Judgment on the Jews in Egypt
Jeremiah receives a word for all the Judeans dwelling in Egypt, spread across Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and Pathros. The LORD reminds them that they have seen Jerusalem's desolation with their own eyes and explains again that the catastrophe came because the people burned incense to other gods, ignored the repeated warnings of the prophets, and provoked His anger until the cities of Judah were left ruined.
T1his is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt — in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis — and in the land of Pathros: 2“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster that I brought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, they lie today in ruins and desolation 3because of the evil they have done. 4They provoked Me to anger by continuing to burn incense and to serve other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew. Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’ 5But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. 6Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.
The LORD then asks why the refugees are now harming themselves by continuing the same idolatry in Egypt, thereby erasing the remnant of Judah. He charges them with provoking Him again through their offerings to foreign gods, forgetting the wickedness of former generations and their own participation in it, and remaining unbroken, irreverent, and unmoved by His instruction even after everything that has happened.
7So now, this is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves by cutting off from Judah man and woman, child and infant, leaving yourselves without a remnant? 8Why are you provoking Me to anger by the work of your hands by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to reside? 9As a result, you will be cut off and will become an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth. Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and of the kings of Judah and their wives, as well as the wickedness that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed My instruction or the statutes that I set before you and your fathers.
Because they persist in Egypt, the LORD declares that He will set His face against them for disaster, just as He judged Jerusalem. The remnant that went to reside in Egypt will fall by sword and famine, become a curse and a horror, and find that almost none will return to Judah, except a few fugitives.
11Therefore 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. 12And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have resolved to go to the land of Egypt to reside there; they will meet their end. They will all fall by the sword or be consumed by famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine; and they will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and reproach. 13I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem, by sword and famine and plague, 14so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone to reside in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, where they long to return and live; for none will return except a few fugitives.”