King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 8 notes
1The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
2Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,
3Because 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.
4Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
5But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
6Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
7Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;
8In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
So even in a foreign land God still keeps his eyes on his children and expects them to worship him and keep his laws.
This goes to show that regardless of the land and the location, God judges all men and expects men to do what is right and keep his laws.
Even in pagan lands.
9Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Obviously committing whoredoms.
10They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
11Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.
12And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
13For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:
14So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.
15Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
16As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.
17But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
18But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
19And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
In the long-suffering of God Almighty, they thought 💭 it was their gods still prospering them.
But by the time they had stopped, according to their own account, evil came to them.
But Jeremiah tells them that by then their sins had so polluted the land that judgement had already been declared against the land.
When we do not understand spiritual things, we can so easily get deceived.
Such deception by these evil spirits. Whiles the Lord in his great patience prevented and held back his punishment, they took that as a time of prosperity by their gods.
And when finally GOD's wrath hit, they had then stopped their wicked ways, but their wicked heart was still with their idol; but then it was too late, because the Lord was bent on destroying the people.
They took that as a bad omen from their gods for abandoning them. So now they were back to their evil ways.
20Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying,
21The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind?
22So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
23Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.
It seems that the people repented for a while to serve the Lord, only for this disaster to come upon them, and they lost their land.
So their reasoning was that it was because they stopped that was why the queen of the heavens caused them to go into captivity.
Such foolish deception they were walking.
Their temporal repentance in following the Lord was a little too late. The Lord had already decided, and nothing was going to change it.
Judah was going to go into captivity regardless of their repentance. It was this decision of God to send them into captivity despite their repentance that they judged as the idol being angry at them and casting them out of their sight.
Many times some things have already been predetermined by God regardless, and it happens despite our prayers and our good intentions.
And so when evil happens to good people we question the Lord, we question the Lord, but sometimes God permits evil to happen and out of it he shows forth his glory.
It's just like when he said that even if Moses and Samuel stood before him, he would not change his mind.
Some things have been determined to happen, but our consolation is in the fact that all things work together for our good.
24Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:
25Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.
26Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth.
27Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
28Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.
The remnant, I believe, would mostly be the righteous ones who continue to serve the Lord despite the hindrances and challenges in a foreign land.
Them the Lord will cause to escape from the sword and famine and pestilence of the land.
29And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:
30Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
Case closed and settled. This will settle their confusion, but they need not be confused 😕.
They were not honest and just self-absorbed in their delusions. I'm sure the demon 👹 calling itself the queen of heaven had told them the lie that it's because they stopped serving her.
So it was this demon's words of deception 😞 against God's true words.
These people's hearts were bent on evil 😈, and they were just giving excuses, because
even if they were confused 😕, which God is better: the gods who require them to sacrifice their children and commit whoredoms, or the one who demands righteousness from them?
They were just self-deluded, selfish and deceived.
These people were so blessed, really they were, to have a prophet whose words never failed and who could hear from the Lord for them and tell them what was about to happen.
They were indeed so blessed.