Jeremiah 44:15-30 - The People's Stubborn Response

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives [were] making smoke offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood [by], a great assembly, and all the people who lived in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, {saying}, ¹⁶ "[Concerning] the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we [are] not going to listen to you! ¹⁷ But certainly we will do {everything} that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, [for] then {we had enough to eat}, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster. ¹⁸ But {since} we stopped making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by the famine we have perished.

¹⁹ And indeed, [when] we [were] making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and {pouring out} to her libations, [was it not] {with the consent of} our husbands [that] we made for her sacrificial cakes {marked with her image}, and we poured out to her libations?"

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and to the women, and to all the people who answered him a word, {saying}, ²¹ "The offering that you made, smoke offerings in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your ancestors, your kings, and your officials, and the people of the land, [did] not Yahweh remember them, and [did] it [not] come to his {mind}? ²² And Yahweh was no longer able to bear [it], {because of} the evil of your deeds, {because of} the detestable things that you committed. Thus your land became as a site of ruins, and as a horror, and as a curse, {without} inhabitants, as [it is] this day. ²³ {Because of} [the fact] that you made smoke offerings, and that you sinned against Yahweh, and you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you have not walked in his law, and in his statute, and in his legal provisions, {therefore} this disaster has happened to you, as [it is] this day."

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who [are] in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'You and your wives have promised with your mouths and with your hands you have fulfilled, {saying}, "We certainly will carry out our vows that we vowed, to make smoke offerings to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations." You must certainly keep your vows and you must certainly carry out your vows.'

²⁶ {Therefore} hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah, those who live in the land of Egypt: 'Look, I hereby swear by my great name,' says Yahweh, 'surely my name will no longer be called in the mouth of any man of Judah, saying, "{as the Lord Yahweh lives}," in all the land of Egypt. ²⁷ Look, I [am] going to watch over them for harm and not for good, and all people of Judah who [are] in the land of Egypt will perish by the sword and by the famine until their perishing. ²⁸ And [the] survivors of [the] sword will return from the land of Egypt [to] the land of Judah {few in number}. And all the remnant of Judah who have come to the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there will know whose word will endure, from me or from them. ²⁹ And this [will be] to you the sign,' {declares} Yahweh, 'that I [am] going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that surely my words will endure against you for evil.' ³⁰ Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [am] going to give Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who sought his life.'"