“But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 44:17 Mean?
Jeremiah 44:17 is the most brazen declaration of defiance in the Old Testament — an entire community looking at God's prophet and announcing, in specific detail, their plan to continue doing exactly what provoked God's judgment. "But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth" — ki aso na'aseh et-kol-haddavar asher-yatsa' mippinu. We will certainly do — the infinitive absolute (aso na'aseh) intensifies the commitment: we absolutely, definitely, without reservation will do whatever we've decided. The mouth that speaks is the authority they follow. Not God's word. Their own word.
"To burn incense unto the queen of heaven" — leqatter limlekhet hashamayim. The queen of heaven — likely the goddess Ishtar/Astarte, the Near Eastern fertility deity whose worship involved incense-burning, drink offerings, and probably sexual rituals. They name the practice specifically. No ambiguity. No hedging.
"As we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes" — ka'asher asinu anachnu va'avothenu malkhenu vesarenu. The appeal is to tradition: our fathers did it, our kings did it, our princes did it. The precedent goes back generations. The idolatry isn't new. It's inherited. And the inheritance becomes the justification: this is who we've always been.
"For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil" — va'az nisbba'-lechem vanihyeh tovim vera'ah lo ra'inu. The theological inversion is complete: when we worshiped the queen of heaven, we had plenty. When we stopped, everything fell apart. They attribute their prosperity to the idol and their suffering to God. The evidence (prosperity during idolatry, destruction after Josiah's reforms) is real but the interpretation is backwards. They credit the disease for the health and blame the medicine for the side effects.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Where have you credited a destructive pattern with the good results that happened alongside it?
- 2.Have you ever returned to a harmful habit because 'it worked' — because the season associated with it was easier?
- 3.How do you distinguish between correlation (two things happening together) and causation (one thing causing the other) in spiritual life?
- 4.What tradition ('our fathers did it') are you following that might need to be questioned rather than continued?
Devotional
We will do what we want. We've always done it. And it worked.
The defiance is so specific it reads like a contract: we will burn incense to the queen of heaven. Pour out drink offerings. Do everything we've decided to do. And our justification? Tradition and results. Our fathers did it. Our kings did it. And when we did it, we had plenty. When we stopped, everything collapsed.
The logic is the logic of every person who returns to a destructive pattern because the pattern was associated with a good season. You stopped drinking and your life got harder. You started going to church and the relationship fell apart. You tried obedience and the results were worse than when you were disobedient. So you conclude: the disobedience was working. The obedience made it worse. Back to what worked.
The interpretation is exactly backwards. Josiah's reforms — the period when Israel stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven — were the first genuine obedience in generations. And the suffering that followed (the Babylonian conquest) was the consequence of the centuries of idolatry that preceded the reforms, not the consequence of the reforms themselves. They blamed the cure for the symptoms of the disease. They credited the disease for the health that existed before it reached its terminal stage.
The most dangerous spiritual reasoning is the kind that uses real data to reach false conclusions. The prosperity was real. The idolatry was real. The correlation was real. And the causation was exactly, perfectly, catastrophically backwards. Sometimes the worst evidence is the most convincing — and the most convincing evidence leads you furthest from the truth.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth,.... And not what went out of the mouth of God, or…
Whatsoever thing ... - Or, the whole word (or thing) which hath gone forth out of our mouth; i. e., the vows we have…
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…
every word that is gone forth out of our mouth For this phrase as employed of vows see Num 30:2; Num 30:12; Deu 23:23;…
Cross References
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