Jeremiah 44:15-19
When hearts are hardened against God, people reinterpret their past and defend their sin rather than repent.
15 Then 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.
17 But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, 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 had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.
18 But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of the sky, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
19 “When we burned incense to the queen of the sky, 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?”
When hearts are hardened against God, people reinterpret their past and defend their sin rather than repent.
To record the open and defiant response of the Judean remnant in Egypt who reject Jeremiah’s warning and insist on continuing their worship of the 'Queen of Heaven.'
After Jeremiah announces judgment upon the Judean remnant in Egypt, the people respond with explicit rejection. This section records the people's defense of their idolatrous practices and their refusal to obey God's word.
The Judean refugees in Egypt openly reject Jeremiah's prophetic warning and defend their idolatrous worship of the Queen of Heaven.
Judah in Egypt: Stubborn Idolatry and the Last Warning
When people interpret mercy as the fruit of idolatry and judgment as the cost of obedience, they harden themselves against the very word meant to save them.