And Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt.
This verse opens Jeremiah's last recorded message. He speaks it not in Jerusalem but in Egypt, to the survivors of Judah who had fled there against God's word. He calls the whole community to listen, men and women alike, right after they had told him to his face that they would not.
This message closes decades of preaching. One commentator sums up what the prophet now sets before them:
Now the prophet solemnly sets before all Judah in Egypt where their idolatry must end. Earlier chapters did the same for their unbelief and rebellious disobedience.
The call to hear is striking, because these hearers had just announced the opposite. It was nothing new to the prophet:
Throughout his life Jeremiah has seen his prophecies rejected and his warnings despised. Now it has happened again. Still, he follows the people into Egypt and even there warns them by the Word of the Lord (43:8-13). But all is in vain. They reply to him, "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed" (44:16,17).
Egypt was not where God had put them. They asked the prophet for direction, then ignored it:
Still, if even at this last hour this remnant had submitted to Nebuchadnezzar's rule, peace would have reigned in the land, and the few who were left would have kept it. But there is no thought of trusting the Lord. They consult Jeremiah, then refuse to obey the word of the Lord from his mouth. They take refuge in Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzar, only to fall under the sword. That sword would have spared them in Judea, if they had stayed there under the king. In Egypt they give themselves up to idolatry, so that the wrath of God comes on them to the end.
Jeremiah names the women as well as the men. The idol worship he confronts was mainly theirs, but their husbands went along with it:
What hardness of heart, to say to the man of God, "We will not listen." They meant to carry out their vows to worship "the queen of Heaven." All they said was that things went well with them when they worshipped the queen of Heaven back in their own land. It seems the women were mostly the ones involved in this, but they acted with the knowledge and consent of their husbands.
They had their own explanation for the troubles that had come on them. The prophet gives the true one:
Why did they not trace their troubles to their real cause, the chastening hand of God? That is exactly what the prophet drives home, with the simplicity and force of truth.
In Egypt two words now stood against each other, theirs and God's. Only one could hold:
The answer is plain enough, and they heard what their fate would be for their deliberate unbelief and disobedience. These are solemn words, and the Lord said, "They shall know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs." God's Word will always stand, and so will those who stand by the Word of God and put their trust in it.
The message does not end in pure judgment. God still keeps count of a few:
How comforting it is to hear Him say even at such a time, "those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number" (v. 28). The blessed Lord knows the godly, and knows, too, how to deliver them. No doubt the proud and wilful had carried some into Egypt, like the prophet and Baruch. They were few and feeble. They were not there with a happy mind. Force of circumstances had carried them away. It is always cheering to remind our hearts of that word, "The Lord knows those who are His" (2 Tim. 2:19).
- Hear — the verse calls a crowd to listen that had just said out loud it would not.
- All — men and women are both named. The women led the idol worship, and their husbands agreed to it.
- Egypt — they asked for God's word, then did the opposite. The shelter they chose became the place of their loss.
- Whose word? — God said they would learn whose word stands, His or theirs. His word always stands.
- Yet — even here God counts a small number who escape. He knows those who are His, even among a people dragged to Egypt by the wilful.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will certainly perform our vows which we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her. Ye will certainly establish your vows, and entirely perform your vows.
These words are not Jeremiah's. They are the people's own oath, quoted back to them by God. The Jews who had fled to Egypt had already told the prophet they would not listen. Their vow raises a hard question: what happens when someone hides a sin behind a religious promise and calls it faithfulness?
These people had gone down to Egypt for safety. The prophet had warned them not to.
The prophet announced what would fall upon the Jews who tried to escape by going down into Egypt. In Egypt, he said, they would only meet still more trouble from Nebuchadnezzar. God had set the Chaldean king over them. If they had stayed in the land under his authority, they would have been safe. But choosing human policy, they thought it safer to go down into Egypt, and it proved to be the opposite.
The verse names the men and the women, their mouths and their hands.
