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Day 252: Queen of Heaven
Jeremiah 43-44
Jeremiah
Chapter 43:1-7 ~ The Disobedient Remnant of Judah
Jeremiah 43:1-3 ~ The Leaders of the Remnant Reply to Jeremiah's Warning
What do people often do when they make a decision to willfully reject God's word? They make excuses and blame their wrong decisions on someone or something else. The Bible says there is nothing "new under the sun" (Eccl 1:9). People, for good or ill, are the same in every generation of every age. There are the faithful who trust God and are obedient to His commands, and there are the disobedient: those who prefer to go their own way and determine their own destinies apart from God by relying on their own wisdom. There is "nothing new under the sun."
Jeremiah 43:4-7 ~ The Remnant of Judah Leaves for Egypt
It is tragic that none of the people of the remnant of Judah believed enough in Yahweh to fear offending Him. If they had believed, they would never have dared to break their oath in His Divine Name. Like their fathers told Jeremiah in 18:12, they intend to follow their own plan. They belonged to a generation of Judahites who were misled by their fathers and grandfathers in rejecting Yahweh's special covenant that bound them to the One True God. To them, Yahweh was just one of many gods the Judahites worshipped. And so, in a reversal of the Exodus, the remnant of Judah traveled to Egypt, forcing Jeremiah and Baruch to come with them and breaking God command to never go back to Egypt (Dt 17:16b). In this final act of disobedience, the surviving Judaeans brought about the ultimate curse predicted in Chapter 28 of the Book of the Law: Yahweh will send you back to Egypt, either by ship or by a road which I promised you would never see again. And there you will want to offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as serving men and women, but no one will buy you (Dt 28:68). They arrived in Tahpanhes, a town on the Egyptian frontier just south of Lake Menzaleh in the eastern Nile Delta. It was probably the same city later called Daphnai by the Greeks. They left, as Yahweh warned them, never to return.
Chapter 43:8-44:30 Jeremiah's Last Oracles to the Remnant in Egypt
Jeremiah told the Judaean remnant they would suffer because of their refusal to listen to Yahweh's command to stay in Judah and to not return to Egypt, the site of their first liberation in the days of Moses (42:15-2). God allowed them to force Jeremiah and Baruch to go with them so that, as an affectionate Divine Father, He might continue to use His prophet to prevent them from falling into total idolatry and to continue to remind them that He only wants what is best for them (43:6-7).
Jeremiah gave the remnant of Judaeans living in Egypt six last oracles from Yahweh in Chapters 43-44. Each oracle, after the usual short introductory phrase, begins with the words "Yahweh God of Israel (with several slight variations) says this," and the oracles are interrupted by two narratives:
- Oracle #1: Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Egypt is coming (43:10-13).
- Oracle #2: Idol worship was the cause of Judah's destruction (44:2-6).
- Oracle #3: The remnant in Egypt will incur God's wrath due to idol worship and the rejection of God's Laws (44:7-10).
- Oracle #4: The remnant in Egypt will perish (44:11-14).
Narrative #1: Judaean men and women respond to Jeremiah (44:15-19).
Narrative #2: Jeremiah answers the men and women (44:20-23).
- Oracle #5: God accuses the women of the Egyptian remnant of worshipping the goddess Astarte/Ishtar and withdraws His protection from the Egyptian remnant; they will die in their sins (44:25-28).
- Oracle #6: God will give the Judaeans in Egypt a "sign" of the coming final judgment: Pharaoh Hophra will be handed over to his enemies who will kill him (44:30).
Jeremiah 43:8-13 ~ Jeremiah's Ninth Object Lesson and Oracle #1
This oracle probably refers to the Babylonian invasion of 582, about the time that the Judaeans refugees arrived in Egypt. Tahpanhes is the Egyptian border town where the Judaeans refugees first arrived in Egypt (43:7). It is on the eastern delta, bordering the Sinai and on the caravan route leading to regions in the north. It may be that the refugees had to wait in this town until Egyptian officials decided to allow them to enter the country.
