ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven, of were not so ready to it as at first:

and to pour out drink offerings to her: another part of worship they performed to her but for a while left off: and from that time they say,

we have wanted all [things], and have been consumed by the sword, and by the famine; wanted all the necessaries of life, meat and drink, and clothing and a habitation to dwell in; and multitudes were destroyed by the sword of the king of Babylon; and others perished with famine during the siege; these evils they imputed to their cessation from idolatry, when it was the very thing that brought them on them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The suppression of this popular idolatry had apparently been regarded with much ill-will in Josiah’s time, and many may even have ascribed to it his defeat at Megiddo. Probably Jehoiakim had again permitted it, but Zedekiah, during the miseries of his reign, had forbidden it, and the people ascribed the fall of Jerusalem to the neglect of their favorite goddess.