Commentary - Jeremiah 44:15-19

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we are confronted with the hard, unvarnished reality of covenant rebellion. Jeremiah has delivered the Lord's clear word, reminding the remnant in Egypt of the calamities that befell Jerusalem precisely because of their idolatry. He has called them to repentance. What he receives in return is not a sober-minded hearing, but a full-throated, unified, and brazen rejection of God's authority. This is not a case of simple ignorance; it is high-handed treason. The people, men and women together, have organized their rebellion and are prepared to defend it with a logic that is both absurd and tragically common. They argue from their bellies, attributing their past prosperity to their idolatry and their present hardship to their brief flirtation with obedience. This is the essence of a fool's reasoning: my experience trumps God's revelation. The passage serves as a stark warning about the depths of human self-deception and the endpoint of all idolatry, which is to openly declare that we will not have God to rule over us.

The structure of their response is telling. It is corporate, it is defiant, and it is pseudo-theological. They have a catechism of rebellion. First, they flatly reject the authority of God's prophet. Second, they pledge their allegiance to a false god, the "queen of heaven." Third, they provide their justification, a twisted historical narrative where obedience to God brings ruin and idolatry brings peace and plenty. The women then add their own particular defense, noting that this was not some secret sin, but a family enterprise, fully endorsed by their husbands. This is a covenant community inverting its entire purpose. Instead of leading one another toward Yahweh, they are reinforcing one another in their apostasy. It is a picture of total spiritual decay.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered to Jeremiah, saying,

The response to Jeremiah's prophecy is not from a scattered few. It is a corporate action, a formal assembly. Notice the composition. It begins with the men, and their guilt is specified immediately. They "knew" what their wives were doing. This was not ignorance; this was complicity. In a rightly ordered household, the husband is the head, responsible for the spiritual direction of his family. These men had abdicated their duty. They were not leading their wives in righteousness, but were passive observers and, as we will see, active participants in their sin. They knew, and they did nothing to stop it, which means they approved it. This is the sin of Eli's sons, writ large across an entire community. The women are also there, standing by, part of this "large assembly." Sin loves company, and rebellion thrives in a crowd. When a whole culture decides to reject God, it becomes much easier for individuals to voice their own defiance. They draw courage from one another, mistaking the roar of the mob for the voice of reason. This was not a back-alley rebellion; it was a public declaration from the whole community in Pathros.

v. 16 “As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we are not going to listen to you!

Here is the heart of the matter, stated with breathtaking arrogance. There is no misunderstanding. They explicitly acknowledge that Jeremiah has spoken "in the name of Yahweh." They are not disputing his credentials as a prophet. They are not questioning the source of the message. They know this is a word from the God of Israel, the God who brought them out of Egypt, the God who gave them the law at Sinai. And their response is a flat refusal. "We are not going to listen to you!" This is the creature looking the Creator in the eye and saying, "No." It is the clay telling the potter that it knows best. This is the essence of all sin. It is a refusal to be governed. They have set their own will, their own desires, their own reasoning, up against the declared will of the Almighty. They have declared their independence, which is simply another name for slavery to sin. When a man or a people reaches the point where they can hear a clear "Thus saith the Lord" and respond with "We will not," they are perched on the very edge of the abyss.

v. 17 But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our fathers, our kings, and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no evil.

Their rejection of God's word is immediately followed by an affirmation of their own word. They will not do what God says, but they will "certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths." They have made vows, not to Yahweh, but to an idol, the "queen of heaven." This is a direct inversion of covenant faithfulness. They are more committed to their sinful oaths than to their covenant obligations to the living God. Their idolatry is not a casual affair; it is a deliberate, vowed commitment. And they defend it by an appeal to tradition and results. "This is what we've always done," they say. "Our fathers, our kings, our princes, everyone did it." This is the argument from history, but it is a selective and corrupt history. They remember the sin, but they forget the warnings of the prophets that accompanied that sin. They remember the momentary prosperity, but they forget that it was the long-suffering mercy of God that allowed it. And their central argument is pure pragmatism. When we worshipped the queen of heaven, "we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no evil." They measure their theology by the fullness of their stomachs. If a god delivers prosperity, he is a good god. If he allows hardship, he is to be rejected. This is the health and wealth gospel of the ancient world, and it is just as damnable now as it was then. It makes man the center, and God a cosmic vending machine.

v. 18 But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine.”

Here is the flip side of their pragmatic theology. They have constructed a false cause and effect narrative. They attribute their present calamities, the sword and famine that came with the Babylonian invasion, to their cessation of idolatry. This is a masterful piece of self-deception. The truth, as Jeremiah had been telling them for decades, was the exact opposite. The sword and famine came precisely because of their idolatry. God had sent judgment upon them for breaking His covenant. But in their rebellion, they have inverted the truth. They blame the cure for the disease. It is as if a man with lung cancer quits smoking for a week, continues to feel sick, and concludes that his problem was quitting the cigarettes. This is what sin does to the mind. It darkens the understanding. They cannot see the clear connection between their sin and their suffering. Instead, they blame the brief, half-hearted reforms under Josiah for their troubles. They have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and are now enslaved to that lie. Their logic is impeccable, provided you accept their insane premise. And their premise is that they are the center of the universe and God's commands are negotiable.

v. 19 “And,” said the women, “when we were burning incense to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

Finally, the women speak up to add their own amen to this chorus of rebellion. Their argument is an appeal to household solidarity. They are essentially saying, "Don't put all the blame on us. We weren't doing this in secret." They make it clear that their husbands were fully aware and complicit. "Was it without our husbands?" The question is rhetorical and the answer is a resounding "No!" The men knew, the men approved, the men participated. This was a family affair. The making of sacrificial cakes, likely shaped in the image of the goddess, was a domestic industry of idolatry. This highlights the total corruption of the covenant community. The home, which should be a seminary of righteousness where children are taught the ways of the Lord, had become a factory for idols. The husband, who should be the pastor of his little flock, was the chief enabler of its apostasy. This is a picture of a society rotting from the inside out. When the households are given over to idolatry, the nation cannot stand. The women's defense is not a plea for innocence, but a boast in their shared guilt. They are proud that their rebellion was a unified family project.

Application

We are tempted to read a passage like this and marvel at the sheer hard-headedness of these ancient Jews. But we must see ourselves in this text. The fundamental temptation is the same in every age: to subordinate the clear word of God to our own experience, our own reasoning, and our own desires. When Scripture says one thing about our money, our sexuality, or our worship, and our gut says another, which do we obey? The logic of the Jews in Egypt is the logic of modern man. "It works for me." "It makes me happy." "This is what feels right." "We saw no evil when we did it our way."

This passage is a powerful warning against what we might call belly-theology. When our primary theological question is "How does this affect my comfort and prosperity?" we are on the same path as these idolaters. True faith clings to the promises and commands of God even when, especially when, circumstances are dire. Job did not curse God when he lost everything; he worshipped. True faith says, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."

Finally, we see the corporate nature of sin. Rebellion is a fire that spreads. The men were complicit with the women, and the whole assembly stood together against God's prophet. We must be vigilant not only over our own hearts, but over the health of our communities. We must exhort one another daily, lest any be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. When a church or a family begins to tolerate sin, to make excuses for it, to justify it with pragmatic arguments, it is on a very dangerous road. The only safe place is to stand with Jeremiah, on the unshakeable ground of God's revealed Word, and to say to a rebellious world, "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of your own authority, we are not going to listen to you!"