Therefore now thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Why commit you this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 44:7 Go To Jeremiah 44
John Chrysostom
AD 407
What was the reason for this? It was because the Jews were so arrogant and obstinate. They immediately forgot what God had done for them; they ascribed his kindness to demons and reckoned that his blessings had come from them. Even when the sea was divided for them, as they went forth from Egypt, and while other wonderful things were happening to them, they forgot the God who was performing these miracles and attributed them to others who were not gods. For they said to Aaron, “Make for us gods who will be our leaders.” And they said to Jeremiah, “We will not listen to what you say in the name of the Lord. Rather, we will continue doing what we had proposed: we will burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our ancestors, our kings and princes have done. Then we had enough food to eat and we were well off; we suffered no misfortune. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we are in need of everything and are being destroyed by the sword and by hunger.” The inspired prophets, then, foretold what would happen to the Jews so that they would ascribe none of the events to idols but would believe that both punishments and blessings always come from God: the punishment came for their sins and the blessings because of God’s love and kindness.
