2 "Thus says the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel , 'You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah ; and behold , this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them, 3 because e of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known , neither they, you, nor your fathers .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 44:2-3
Commentary on Jeremiah 44:1-14
(Read Jeremiah 44:1-14)
God reminds the Jews of the sins that brought desolations upon Judah. It becomes us to warn men of the danger of sin with all seriousness: 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 the hour of temptation. The Jews whom God sent into the land of the Chaldeans, were there, by the power of God's grace, weaned from idolatry; but those who went by their own perverse will into the land of the Egyptians, were there more attached than ever to their idolatries. When we thrust ourselves without cause or call into places of temptation, it is just with God to leave us to ourselves. If we walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us. The most awful miseries to which men are exposed, are occasioned by the neglect of offered salvation.