Chapter 44: Jeremiah's Last Oracles for the Judaeans
In Chapter 44, the six oracles that began in 43:10 continue. Jeremiah gives the last oracles of his prophetic ministry to the Judaeans living as exiles in Egypt. His final oracle contains a "sign" as evidence that what Yahweh has declared in His oracles will come true. The "sign" is the violent death of Hophra, Pharaoh of 26th Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs. General Amasis betrayed Hophra who was later executed. Amasis succeeded him as Pharaoh Amasis II of Egypt in 570 BC. Then, as prophesied by Jeremiah in his oracle against Egypt, two years later in 568 B.C., the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Egypt. Tens of thousands Egyptians died while thousands more, primarily the skilled and educated elite including priests and artisans, were taken captive and exiled into Babylonian lands to the east. Some Egyptians escaped into the surrounding desert, among them Pharaoh Amasis. Most of the major temples and tombs of the nation were looted and destroyed from Midgol in the eastern Delta to Syene near Elephantine (500 miles south of Thebes). It was the Egyptian holocaust prophesied by Jeremiah (43:10-13; 44:12-30; 47:13-26) and delivered by the Babylonians as retribution for the Egyptians encouraging Babylonia's vassal states to rebel against the empire.
Jeremiah 44:1-6 ~ Oracle #2
Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and the territory of Pathros.
Jeremiah's oracles are for all the Judaeans living throughout Egypt. It is possible that he traveled to these various locations to give his oracles, or the Judaeans from these cities may have come to one location for a festival honoring Astarte/Ishtar, Queen of Heaven.
- Migdol is a frontier town that is north and east of Tahpanhes on the coastal road from Asia into Egypt.
- Tahpanhes is a town bordering on the Sinai in Egypt's eastern Delta on the caravan route leading into the Levant and points north. It is the town to which Johanan and the refugees came in 43:7.
- Noph is another name for Memphis, the Old Kingdom Egyptian capital on the west bank of the Nile River that was later replaced by Thebes and at this period by Sais which is farther to the west.
- Pathros means "Land of the South" and refers to the territory of Upper (southern) Egypt (Lower Egypt was northern Egypt). The south to north flow of the Nile River determined the designation of the terms Upper and Lower Egypt.
Jeremiah 44:7-10 ~ Oracle #3
Yahweh uses His prophet again in an attempt to reason with the Judaeans living in Egypt.
Question: God asks them what two question in verses 7-8 and 9?
Answer:
- He asks why they persist in provoking His anger by their acts of idol worship.
- He asks if they have forgotten the judgment visited on their fathers for their wicked deeds that are now repeated by them and their wives.
They have become a "laughing stock" for other nations because it is widely known that they have abandoned their God and He has punished them with exile. The essence of the question is why they persist on bring evil on themselves (cf. 26:19b; 42:20).
Jeremiah 44:11-14 ~ Oracle #4
This oracle is Yahweh's indictment against the Judaean refugees in Egypt who continue in the same sins as their fathers. The phrase an object of execration means an object of cursing or denouncement.
Question: What is God's judgment against the Judaeans who went to Egypt to avoid war and suffering, who refused His protection, and who are now seeking the protection of false gods?
Answer: They will suffer the same fate as their fathers in Judah and Jerusalem in the same triple judgment of sword, famine and plague.
For none of them will return, except a few refugees.
In His mercy, God holds out hope for a few righteous refugees, probably to include Jeremiah and Baruch.
In this oracle, the Judaeans determination to go to Egypt despite Yahweh's warning is now matched by Yahweh's determination to bring His divine judgment against them: But Yahweh's face is set against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth (Ps 34:16).
