What will be a sign to the Judeans in Egypt that the Lord will punish them?

Jeremiah declares that there will be a sign to the Judeans living in Egypt that the judgment he spoke of in Jeremiah 44:11–14 will indeed come to pass and that the Lord’s words will surely stand against you for harm. The sign is a prophecy that Pharoah Hophra king of Egypt will be given into the hands of his enemies, and into the hands of those who seek his life. The Lord compares this handing over of the Pharoah to the handing over of Zedekiah to Nebuchadnezzar. Pharoah Hophra had supported Zedekiah in his rebellion against Babylon and had sent an army to Jerusalem in 588 BC when Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege to the city (see Jeremiah 37:5). Jeremiah does not say that Nebuchadnezzar would also overthrow Hophra, but that he would be handed over to his enemies. In 567 BC, Hophra was removed from power by Amasis, one of his generals. He died three years later.¹ This message that Hophra would be removed from power would have undermined the belief, of the Judeans in Egypt, that they were safe there from any outside threat. Judah had long been divided on whether the hope of the nation lay in an alliance with Egypt or in submitting to Babylon. Jeremiah had consistently called on the people to submit to Babylon, and it now becomes clear that those who had trusted in Egypt had hoped in vain.²

Many more of Jeremiah’s sermons are recorded in the chapters that follow, but chronologically, his sermon in Jeremiah 44:1–30 is the final one he gave. If he spoke again, it is not recorded in the book. Scripture does not describe when, where or how he died, but the assumption is that he died in Egypt and never returned to Judah.³ Jeremiah never experienced the return to the land that he pronounced to the Babylonian exiles.