Jeremiah 44:7

Jer 44:7 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;

Ver. 7. Wherefore commit you this evll against your souls?] This land desolating, soul destroying sin of idolatry.

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.

now--after so many warnings.

commit . . . this . . . evil against your souls-- (Jer 7:19; Num 16:38; Pro 8:36). It is not God whom you injure, but yourselves.

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

Verse 7. This great evil against your souls] Will not self-interest weigh with you? See what ruin your conduct has brought upon your country. Your fathers sinned as you are doing; and where are they now? Either destroyed, or in captivity. And you are now taking the same way to your own destruction.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He then adds, Why then do ye now this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah, that nothing may remain for you? here at length the passage is finished; for what we have hitherto read would have kept the reader in suspense, had not this been added. He then says, “Since the sin of your fathers ought to have been detested by you, and since God’s judgment had been dreadful, and that punishment ought at this day to fill, you with fear, how is it, that ye seek to bring on yourselves again the vengeance of God?” Why then, he says, now, etc. This now is emphatical, that is, after so many and so remarkable examples, after so many admonitions, after the most grievous punishment inflicted on the obstinate. He says, against your own souls; and by this he touched them very sharply, reminding them that what they were doing would be to their ruin, as though he had said, that God would receive no loss from their wickedness, but that they would become the authors of their own destruction, he indeed intimates, as I have already said, that their impiety would not be without its punishment; but he shews at the same time that God could, if he thought proper, look down with indifference on their impieties; for he would remain perfect even if they were the worst. For when God is robbed by men of his just and legitimate worship, there is nothing taken away from his greatness; for he ever remains the same, and is neither advanced nor diminished through the will of men. Then the Prophet shews that the Jews were acting madly for their own ruin, when he says, that they did evil against their own souls

And this he explains more fully by adding, To cut off man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah He intimates that God still manifested his mercy, while there was any remnant. They might have remained in Judea, even in their own inheritance; and the country might have been inhabited till the time of seventy years had elapsed, which God had fixed for the exile. Now the Prophet shews that they fought as it were against the goodness of God, for they sought to extinguish their own name, so that nothing should remain of that people, to whom God had still left some seed, that they might not wholly perish.

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.

7. against your own souls] See on Jer_42:20, and cp. Jer_26:19.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The same epithets as before, Jer 44:2; with an addition, that his words might carry more weight with them:

wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls; the sin of idolatry, which is a great evil; a sin against God; a giving the glory to another, that belongs to him and not only so, but is against the souls of men; pernicious and ruinous to them, which brings destruction, even eternal wrath and damnation, on them; and this is an interesting argument why it should not be committed; nay, it was not only against God, and against themselves, but against their families, and the interest of them:

to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain; not that they did this great evil or committed idolatry with this intention, to ruin their families and posterity; but so it was eventually; hereby they provoked the Lord to anger, to cut off the men that offered incense to idols; and the women their wives, whom they allowed so to do; and their children, who were brought up in the same practices; so that they would have none to succeed them, to bear their name, and inherit their land; unless God should be merciful, and not deal according to their deserts; for such was the nature of their crime, as to deserve an utter extirpation of them.

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

Your souls - i. e., your own selves.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

What prudence can guide you to do such actions as these, by which you cannot hurt God, but yourselves only? You are now but a few of many; what love have you for your country, in taking courses which will certainly tend to the utter extirpation of those few, so as there shall be neither man, nor woman, nor child, nor suckling remaining of all the Jews?

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

7. Against your souls — Lives. This is more fully set forth in the language to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling. Sin is simply an all-comprehending suicide!

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Against your souls; i.e. against yourselves. The "soul" is the personality.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Why are you doing ... yourselves? Why are you causing ... and babies?

Yahweh uses these questions to rebuke the people for doing things that cause him to punish them. AT: "You are doing ... yourselves. You are causing ... and babies." (See: Rhetorical Question)

Why are you doing great wickedness against yourselves?

The abstract noun "wickedness" can be stated as "wicked." AT: "Why are you doing these wicked things that harm yourselves?" or "You are doing wicked things that cause terrible things to happen to you." (See: Abstract Nouns)

Why are you causing yourselves to be cut off from among Judah ... and babies?

Being separated from the people of Judah is spoken of as if the people are cut off from Judah the way a person may cut off a branch from a vine or cut off a piece of cloth. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Why are you causing me to remove you from the people of Judah ... and babies?" or "You are causing me to remove you from the people of Judah ... and babies." (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

By your wickedness you have offended me with the deeds of your hands

The abstract noun "wickedness" represents actions that are "wicked." Here "hand" represents the whole person. AT: "You have offended me with the wicked things you have done" (See: Abstract Nouns and Synecdoche)

You have gone there so that ... so that

"The result of going to Egypt is that ... and that"

you will be destroyed

This can be stated in active form. AT: "you will cause me to destroy you" or "you will destroy yourselves" (See: Active or Passive)

you will be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth

Here "nations" represent the people. AT: "all the people of all the nations of the earth will curse you and hate you" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

Yahweh

Yahweh of hosts

Israel

evil

cut off

remnant

works

hand

incense

curse

reproach

nation

earth

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.