What hardness of heart, to say to the man of God, "We will not listen to you." They intended to perform their vows to worship "the queen of heaven." All they said was that things went well with them when they worshipped the queen of heaven back home. The women seem to have been the most involved in this, but they did it with the knowledge and consent of their husbands.
These refugees did not invent the title. They took it from the nations around them.
They had fallen in with the worship of a female idol. This worship was common among the idolatrous nations around them: the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Babylonians. They called the Babylonian Venus, Ishtar, the queen of heaven. The Assyrians called her Beltis, the female form of Baal. In the sculpture they placed a star over her head and called her "the mistress of the heavens." The Phoenicians worshipped this "queen of heaven" under the name of Ashtoreth or Astarte. The Jews had adopted this wicked worship, with all its immoral ceremonies.
The vow names two acts: making offerings — older translations read "burning incense" — and pouring out drink offerings. Neither was a pagan invention. Both belonged to God's own worship.
Incense spoke of the merits of Christ. Drink offerings, as we have seen, spoke of the joy found in the life and death of the Lord Jesus. Yet by the incense they burned to idols and the wine they poured out, the people claimed by their action to have learned the merits belonging to false gods. They claimed to have found joy in a rite which, little as they knew it, was really the worship of demons. What an insult it was to God, and to the One whom the sacrifice represented, for Israel to give drink offerings to idols!
They treat the promise as binding, as if breaking a vow would be the real sin. One writer answers that head on.
Many men have vowed to commit a sin, and have used the vow as their excuse for doing it. Yet suppose someone had said to them, "Do you dare tell God that He wanted you to commit this murder?" — or whatever the sin may be. They would answer, "Certainly I cannot. Even nature tells me it is sin." If a man has vowed to be an apostle, or to convert many people, or never to marry, let him confess his sin, and leave himself in God's hands. He has assumed that the power lies in himself, and it is not there.
Why refuse warnings this plain? Jeremiah names the reason.
He says, "You dissembled in your hearts." A better translation is, "You deceived yourselves in your own souls." Their self-will was set on a certain course, and it deceived them. Nothing will warp the understanding and block the grasp of truth like self-will. It will not see what it does not want to see.
The verse ends by telling them to go ahead and keep their vows. God does not argue; events will answer them.
The answer is plain enough, and they heard what their fate would be for their deliberate unbelief and disobedience. These are solemn words, and the Lord said, "They shall know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs." God's word will always stand, and so will those who stand by the word of God and put their trust in it.
- Flight. Human policy looked safer than obedience. Egypt gave them the opposite — more trouble, not less.
- Vow. They used a promise as the excuse for the sin. The way out is to confess the sin, not to keep the vow.
- Insult. Incense and poured-out wine spoke of Christ. Offered to an idol, they insulted God Himself.
- Self-will. Under the vow lay a will already set. Self-will "will not see what it does not want to see."
- Verdict. Two words now stood against each other, theirs and God's. Events would show which one holds.
Therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith Jehovah, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, [As] the Lord Jehovah liveth.
The people had just told Jeremiah to his face that they would go on burning incense to the queen of heaven. They even claimed they had been better off when they did. This verse is God's reply — not another plea, but an oath, and the one thing He swears by is His own great name.
God speaks last here. The people had heard the charge and chosen their course anyway.
The people, however, had become so hardened in their evil ways that they tell the prophet without hesitation, "We will not listen to you"! They tell him openly that they will continue their idolatry and burn incense to the queen of heaven. Their reason is this: when we did these things in Judah and Jerusalem we had plenty of bread, we were well, and we saw no disaster (vv. 15-19). Jeremiah points out that this was the very thing which brought God's judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (vv. 20-23). The prophet also told them that, since they were determined to continue their detestable practices, the Lord had said, "Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, 'As the Lord GOD lives.'"
Why would God swear at all? One writer answers from what God alone is able to do, and from how quickly we doubt Him.
God could swear an oath, for He was able to carry it out, and He knew every consequence of what He pledged Himself to. It is beautiful to see Him do it when He wants to assure the soul of His creature, who is so ready to doubt the perfect faithfulness even of his God. "Therefore God, desiring to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us" (Heb. 6:13-18). His word is as certain as His oath, though it does not seem so to man.
What God removes here is a phrase these people still used. They had not stopped saying "the Lord lives"; they had simply set other gods beside Him. One writer, commenting on the same sin in another prophecy, shows why that mixture is worse than plain idolatry:
What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be what we might call a plain, out-and-out idolater was far less evil than to show that you know the true God and then put false gods on a level with Him. This outrage against God is specially described here: people who worship and swear to the Lord, and who also swear by the idol Milcom.
The oath does not come early. One writer traces what God was doing in all the time before it.
If all this shows what man is in self-will and rebellion, it shows also what God is in patient grace and goodness (Jer. 44:4; 2 Peter 3:9). Grace follows them even into Egypt, and still pleads with them; but nothing humbles them or brings them to repentance (Jer. 44:5-10). But there is a limit to patience, and judgment follows from which there is no escape (Jer. 44:11-14). If people think that by going into the world they will escape trouble, they make a great mistake.
Another group of Jews was in captivity in Babylon at this same time. Their story ran the opposite way.
These go down into Egypt against the word of the Lord, and sword, famine and plague will destroy them. Those at Babylon are promised peace and prosperity and plenty, for a time. These take Jeremiah with them into Egypt, even though he announces their doom. The others have Ezekiel and Daniel with them at Babylon, where Daniel prevails in prayer with God for their deliverance and restoration. At the beginning God redeemed the people out of Egypt. Babylon became the place of their captivity after they had turned away from the Lord. So going back to Egypt was fatal, but from Babylon there was deliverance.
- Refusal. The oath follows their flat "we will not listen" — God speaks last, after they have made their choice final.
- Oath. God can swear by His own name. He is able to carry it out, and He knows every consequence of what He promises.
- Mixture. They kept His name on their lips and put other gods beside Him. That insult runs deeper than open idolatry, so God removes His name from their mouths.
- Limit. Grace had followed them all the way into Egypt and pleaded there; patience is long, but it has an end.
- Destination. Babylon held a people who would come back; Egypt held a people who would not. Where you run to when you will not obey decides what you find there.
Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
The men of Judah in this verse are survivors who had gone down to Egypt against God's warning. His answer to them raises a hard question: what does it mean for God to watch over His own people for harm instead of help?
One commentator traces what happens to a heart that hears a clear warning from God and refuses it:
Unbelief runs downhill fast once the heart hardens itself against a direct warning from the Lord. And the greater the earlier claim to godliness, the deeper the fall... God loves to be the Saviour of those who bear His name; if they desert Him for another, woe to them! It cannot but be to their shame, sorrow and ruin.
They had also hoped that a new country would end their troubles:
If people think that by going into the world they will escape trouble, they make a great mistake. We get tired of strife and divisions and weakness, but going into the world does not mend matters. We see here the sad effect of going into the world; it left them without heart or conscience.
God's watching usually means protection. Here the same close attention turns to judgment. Daniel prayed about this later, and called God righteous in it:
Daniel says, "The LORD has watched over the evil, and brought it upon us." The Lord had said to Jeremiah, "I will watch over them for evil, and not for good." The same prophet also tells us that the Lord had "watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict" (Jer. 44:27; Jer. 31:28). How serious this is! We find it easier to understand the Lord watching over His people to protect them. But here He watches over them for evil, and Daniel says the Lord is right in doing it. "The LORD our God is righteous in all His works which He does, for we did not obey His voice."
(The wording here follows older translations. Where they say "evil," the ESV says "disaster." The harm falls on the people; there is no wrongdoing in God.)
The same watchfulness that once stood ready to bless now stands ready to strike:
"Therefore the Lord has watched upon the evil and brought it upon us" (v. 14), as He watched upon the good to bless. How terrible, when the government of God watches upon the evil to make it come upon His people!
A commentator weighs what these people had become:
Sadly, they had ears, but they did not hear. The remnant was rotten to the core.
