“As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 44:16 Mean?
Jeremiah 44:16 is one of the most brazen rejections of God's word in the entire Bible. The people don't just disobey — they announce their disobedience to the prophet's face. "As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee." The Hebrew lo nishme'im elekha — we will not listen to you. Clear. Deliberate. Final.
The context makes it even more shocking. These are Jewish refugees who fled to Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem — the very catastrophe Jeremiah had warned about for decades. They've just witnessed the fulfillment of every prophecy Jeremiah delivered. They saw the city burn. They saw the temple destroyed. Everything he said came true. And now, in Egypt, when Jeremiah tells them to stop burning incense to the queen of heaven (the goddess Ishtar/Astarte), they refuse. Not quietly. Out loud.
Verses 17-18 reveal their reasoning: when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, we had plenty to eat and were well. When we stopped, everything went wrong. Their theology is a direct inversion of reality — they attribute their prosperity to the idol and their suffering to God. The fall of Jerusalem, which was God's judgment on idolatry, they interpret as the consequence of not enough idolatry. The evidence has been completely reprocessed to support the conclusion they already wanted.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Have you ever heard God's word clearly and consciously chosen not to follow it? What was your reasoning?
- 2.Where might you be inverting cause and effect — attributing good results to the wrong source?
- 3.How do you explain people who witness God's faithfulness and still reject Him? Have you seen that pattern in yourself?
- 4.What makes deliberate defiance — 'we will not listen' — different from struggling with obedience?
Devotional
They watched everything Jeremiah predicted come true. The city fell. The temple burned. The exile happened — exactly as he said. And then they looked him in the eye and said: we will not listen to you.
That should be impossible. The evidence was overwhelming. The track record was perfect. Every word Jeremiah spoke for forty years was vindicated in the flames of Jerusalem. And the survivors' response wasn't repentance. It was defiance. Not because they couldn't see the evidence. Because they'd already decided what they wanted to believe.
Their logic is breathtaking in its inversion: when we worshiped the queen of heaven, things were good. When we stopped, things got bad. Therefore, the problem was that we stopped. They took the evidence of God's judgment on idolatry and used it to justify more idolatry. The data was right in front of them. The interpretation was backwards. And they were completely convinced.
Before you shake your head at ancient Israelites, ask yourself where you've done the same thing. Taken evidence that should have convicted you and rearranged it to support what you already wanted. Looked at consequences and blamed the wrong cause. Heard God's word clearly and said — maybe not out loud, but in your choices — we will not listen. The most dangerous spiritual condition isn't ignorance. It's hearing the truth, watching it prove itself, and choosing the opposite anyway.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
As for the word that thou has, spoken unto us in the name of the Lord,.... Which they did not believe that it came from…
We have here the people's obstinate refusal to submit to the power of the word of God in the mouth of Jeremiah. We have…
See introd. summary to the ch. This passage, unlike the preceding, apparently comes intact from Baruch's memoirs.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture