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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Jeremiah 7:18 - 7:18
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children ... fathers ... women - Not merely isolated individuals practiced idolatry; young and old, men and women, and whole families, contributed their joint efforts to promote it. Oh, that there were the same zeal for the worship of God as there is for error (Jer 44:17, Jer 44:19; Jer 19:13)!
cakes ... queen of heaven - Cakes were made of honey, fine flour, etc., in a round flat shape to resemble the disc of the moon, to which they were offered. Others read as Margin, “the frame of heaven,” that is, the planets generally; so the Septuagint here; but elsewhere the Septuagint translates, “queen of heaven.” The Phoenicians called the moon Ashtoreth or Astarte: the wife of Baal or Moloch, the king of heaven. The male and female pair of deities symbolized the generative powers of nature; hence arose the introduction of prostitution in the worship. The Babylonians worshipped Ashtoreth as Mylitta, that is, generative. Our Monday, or Moon-day, indicates the former prevalence of moon worship (see on Isa 65:11).
that they may provoke me - implying design: in worshipping strange gods they seemed as if purposely to provoke Jehovah.