Another writer measures how far the judgment reached:
So God declares this of all those who had gone down to Egypt. Apart from "a very small company" that would escape (v. 28), "none of the remnant" would "escape or remain, so as to return into the land of Judah" (Jer. 44:14).
Even so, the next verse leaves a door open:
Yet in the middle of wrath—righteous wrath—He remembers mercy. How comforting to hear Him say even at such a time, "Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah" (v. 28). The blessed Lord knows the godly, and knows, too, how to deliver them. Some, no doubt, like the prophet and Baruch, were taken into Egypt by the proud and stubborn. They were few and weak. They were not there gladly. Circumstances had swept them along.
In the end the question was simple: whose word would prove true?
These are solemn words. The Lord said, "They shall know whose Word shall stand, Mine or theirs." God's Word will always stand, and so will those who stand by the Word of God and put their trust in it.
- Descent. Refusing a plain warning is not a pause but a slide — the greater the earlier claim to godliness, the deeper the fall.
- Relocation. They chose Egypt to escape trouble. It left them without heart or conscience.
- Watching. God normally watches over His people to protect them. Here He watches for harm — and Daniel calls that righteous.
- Remnant. Judgment falls, yet a small number escapes. The Lord knows those whom others dragged into Egypt.
- Standing. Only one word stands in the end — God's. Those who rest on it stand with Him.
And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, a very small company; and all the remnant of Judah, that have come into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs.
Judah's survivors ran to Egypt to be safe. God's answer is that only a handful of them will ever see Judah again — and those few will settle the question of whose word stands, His or theirs.
They had a real alternative. Fear, not faith, decided what they did:
Even at this last hour, this remnant could have submitted to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. Then peace would have reigned in the land, and these few who remained would have held it. But some revolt, and the others fear the consequences of their folly. There is no idea of trusting in the Lord. They consult Jeremiah, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord from his mouth. They take refuge in Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzar. There they fall under the sword. That same sword would have spared them in Judea, if they had stayed there under the king.
The direction of their flight matters. Two groups of exiles existed at the same moment, and their histories ran opposite ways:
These go down into Egypt, against the word of the Lord, and sword, famine and plague will destroy them. Those at Babylon have peace and prosperity and plenty promised to them for the time being. These carry Jeremiah with them into Egypt, though he announces their doom. The others have Ezekiel and Daniel with them at Babylon, and there Daniel prevails in prayer with God for their deliverance and restoration. At the beginning God redeemed the people out of Egypt. Babylon became the place of their captivity later, when they had turned away from the Lord. To return to Egypt was therefore fatal, but from Babylon there was deliverance.
Verse 14 leaves those in Egypt no escape; this verse sends a few home. One writer answers that tension by asking who exactly the threat speaks to:
But here there is a remnant. Here as elsewhere, when the remnant fails, that does not excuse any individual from being faithful. Those whom the leaders carried away do not belong to the class who dwelt in the land of Egypt. Six or seven times the chapter speaks to that class as dwellers in Egypt, and for them there is no escape (Jer. 44:14).
Mercy sits inside the sentence. God can tell the godly apart from the crowd:
While He is angry — rightly angry — He remembers mercy. How comforting to hear Him say even at such a time: "Yet those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number" (v. 28). The blessed Lord knows the godly, and knows, too, how to deliver them. No doubt the proud and wilful had carried some of them into Egypt, like the prophet and Baruch. They were few and feeble. They did not go there gladly; circumstances forced them. It is always cheering to remind our hearts of that word, "The Lord knows those who are His" (2 Tim. 2:19). In His own time He opens the way for them to walk where He would have them.
Their unbelief gets a plain answer. It ends by naming the real question:
The answer is plain enough, and they heard what their fate would be for their deliberate unbelief and disobedience. These are solemn words. The Lord said, "They shall know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs." God's word will always stand. So will those who stand by the word of God and put their trust in it.
