2 'Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Ye—ye have seen all the evil that I have brought in on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah, and lo, they 'are' a waste this day, and there is none dwelling in them, 3 because of their wickedness that they have done, by provoking Me to anger, by going to make perfume, by serving other gods, that they knew not, they, ye, and 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.