44:20-30 Whatever evil comes upon us, it is because we have sinned against the Lord; we should therefore stand in awe, and sin not. Since they were determined to persist in their idolatry, God would go on to punish them. What little remains of religion were among them, would be lost. The creature-comforts and confidences from which we promise ourselves most, may fail as soon as those from which we promise ourselves least; and all are what God makes them, not what we fancy them to be. Well-grounded hopes of our having a part in the Divine mercy, are always united with repentance and obedience.
And because ye have burnt incense,.... Not to Jehovah, but to the queen of heaven; which they owned they did, and determined they would; asserting it was better with them when they did it than when they omitted it; for which reason the prophet particularly mentions it, and assigns it as the cause of the present ruin and destruction of their land, city, and temple:
and because ye have sinned against the Lord; by worshipping idols; all sin is against the Lord, but especially idolatry:
and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord; by his prophets, who cautioned them against idolatry, reproved them for it, and told them what would be the consequence of it; but this they hearkened not unto, which was an aggravation of their sin:
nor walked in his law; the moral law, according to it; which is a rule of walk and conversation:
nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; as not in the moral law, so neither in the ceremonial law, and the rites of that; nor in the judicial law, and the testifications of the will of God in either of them:
therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day: that is, the desolation on their land, as in Jeremiah 44:23; See Gill on Jeremiah 44:23.
and because ye have sinned against the Lord; by worshipping idols; all sin is against the Lord, but especially idolatry:
and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord; by his prophets, who cautioned them against idolatry, reproved them for it, and told them what would be the consequence of it; but this they hearkened not unto, which was an aggravation of their sin:
nor walked in his law; the moral law, according to it; which is a rule of walk and conversation:
nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; as not in the moral law, so neither in the ceremonial law, and the rites of that; nor in the judicial law, and the testifications of the will of God in either of them:
therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day: that is, the desolation on their land, as in Jeremiah 44:23; See Gill on Jeremiah 44:23.