That contest is not limited to Egypt. Belief does not decide whether a word holds:
Even if the thousand million people on this globe denied the truth of God's word, that word would still stand unmoved. Scripture does not depend for its truth upon man's belief. It is true whether he believes it or not.
Running from trouble into the world is the mistake this chapter exposes:
If people think that by going into the world they will escape trouble, they make a great mistake. We get tired of strife and divisions and weakness, but going into the world does not mend matters. We see here the sad effect of going into the world; it left them without heart or conscience.
- Word refused. They asked the prophet for God's word and then would not obey it; submission would have left them safe at home.
- Word avoided. Egypt looked like shelter from Nebuchadnezzar. It became the place where the sword found them.
- Word remembered. Even in anger God keeps a few — the feeble ones carried along by the wilful, whom He knows and can bring out.
- Word aimed. The doom falls on those who made Egypt their home. Failure all around never cancels your own duty to be faithful.
- Word standing. The survivors exist so that everyone learns whose word holds — and it is never man's, believed or not.
And this shall be the sign unto you, saith Jehovah, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall certainly stand against you for evil
Jeremiah speaks here in Egypt, not Jerusalem, to Jews who fled there against God's word and now burn incense to other gods. God ties a visible sign to His threat, to settle one question: whose word will stand?
God will punish them "in this place" — Egypt, the refuge they chose from the king of Babylon. That choice, not the danger they ran from, destroyed them:
The prophet announced what would fall upon the Jews who tried to escape by going down into Egypt. He showed them that there they would only meet with worse trouble from Nebuchadnezzar. If they had stayed in the land, under the Chaldean king whom God had placed over them, they would have been safe. But they chose human policy, thinking it was safer to go down into Egypt, and it proved to be the opposite. Nebuchadnezzar pursued the Egyptians and punished these unbelieving Jews in that land.
God gives the sign so that they "may know." Yet these people had just told His prophet to his face that they would not obey:
The people had become so hardened in their evil ways that they tell the prophet without hesitation, "We will not listen to you"! They openly tell him they will continue their idolatry and burn incense to the queen of heaven. Their reason, they say, is this: when we did these things in Judah and Jerusalem, we had plenty of bread, we were well, and we saw no evil. Jeremiah points out that this was the very thing which brought God's judgment on Judah and Jerusalem.
They read their past prosperity as proof that idolatry paid. Another writer asks the question they never asked:
Why did they not attribute their troubles, as was the truth, to the chastening hand of God?
The people had spoken, and God had spoken. Only one of the two words could hold:
The answer is plain enough. They heard what their fate would be for their deliberate unbelief and disobedience. These are solemn words. The Lord said, "They shall know whose Word shall stand, Mine or theirs." God's Word will always stand. So will those who stand by the Word of God and put their trust in it.
The next verse names the sign: the fall of Egypt's king. He was the protection they had run to, and he would fall as Judah's own king had:
Still, God would spare even a little remnant of these. But He would give up Pharaoh Hophra, the king they trusted, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, as He had given up Zedekiah.
Hophra's own boasting made his end all the more pointed:
Hophra was full of pride. Records say he claimed that not even a god could overthrow him. Such arrogance could not go unpunished... Jeremiah 44:30 mentions Hophra. God delivered him into the hands of those "that sought his life," which were some of his own people.
God's words stand "against you for harm" — yet that is not the chapter's last word. One writer notices the small door left open:
Yet in the middle of wrath — righteous wrath — He remembers mercy. How comforting to hear Him say even at such a time, "Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah." The blessed Lord knows the godly. He knows, too, how to deliver them. Some, doubtless, like the prophet and Baruch, had been carried into Egypt by the proud and wilful. They were few and feeble. They had not gone there by choice; circumstances forced them.
That refusal did not die with them. One commentator draws the line to our own day:
What defiance and wickedness, the fruit of their unbelieving hearts! Greater still is the defiance and wickedness of today, when people deliberately reject the cross and the gospel of Christ.
- The claim. God and the people had each spoken. This verse settles which word holds: "God's Word will always stand."
