Jeremiah 44:3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.

Of their

Gods

Deuteronomy 13:6

Deuteronomy 29:26

Deuteronomy 32:17

Bible References

Of their

You have done this to yourself by abandoning Jehovah your God when he led you on his way.

They surround Judah like men guarding a field, because Judah has rebelled against me, declares Jehovah.

They will ask: 'Why has Jehovah our God done all this to us?' Answer them: You have abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land. So you will serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'

Who is the wise man that may understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken? Let him declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

Jehovah of Hosts planted you. He has pronounced disaster on you. This is because of the evil things that Israel and Judah have done. They have made him infuriated by burning incense as an offering to Baal.

Tell them: 'It is because your ancestors abandoned me,' says Jehovah. They followed other gods, served them, worshiped them, and abandoned me. They did not obey my law.

Say: Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold I am about to bring adversity upon this place. The ears of everyone who hears of it will quiver with fear.

They will answer: 'Because they abandoned the covenant of Jehovah their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.'

I said, O my God, shame keeps me from lifting up my face (praying) to you (being in your presence), my God: for our sins have increased higher than our heads and our evil-doing has come up to heaven.

You have been in the right in everything that happened to us. You have been true to us, but we have done evil!

Great is the sin of Jerusalem! For this cause she has become an unclean thing. Those who gave her honor are looking down on her. They see her shame. Now truly, sighing out grief, she turns back.

It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil doing of her priests. They have drained the blood of the upright out from her.

Jehovah said to me: Mortal man, do you see that? These people of Judah are not satisfied with merely doing all the disgusting things you have seen here and with spreading violence throughout the country. No, they must come and do them right here in the Temple and make me even angrier. Look how they insult me in the most offensive way possible by thrusting the shoot to my nose! (an obsene reference or jesture to Jehovah)

He answered me: The wickedness of the nations of Israel and Judah is terrible! The land is filled with murder, and the city is filled with wrongdoing. They think that Jehovah has abandoned the land and that he does not see.

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in the midst of her.

We have sinned. We have dealt perversely. We have acted wickedly and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances.

They made their hearts hard like flint and would not listen to the law, and the words that Jehovah of Hosts sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Great anger came from Jehovah of Hosts!

Gods

If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your very best friend tries to secretly entice you, saying: 'Let us go and serve other gods, gods neither you nor your fathers have known,

They served other gods and worshiped them. These are gods whom they have not known and whom he had not allotted to them.

They sacrificed to demons that are not God. They served gods they did not know. These were new gods who came from nearby, gods your ancestors never worshiped.