Jeremiah 44 · WEB

The Queen of Heaven in Egypt

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The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

²"Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah. Behold, today they are a desolation, and no man dwells in them,

³because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, to serve other gods that they didn't know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.

⁴However, I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, "Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate."

⁵But they didn't listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to stop burning incense to other gods.

⁶Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is today.'

⁷"Therefore now Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'Why do you commit great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child, out of the middle of Judah, to leave yourselves no one remaining,

⁸in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to live, that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.'

¹¹"Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.

¹²I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they will fall. They will be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They will die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine. They will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach.

¹³For I will punish those who 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, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will escape or be left to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there; for none will return except those who escape.'"

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

¹⁶"As for the word that you have spoken to us in Yahweh's name, we will not listen to you.

¹⁷But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to 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 we had plenty of food, and were well off, and saw no evil.

¹⁸But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine."

¹⁹The women said, "When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without our husbands?"

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all the people — to the men, to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer —

²¹"The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, didn't Yahweh remember them? Didn't it come into his mind?

²²Yahweh could no longer bear it because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation, an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today.

²³Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed Yahweh's voice, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is today."

²⁴Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, "Hear Yahweh's word, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt!

²⁵Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, 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 to her." Establish then your vows, and perform your vows.'

²⁶"Therefore hear Yahweh's word, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: 'Behold, I have sworn by my great name,' says Yahweh, 'that my name will no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "As the Lord Yahweh lives."

²⁷Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until they are all gone.

²⁸Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number. All the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.

²⁹"This will be the sign to you,' says Yahweh, 'that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for evil.'

³⁰Yahweh says, 'Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.'"

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Summary

Jeremiah 44 is Jeremiah's last recorded sermon — and his most confrontational. Addressing Jewish communities scattered across Egypt, he warns that their idolatry in Egypt will bring the same destruction that fell on Jerusalem. The people's response is one of the most shocking passages in the Bible: they openly refuse to listen and declare their intention to continue worshiping the "queen of heaven," arguing that life was better when they practiced this cult. The women are particularly defiant, insisting they burned incense to the queen of heaven with their husbands' full knowledge. Jeremiah fires back: it was precisely this incense-burning that brought Jerusalem's destruction. God swears by his own name that the Jewish community in Egypt will be consumed — and the sign will be Pharaoh Hophra's downfall, just as Zedekiah fell.

Themes

Open, defiant idolatry — the people consciously choosing false worship over Yahweh
The queen of heaven cult — women-led worship of a fertility goddess
False correlation — attributing prosperity to idolatry and hardship to reform
The final test — "whose word will stand, mine or theirs?"

Key verses

Jer 44:16-17 — “As for the word that you have spoken to us in Yahweh's name, we will not listen to you. But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven.”
Jer 44:22 — “Yahweh could no longer bear it because of the evil of your doings... therefore your land has become a desolation.”
Jer 44:28 — “All the remnant of Judah... will know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.”

Context & background

The Jewish communities addressed are spread across Egypt (modern Egypt): Migdol (a northeastern frontier fort), Tahpanhes (Tell Defenneh, northeastern Delta), Memphis (ancient capital near modern Cairo), and Pathros (Upper Egypt, the Nile Valley south of Cairo). The "queen of heaven" (*melekheth hashamayim*) was likely Ishtar/Astarte, the Mesopotamian-Canaanite goddess of fertility, love, and war — also worshiped in Judah before Josiah's reforms (cf. Jeremiah 7:18). The people's argument is a form of post hoc reasoning: during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon (when the queen of heaven cult flourished), Judah had relative peace and prosperity; after Josiah banned the cult, disaster followed. They drew the wrong conclusion — the prosperity was despite the idolatry, not because of it. The women's defense (v. 19) — that their husbands knew and approved — shows this was a household practice with full family participation. Pharaoh Hophra (Apries, reigned 589-570 BC) was indeed overthrown by his own general Amasis in 570 BC, fulfilling the sign of verse 30. This chapter likely represents the last datable event in Jeremiah's ministry.

Cross-references

1 Kings 11:5, 33 — Solomon worshiping Ashtoreth/Astarte, the same goddess tradition
2 Kings 23:4-14 — Josiah's reforms destroying the idolatrous cult objects, including queen of heaven worship
Ezekiel 8:14-16 — Women weeping for Tammuz at the temple, similar goddess worship in Jerusalem
Jeremiah 7:18 — "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven"
Romans 1:21-25 — "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator"

The Queen of Heaven in Egypt

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