- The defiance. They had told the prophet outright that they would not listen. They read their old prosperity as proof that idolatry paid.
- The sign. The proof God chose was the fall of Pharaoh Hophra. He was the king they had run to for safety, and he had boasted that no god could overthrow him.
- The fulfilment. Egypt was no refuge. The sword they fled in Judah found them there. Hophra fell into the hands of those who sought his life.
- The mercy. Even here a small number would escape and return. "The blessed Lord knows the godly, and knows, too, how to deliver them."
thus saith Jehovah Behold, I will give Pharaoh-Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
Jeremiah's last recorded message to the Jews in Egypt ends with a name. Pharaoh Hophra was the king they had settled under for safety. God promises to hand him over to the men hunting him, just as He had handed over Zedekiah, king of Judah. That fall would prove whose word stands: God's or theirs.
Judah's own king had once counted on this pharaoh to drive off the Babylonians.
The king of Egypt addressed in this prophecy was Pharaoh-Hophra, called in Greek, Apries. He was the grandson of Pharaoh-Necho, who defeated King Josiah at Megiddo. King Zedekiah of Judah expected help and relief from Pharaoh-Hophra while Jerusalem was under siege. Hophra's army marched up through Phoenicia. It forced the Chaldeans to lift the siege of Jerusalem. But the relief was only temporary, for the Egyptian army had to retire.
God attaches a sign to the warning just before this verse. One event would show the rest was true.
He gives them a sign that this will happen. Hophra is to be given into the hands of his enemies. This took place a few years before Nebuchadrezzar defeated Amasis, who had succeeded Hophra.
The sign also took a shape they already knew.
They were determined to continue their evil practices. So the Lord had said, "I have sworn by My great Name, says the Lord, that My Name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt." Instead they would be consumed. The king of Jerusalem had been given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and the king of Egypt would be given up in the same way.
The refugees had gone to Egypt to get out of Nebuchadnezzar's reach. God's answer names the man they were hiding behind.
They take refuge in Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzar. But there they fall under the sword. That sword would have spared them in Judea, if they had stayed there in subjection to the king. In Egypt they give themselves up to idolatry, so that the wrath of God might come upon them to the end. Still, God would spare even a little remnant of these. But Pharaoh-Hophra, whom they trusted, would be given up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, as Zedekiah had been.
God still promised to spare a small remnant. Commentators differ on who brought Hophra down. Some point to Nebuchadnezzar. Others point to his own people.
The verse says enemies would seek his life. It does not say where they would come from.
Hophra was filled with pride, and it is recorded that he said not even a god could overthrow him. Such arrogance could not go unpunished… God delivered him into the hands of "those who seek his life." They were some of his own people.
The way he defended his throne helps explain it.
He was as proud as he was prosperous, and he relied mainly on hired foreign troops… We know that his own subjects revolted. They fought and defeated his foreign troops, and in the end they put him to death.
Under the politics lies something worse. Going to Egypt was more than a bad plan.
Going down into Egypt for safety was not natural for people who had always bowed to Babylon unwillingly… But it became a fatal step once the prophet gave them the word of the Lord. That word assured them of safety in the land under Nebuchadnezzar, and of destruction in Egypt. Egypt was where their impulse, indeed their determination, drove them to go for shelter. God loves to be the Saviour of those who bear His name; if they desert Him for another, woe to them!
Egypt had failed people this way before.
The help of man is useless against the word of God. This was not the first time Egypt had proved a broken reed, piercing the hand of those who leaned on it.
- Trusted. Hophra was Necho's grandson. He had once lifted the siege of Jerusalem, so the refugees could name no stronger protector.
- Named. God singles out the man they trusted, because the shelter people choose instead of Him is the first thing to go.
- Signed. God gave his fall as a sign, so they would know whose words stand: God's or their own.
- Emptied. His own subjects were among the enemies who took his life. They beat the hired troops he had leaned on.
- Repeated. Egypt had already pierced the hand that leaned on it. Leaving the Saviour for another ends the same way every time.