Jeremiah 44:23

And because ye have burnt incense,.... Not to Jehovah, but to the queen of heaven; which they owned they did, and determined they would; asserting it was better with them when they did it than when they omitted it; for which reason the prophet particularly mentions it, and assigns it as the cause of the present ruin and destruction of their land, city, and temple:

and because ye have sinned against the Lord; by worshipping idols; all sin is against the Lord, but especially idolatry:

and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord; by his prophets, who cautioned them against idolatry, reproved them for it, and told them what would be the consequence of it; but this they hearkened not unto, which was an aggravation of their sin:

nor walked in his law; the moral law, according to it; which is a rule of walk and conversation:

nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; as not in the moral law, so neither in the ceremonial law, and the rites of that; nor in the judicial law, and the testifications of the will of God in either of them:

therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day: that is, the desolation on their land, as in Jer 44:23; See Gill on Jer 44:23.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jer 44:23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.

Ver. 23. Because ye have burnt incense, &c.] See Jer 42:21; Jer 43:7.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 44:23 is an emphatic and brief repetition of what has already been said. קראת is for קראה, as in Deu 31:29; cf. Gesenius, 74, note 1; Ewald, 194, b.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

law--the moral precepts.

statutes--the ceremonial.

testimonies--the judicial (Dan 9:11-12).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He at length explains more clearly, in other words, the same thing, on account of your incense, he says, and because ye have done wickedly, etc. By naming incense especially, stating a part for the whole, he refers to all false and corrupt modes of worship, as it was stated yesterday; but he declares all of them to have been abominable. Then he says, Ye have acted impiously against God He now exaggerates their sin, for they had despised all godly admonitions, ye have not hearkened, he says, to the voice of Jehovah I apply this to the discourses of the Prophets, by which God continued to exhort them to repentance; for he daily and constantly addressed them, in order to restore them to the way of salvation. Then the Prophet condemns them, because they hearkened not to the words of the Prophets.

Then he adds, Nor walked in his Law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies, he shews by these words, that even if Prophets had not been sent, one after the other, the Law ought to have been sufficient for them. But he was not content with mentioning the Law only, but added, statutes and testimonies: by which words he intimates, as we said yesterday, that the doctrine of the Law was clear and plain.

he at length adds, Therefore has all this evil happened to you, as it appears at this day. The Prophet, in short, intimates that their guilt was sufficiently proved, because God had been so angry with them, and they had been so severely afflicted; for if his judgments are right, it follows that the punishment he inflicted on the Jews was right. It may also be hence inferred, that they had been rebellious, because they had perverted and corrupted his true worship.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

There is in these verses nothing of difficulty, nor any new phrases to be opened. That which is observable is, that though the prophet was but one against many, yet he feareth not their faces: the substance of what he saith is this, that they interpreted God’s voice in his providences toward their country directly contrary to the true sense of it. They concluded that their omission of late to burn incense to the sun, moon, and stars was the cause why it was so ill with them; as if these were animate beings, and the Supreme Being, whereas they were but creatures. Or as if it were the will of the Supreme Being to be adored and worshipped in them, or before statues and images represented by them, whereas the will of God was directly contrary: and as he in the second commandment had forbidden any such worship, because he was a jealous God; so he had for the breach of that commandment, by their burning incense to these creatures, burned up their houses and temple, and brought their nation into that misery into which they were come: from whence may be observed how ill an argument for any religious worship antiquity is, unless we by it mean what is most ancient; as also that prescription in that which is false in the worship of God justifieth none. Nor is it a good conclusion that those who lived nearest to the primitive institution are most likely to have done best, as having the best means to know what is truly primitive. Idolatry was as old as Laban, and the worst of idolatry (offering children to Molech) was older than the Levitical law, if not as old as Serug. In matters of worship the word of God is a sufficient rule, we need not plead antiquity, nor the practice of our fathers. Error is not capable of being justified by tradition or prescription.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.