Jeremiah 44:1-19

Here is the word YAHWEH gave Jeremiah concerning all the Israelites who were living in Egypt. They were in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the Pathros region. “YAHWEH, God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says this: You have seen with your own eyes all the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. Look at them; now they are in ruins and left uninhabited. This disaster came to your people because of their evil deeds; they have worshiped foreign gods, which they have previously known nothing about nor have their ancestors. They have brought them offerings and provoked my anger. Yet I kept sending you my servants the prophets to plead with you to stop doing such detestable things, which I hate with a passion! But you would not listen or pay attention, in order to turn from your wickedness and stop offering incense to other gods. So I let loose a firestorm of my anger, burning down the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem until nothing remained but a desolate wasteland, as it still is today. “And now I, YAHWEH, God of Israel, Commander God of Angel Armies, ask you: Why do you insist on heading for another disaster, one that will destroy every man, woman, and child in Judah? Why should you leave yourselves without a remnant? Why do you keep provoking my wrath by offering incense to Egyptian gods where you have settled? Are you bent on your own destruction? Don’t you realize you will become a curse and a laughingstock for all the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten all you have done in Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your ancestors, your wives, your kings, and their wives? Even now, you refuse to humble yourselves or be in awe of me. You have not followed my law or my teachings, which I set before you and your ancestors. “So, I, YAHWEH, God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, say to you that I am determined to bring disasters upon the people of Judah living in Egypt to eliminate you completely. I will make sure that the remnant of Judah who were determined to live in Egypt will die in Egypt. You will all be killed by the sword or die of starvation, from least to greatest. You will die such horrible deaths in war or from starvation that people of other nations will use you as an object of horror, a curse word, and mockery. I will punish those who settled in Egypt just as I punished Jerusalem: by sword, starvation, and plague. None of the remnant of Judah who have settled in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the country of Judah. Even though they want to go and live there again, only a few will escape and return.” Then all the women there, along with all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods, answered me. There was a great crowd of people there listening to me, a large group of the people of Judah who lived in southern Egypt and were meeting together. They all answered me, saying: “You claim to speak to us on behalf of YAHWEH, but we refuse to listen to you whatsoever! We will keep our vows to continue offering incense to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and pouring out drink offerings in her honor as we used to do. We will worship her in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem just as we, our ancestors, kings, and officers did in the past. We had plenty of food then, we prospered, and we suffered no disasters. But since we ceased offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have been destitute, and our people have died either by sword or by starvation. And besides,” the women added, “when we offer incense to the Queen of Heaven, pour out drink offerings to her, and make cakes bearing her image, do you really think we do this without our husbands’ knowledge?”