“So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 43:7 Mean?
"So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes." The simple narrative sentence records the disobedience and its result: they went to Egypt. They disobeyed. They arrived at Tahpanhes. The sentence is flat, factual, and devastating. No drama. No resistance. Just: they disobeyed and they arrived at the wrong destination.
The phrase "they obeyed not the voice of the LORD" (ki lo sham'u beqol YHWH — because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD) is inserted between the departure and the arrival as the REASON: the journey to Egypt happened BECAUSE of disobedience. The 'because' makes the causal connection explicit. They didn't go to Egypt because Egypt was the best option. They went because they refused to listen.
The arrival at "Tahpanhes" (a fortress city in the Nile Delta, Egypt's northeastern border) marks the geographic endpoint of the disobedience: the specific city name makes the arrival concrete and final. They didn't just drift toward Egypt vaguely. They arrived at a specific address in a specific city. The disobedience has a ZIP code.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What wrong destination have you arrived at because you simply didn't listen?
- 2.What does the flatness of the narration teach about disobedience becoming predictable?
- 3.How does disobedience having a 'ZIP code' (Tahpanhes) describe the concrete reality of wrong choices?
- 4.What voice of the LORD did you not obey — and where did the not-listening take you?
Devotional
They went to Egypt. They didn't listen. They arrived at Tahpanhes. The sentence reads like a police report — flat, factual, and final. No grand rebellion. No dramatic defiance. Just: they disobeyed and they ended up exactly where God told them not to go.
The 'they obeyed not the voice of the LORD' is placed as the CAUSE: the sentence doesn't say 'they went to Egypt because Egypt was safer' or 'because Egypt had food' or 'because the political situation demanded it.' It says they went BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T LISTEN. The reason for the wrong destination is the disobedience, not the circumstances. The not-listening produced the wrong-going.
The 'thus came they even to Tahpanhes' gives the disobedience an address: Tahpanhes — a specific city on the northeastern border of Egypt. The disobedience isn't abstract. It's geographic. It has a location. They didn't just 'go to Egypt' in general. They arrived at a SPECIFIC PLACE — a place with a name, with walls, with streets. The sin has coordinates.
The flatness of the narration is itself the judgment: there's no commentary, no dramatic irony, no prophetic outcry. Just: they disobeyed. They went. They arrived. The matter-of-fact tone treats the catastrophic disobedience as something so predictable it doesn't deserve emotional narration. The narrator has stopped being surprised. The disobedience was so expected that the recording of it is bored.
What wrong destination have you arrived at — and was the reason simply that you didn't listen?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
So they came into the land of Egypt,.... They set out from the habitation of Chimham, where they were, Jer 41:17; and…
What God said to the builders of Babel may be truly said of this people that Jeremiah is now dealing with: Now nothing…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture