How do the Judeans in Egypt respond to the word that Jeremiah spoke to them?

The people respond to Jeremiah’s message, and it is a response of utter defiance. As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. They refuse to repent of their idolatry and instead recommit themselves to keeping the vows they have made to make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her. Worshipping the queen of heaven is nothing new for the people of Judah. It was one of the activities taking place in Jerusalem described by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 7:17–19. The queen of heaven was the Assyrian-Babylonian goddess Ishtar who is a fertility goddess.¹

The reader, however, is now given insight into just how deep the rebellion is in the hearts of those who fled to Egypt. They proceed to completely re-interpret all that has happened in Judah. Under king Menasseh the worship of pagan gods, including the queen of heaven, thrived. It was a period of profound spiritual and moral decline, but it was also a time of relative peace for Judah as it lived in submission to Assyria. When Josiah came to the throne after Menasseh, he brought about reforms, removing pagan worship, although never completely, and restoring worship in the temple. Josiah also moved Judah towards a time of more national independence from foreign powers. Josiah was tragically killed at the battle of Megiddo in 609 BC as he marched against the Egyptians who were seeking to support the Assyrians against the rising Babylonian Empire. This began a time of increased foreign rule over Judah, first by the Egyptians for a time and ultimately by the Babylonians. It also marked a reversal of Josiah’s reforms and an increase in pagan worship and practices in Judah. It was a time of increased hardship for the people of Judah. Jeremiah was ministering to Judah throughout this time, and he made it clear that the nation's misfortunes were ultimately linked to their failure to be faithful to the Lord and his covenant with them. But those who now lived in Egypt interpret Judah’s sufferings in a totally different way to Jeremiah. They attribute times of peace and plentiful food in Judah to the offerings made to the queen of heaven. According to them things went wrong when they stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven. This is probably a reference to Josiah’s reforms. There is absolutely no recognition at all of their unfaithfulness to the Lord. In fact, they are more convinced than ever that what is needed is a deeper commitment to the queen of heaven. They have reinterpreted their existence as a people without any reference to the Lord or their status as his covenant people.

There are a number of references in this passage to the wives who appear to have had a prominent role in the worship of the queen of heaven. Jeremiah’s description of this worship in Jeremiah 7:17–19 made it clear that the rituals were a family affair with even the children gathering wood to make a fire. The wives played a central role as they baked cakes that were given as an offering. In a final statement of defiance and justification of their false worship, the women in Egypt say to Jeremiah, When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her? The Mosaic law allowed a husband to disallow a vow his wife had made without his knowledge (Numbers 30:7–15). In a very strange kind of syncretism, the women speaking to Jeremiah seem to be using the law to justify their pagan worship. They are saying to Jeremiah that their husbands knew what they were doing and by not saying anything showed that they approved of the practice.² They are also rejecting Jeremiah’s, and by implication the Lord’s, condemnation of their practices. They use the covenant to justify their covenant breaking.