TRV
Translation
King James Version
Therefore 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.
Complete Jewish Bible
"Therefore here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I will decree disaster for you and destroy all of Y'hudah.
Berean Standard Bible
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I will set My face to bring disaster and to cut off all Judah.
American Standard Version
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
World English Bible Messianic
Therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Therefore thus sayeth the Lord of hostes the God of Israel, Beholde, I will set my face against you to euill and to destroy all Iudah,
Young's Literal Translation
`Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am setting my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah,
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Commentary on Jeremiah 44 verses 1–14
1 ¶ The 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,
2 Thus 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,
3 Because 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.
4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
6 Wherefore 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.
7 Therefore 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;
8 In 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?
9 Have 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?
10 They 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.
11 Therefore 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.
12 And 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.
13 For 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:
14 So 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.
The Jews in Egypt were now dispersed into various parts of the country, into Migdol, and Noph, and other places, and Jeremiah was sent on an errand from God to them, which he delivered either when he had the most of them together in Pathros (Jer 44:15) or going about from place to place preaching to this purport. He delivered this message in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and in it,
I. God puts them in mind of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, which, though the captives by the rivers of Babylon were daily mindful of (Psa 137:1), the fugitives in the cities of Egypt seem to have forgotten and needed to be put in mind of, though, one would have thought, they had not been so long out of sight as to become out of mind (Jer 44:2): You have seen what a deplorable condition Judah and Jerusalem are brought into; now will you consider whence those desolations came? From the wrath of God; it was his fury and his anger that kindled the fire which made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah waste and desolate (Jer 44:6); whoever were the instruments of the destruction, they were but instruments: it was a destruction from the Almighty.
II. He puts them in mind of the sins that brought those desolations upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was for their wickedness. It was this that provoked God to anger, and especially their idolatry, their serving other gods (Jer 44:3) and giving that honour to counterfeit deities, the creatures of their own fancy and the work of their own hands, which should have been given to the true God only. They forsook the God who was known among them, and whose name was great, for gods that they knew not, upstart deities, whose original was obscure and not worth taking notice of: "Neither they nor you, nor your fathers, could give any rational account why the God of Israel was exchanged for such impostors." They knew not that they were gods; nay, they could not but know that they were no gods.
III. He puts them in mind of the frequent and fair warnings he had given them by his word not to serve other gods, the contempt of which warnings was a great aggravation of their idolatry, Jer 44:4. The prophets were sent with a great deal of care to call to them, saying, Oh! do not this abominable thing that I hate. It becomes us to speak of sin with the utmost dread and detestation as an abominable thing; it is certainly so, for it is that which God hates, and we are sure that hid judgment is according to truth. Call it grievous, call it odious, that we may by all means possible put ourselves and others out of love with it. It becomes us to give warning of the danger of sin, and the fatal consequences of it, with all seriousness and earnestness: "Oh! do not do it. If you love God, do not, for it is provoking to him; if you love your own souls do not, for it is destructive to them." Let conscience do this for us in an hour of temptation, when we are ready to yield. O take heed! do not this abominable thing which the Lord hates; for, if God hates it, though shouldst hate it. But did they regard what God said to them? No: "They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear (Jer 44:5); they still persisted in their idolatries; and you see what came of it, therefore God's anger was poured out upon them, as at this day. Now this was intended for warning to you, who have not only heard the judgments of God's mouth, as they did, but have likewise seen the judgments of his hand, by which you should be startled and awakened, for they were inflicted in terrorem, that others might hear and fear and do no more as they did, lest they should fare as they fared."
IV. He reproves them for, and upbraids them with, their continued idolatries, now that they had come into Egypt (Jer 44:8): You burn incense to other gods in the land of Egypt. Therefore God forbade them to go into Egypt, because he knew it would be a snare to them. Those whom God sent into the land of the Chaldeans, though that was an idolatrous country, were there, by the power of God's grace, weaned from idolatry; but those who went against God's mind into the land of the Egyptians were there, by the power of their own corruptions, more wedded than ever to their idolatries; for, when we thrust ourselves without cause or call into places of temptation, it is just with God to leave us to ourselves. In doing this, 1. They did a great deal of injury to themselves and their families: "You commit this great evil against your souls (Jer 44:7), you wrong them, you deceive them with that which is false, you destroy them, for it will be fatal to them." Note, In sinning against God we sin against our own souls. "It is the ready way to cut yourselves off from all comfort and hope (Jer 44:8), to cut off your name and honour; so that you will, both by your sin and by your misery, become a curse and a reproach among all nations. It will become a proverb, As wretched as a Jew. It is the ready way to cut off from you all your relations, all that you shave have joy of and have your families built up in, man and woman, child and suckling, so that Judah shall be a land lost for want of heirs." 2. They filled up the measure of the iniquity of their fathers, and, as if that had been too little for them, added to it (Jer 44:9): "Have you forgotten the wickedness of those who are gone before you, that you are not humbled for it as you ought to be, and afraid of the consequences of it?" Have you forgotten the punishments of your fathers? so some read it. "Do you not know how dear their idolatry cost them? And yet dare you continue in that vain conversation received by tradition from you fathers, though you received the curse with it?" He reminds them of the sins and punishments of the kings of Judah, who, great as they were, escaped not the judgments of God for their idolatry; yea, and they should have taken warning by the wickedness of their wives, who had seduced them to idolatry. In the original it is, And of his wives, which, Dr. Lightfoot thinks, tacitly reflects upon Solomon's wives, particularly his Egyptian wives, to whom the idolatry of the kings of Judah owed its original. "Have you forgotten this, and what came of it, that you dare venture upon the same wicked courses?" See Neh 13:18, Neh 13:26. "Nay, to come to your own times, Have you forgotten your own wickedness and the wickedness of your wives, when you lived in prosperity in Jerusalem, and what ruin it brought upon you? But, alas! to what purpose do I speak to them?" (says God to the prophet, Jer 44:10) "they are not humbled unto this day, by all the humbling providences that they have been under. They have not feared, nor walked in my law." Note, Those that walk not in the law of God do thereby show that they are destitute of the fear of God.
V. He threatens their utter ruin for their persisting in their idolatry now that they were in Egypt. Judgment is given against them, as before (Jer 42:22), that they shall perish in Egypt; the decree has gone forth, and shall not be called back. They set their faces to go into the land of Egypt (Jer 44:12), were resolute in their purpose against God, and now God is resolute in his purpose against them: I will set my face to cut off all Judah, Jer 44:11. Those that think not only to affront, but to confront, God Almighty, will find themselves outfaced; for the face of the Lord is against those that do evil, Psa 34:16. It is here threatened concerning these idolatrous Jews in Egypt, 1. That they shall all be consumed, without exception; no degree nor order among them shall escape: They shall fall, from the least to the greatest (Jer 44:12), high and low, rich and poor. 2. That they shall be consumed by the very same judgments which God made use of for the punishment of Jerusalem, the sword, famine, and pestilence, Jer 44:12, Jer 44:13. They shall not be wasted by natural deaths, as Israel in the wilderness, but by these sore judgments, which, by flying into Egypt, they thought to get out of the reach of. 3. That none (except a very few that will narrowly escape) shall ever return to the land of Judah again, Jer 44:14. They thought, being nearer, that they stood fairer for a return to their own land than those that were carried to Babylon; yet those shall return, and these shall not; for the way in which God has promised us any comfort is much surer than that in which we have projected it for ourselves. Observe, Those that are fretful and discontented will be uneasy and fond of change wherever they are. The Israelites, when they were in the land of Judah, desired to go into Egypt (Jer 42:22), but when they were in Egypt they desired to return to the land of Judah again; they lifted up their soul to it (so it is in the margin), which denotes an earnest desire. But, because they would not dwell there when God commanded it, they shall not dwell they were they desire it. If we walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us. How can those expect to be well off who would not know when they were so, though God himself told them?
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–14. Public domain.
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Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 44:11 delivers a stark and unyielding declaration of divine judgment from the LORD of hosts against the remnant of Judah who had defiantly fled to Egypt. Despite repeated warnings, their persistent idolatry and rebellion against God's explicit commands provoke an irreversible divine resolve to bring calamity upon them, ensuring their complete destruction and the cutting off of all who remained in Judah, even in their supposed refuge.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 44:11 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its message of impending and inescapable judgment. The most prominent is Anthropomorphism, seen in the phrase "I will set my face against you." This attributes a human characteristic (having a face and setting it with determination) to God, making His resolute opposition tangible and relatable, emphasizing His personal and active involvement in the impending judgment. The phrase itself is a potent Idiom in Hebrew, signifying unwavering purpose and fixed intent, leaving no room for negotiation or reversal. The use of "Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel" at the outset functions as an Authoritative Declaration or Divine Oracle Formula, lending absolute weight and certainty to the pronouncement, signaling that the words are not Jeremiah's, but God's own. Finally, the phrase "all Judah" contains an element of Hyperbole, emphasizing the comprehensive and devastating scope of the judgment, implying that no one among the disobedient remnant in Egypt would escape, even if a literal "all" might be impossible to achieve.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse powerfully articulates God's unwavering commitment to His covenant, which inherently includes both blessings for obedience and severe curses for disobedience. It underscores that God is not to be trifled with; His holy character demands righteousness, and He will not tolerate persistent, defiant idolatry and rebellion. The judgment pronounced here is a direct and inevitable consequence of Judah's repeated rejection of His word and their deliberate pursuit of false gods, demonstrating that divine justice is an inherent and necessary aspect of His nature. It serves as a stark reminder that true security and well-being are found only in humble obedience to God and faithful adherence to His commands, not in geographical relocation or human strategies that defy His explicit will. This judgment also highlights God's absolute sovereignty over all nations and peoples, demonstrating that even in a foreign land like Egypt, His hand of judgment reaches those who rebel against Him.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 44:11 serves as a timeless and profoundly sobering warning for all generations. It powerfully reminds us that God is holy and just, and He takes sin, especially persistent rebellion and idolatry, with utmost seriousness. We cannot escape the consequences of our actions by changing our physical location or circumstances if our hearts remain unchanged and defiantly opposed to God's will. This verse challenges us to deeply examine our own lives: are there areas where we are stubbornly resisting God's clear commands, or where we are subtly or overtly placing other things—whether wealth, comfort, relationships, personal desires, or even our own perceived wisdom—above our wholehearted devotion to Him? True security, peace, and blessing are found not in our own strategies or strength, but in humble obedience and wholehearted worship of the one true God. It calls us to genuine repentance when we stray and to a renewed, unwavering commitment to living in alignment with His revealed will, understanding that His "face" can be either for blessing and favor or for determined judgment, depending on our response to His authoritative Word.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is God's judgment so severe in this verse?
Answer: God's judgment in Jeremiah 44:11 is profoundly severe because it is a direct and final response to persistent, defiant, and covenant-breaking rebellion. The remnant of Judah had witnessed God's devastating judgment on Jerusalem, received clear prophetic warnings from Jeremiah not to go to Egypt, and yet they deliberately disobeyed. Once in Egypt, they not only continued but intensified their idolatry, explicitly stating their preference for worshipping the "queen of heaven" (as detailed in Jeremiah 44:17-19). This was not a sin of ignorance or weakness, but of willful, stubborn defiance against the very God who had delivered their ancestors from Egypt centuries before and established a covenant with them. God's holiness, righteousness, and justice demand a decisive response to such flagrant rejection of His authority and covenant faithfulness.
Who is meant by "all Judah" in this context?
Answer: In Jeremiah 44:11, "all Judah" refers specifically and emphatically to the remnant of the Jewish people who had fled to Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem, in direct defiance of God's command. While it is a comprehensive statement, it is understood as a hyperbole emphasizing the totality of the judgment upon that particular disobedient group in that specific location, rather than implying the literal annihilation of every single person of Jewish descent globally. The broader context of Jeremiah 44 makes it clear that the prophecy is directed at those who settled in various Egyptian cities, such as Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and the country of Pathros, as mentioned in Jeremiah 44:1.
What does "I will set my face against you for evil" mean?
Answer: The phrase "I will set my face against you for evil" is a powerful Hebrew idiom signifying God's resolute, determined, and unwavering opposition. When God "sets His face" towards someone, it indicates a fixed purpose and direct, personal engagement. Here, the crucial addition "for evil" (Hebrew: l'ra'ah) clarifies that this determined purpose is to bring about calamity, disaster, and destruction. It contrasts sharply with instances where God sets His face for His people, signifying favor, blessing, and protection (e.g., Numbers 6:25). In this context, it means God is firmly resolved to execute judgment and will not relent, ensuring that the consequences of their rebellion will be fully realized without mercy.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 44:11, with its terrifying pronouncement of severe divine judgment against a rebellious remnant, finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment not in the continuation of such judgment upon humanity, but in the radical reorientation of God's face towards a fallen world through the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. While the Old Testament repeatedly shows God's face set against sin and rebellion, culminating in the exile and the "cutting off" of the disobedient, the New Testament reveals God's ultimate and perfect solution to humanity's pervasive rebellion. Jesus, the Lamb of God, became the vicarious recipient of God's righteous wrath against sin, taking upon Himself the "evil" (calamity, judgment, separation) that humanity justly deserved. In His crucifixion, God's face was indeed "set against" sin, but it was against the sin in Christ, the sin that He bore on our behalf. Through His atoning sacrifice, God's face could then be turned towards humanity in grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation. The "cutting off" of Judah in Jeremiah foreshadows the ultimate spiritual cutting off that sin brings, but Christ's sacrifice provides the means for reconciliation, allowing those who believe in Him to be grafted into the true Israel, the church, and to experience God's face shining upon them with favor, peace, and eternal life, as promised in the priestly blessing (compare Numbers 6:25-26 with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 4:6). Thus, the terrifying judgment of Jeremiah 44:11 profoundly underscores the immense mercy and redemptive power of Christ, who bore the full weight of divine judgment so that we might receive unmerited grace and eternal life (Romans 5:8).