Jeremiah 44:15-19 ~ The Judaean Men and Women Respond to Jeremiah
The refugees' initial silence to Yahweh's question in verses 7-8 gives way to a spirited response in verses 15-19 once God delivers the indictment and judgment on the men and their wives in the 4th oracle. The "Queen of Heaven" is the Assyrian/Babylonian goddess Ishtar, known in the Levant as Ashtart (by the Greeks as Astarte) and worshipped throughout the ancient Near East.
Ashtaroth, the plural form of the goddess's name in Hebrew, became a general term for pagan goddesses. This pagan deity was a goddess of sex, fertility, and war whose worship was originally centered in the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians and later adopted into Egypt. All forms of sexual perversions were associated with her worship.
Jeremiah 44:20-23 ~ Jeremiah Responds to the Crowd of Judaeans
In this narrative, Jeremiah forcefully responds to the Judaean refugees' excuses for making offerings to the "Queen of Heaven." He corrects their error in believing they received blessings from invoking other gods. He tells them the cause of the suffering of their people and the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem was because they worshipped false gods! That their country is now a ruin in verse 22 is a repeat of the same word from God's oracle in verse 6. Perhaps these Judaeans received poor instruction in the Law and inadequate religious formation.
Jeremiah 44:24-28 ~ Oracle #5
Jeremiah addresses the final three oracles to all Judaeans living in Egypt. Notice that the women are singled out for special mention in verse 24, and the text alters between masculine and feminine verbs. It appears the worship of the Queen of Heaven was a family affair. See earlier verses in this section and when God ordered Jeremiah not to continue to intercede for such a sinful people in Jeremiah 7:18, saying, The children collect the wood, the fathers light the fire, the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; and, to spite me, they our libations to alien gods.
Jeremiah 44:29-30 ~ Jeremiah's Sign and Oracle #6
A "sign" has greater significance than its event. It points to a revelation of something in the future. In this case, the "sign" will precede the destruction of the Judaean remnant in Egypt. Jeremiah spoke of Yahweh's signs and wonders in his prayer after he purchased the field in Jeremiah 32:20-21. His purchase was in itself a "sign" that one day Judaeans would return to buy fields and houses in the land of Judah (32:15).
DAY 252 Three Gods?
CHALLENGE: “The doctrine of the Trinity is polytheistic; it teaches that there are three gods.”
DEFENSE: This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the doctrine.
There is another word for belief in three gods: tritheism. The fact that trinitarianism has a different name indicates it is something different.
Of course, the concept of threeness is involved. The word “Trinity” is derived from the Latin root trinus (“threefold, triple”) and the suffix –itas, indicating a state or condition. “Trinity” thus indicates that God is threefold, but the question must be asked: Three of what?
The answer is not three gods but three Persons. Trinitarians are very clear on the fact that there is only one God. Thus the Catechism states: “If God is not one, he is not God” (CCC 228), and “the Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three Persons” (CCC 253).
The phrase “one God in three Persons” is a classic expression of the doctrine of the Trinity, used by Christians all over the world, and both parts of the expression must be taken seriously. One cannot ignore the “one God” part and then rewrite the “three Persons” part to make it “three gods.” That would falsify the concept of the Trinity and replace it with something else—something Christians do not believe.
Indeed, for a Christian to hold that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three gods would be such an extreme falsification of Christian doctrine that it would constitute heresy. For a Catholic to maintain it obstinately would be the canonical crime of heresy and would result in an automatic excommunication (Code of Canon Law, canons 751, 1364 §1). That’s how serious the Church is about the subject.
In response, a non-trinitarian might say he doesn’t understand how one God can be three Persons, but an informed non-trinitarian can’t in good faith say Christians believe in three gods.
Ultimately, you have to take someone at his word when he says, “That’s not what I believe.” You may not understand what he believes, you may even think it involves a contradiction (which the Trinity doesn’t; see Day 39), but it displays bad faith to continue to assert that someone believes something when he explicitly denies it.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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