Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Jeremiah 44:17 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 17. 17But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
The prophetic word through Jeremiah turns or qualifies the movement with “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto…” at Jeremiah 44:17 inside “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven.”
Men and women answer with the Queen of Heaven
This verse is one part of that explanation in Jeremiah 44:15–19. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Jeremiah 44:15–19
Read Jeremiah 44:17 with 44:15–19. By itself, “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto…” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, date, imperial horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: A large assembly explicitly rejects Jeremiah's word and argues that offerings brought prosperity, while women insist their husbands knew their ritual actions.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within the same chapter, this unit advances from “A Severe Oracle Threatens the Egyptian Remnant” into “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven.” Its non-interchangeable movement is: A large assembly explicitly rejects Jeremiah's word and argues that offerings brought prosperity, while women insist their husbands knew their ritual actions. This verse's placement is specific: The prophetic word through Jeremiah turns or qualifies the movement with “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto…” at Jeremiah 44:17 inside “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven.”
Follow the Context
- The unit begins at 44:15 with the speech, scene, image, or date named in its title.
- A large assembly explicitly rejects Jeremiah's word and argues that offerings brought prosperity, while women insist their husbands knew their ritual actions.
- At 44:19 the movement reaches its response or transition before the next unit.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
The community's prosperity claim does not prove its worship true, just as later disaster does not prove every sufferer guilty.
What Remains True
The dispute reveals competing memories about ritual, economy, and catastrophe. In Jeremiah 44:17, that bounded truth is carried through this verse's role: The prophetic word through Jeremiah turns or qualifies the movement with “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto…” at Jeremiah 44:17 inside “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Evaluate claims by more than outcomes and listen to gendered household testimony critically. This verse directs that response through its exact role: The prophetic word through Jeremiah turns or qualifies the movement with “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto…” at Jeremiah 44:17 inside “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven.”
Teach It Back
Explain Jeremiah 44:17's precise role in Jeremiah 44:15–19: The prophetic word through Jeremiah turns or qualifies the movement with “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto…” at Jeremiah 44:17 inside “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven.” State how “Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of Heaven” controls the line, keep this uncertainty visible—The exchange does not justify misogyny or erase women's agency; economic memory and household power must both be examined.—trace role to contextual meaning to enduring truth to application, and reject one use the verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Jeremiah 44:15–19 — Men and Women Defend Worship of the Queen of HeavenSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
Readings differ over historical reconstruction, composition, rhetoric, theology, and later reception. The preferred reading follows this complete unit while preserving the limit: The exchange does not justify misogyny or erase women's agency; economic memory and household power must both be examined.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Jeremiah 44:15–19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jeremiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2; fixed commit
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 44:15–19
Open the fixed Hebrew Jeremiah file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Jeremiah with Translator, Textual, and Study Notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; official eBible PDF distribution, NET Bible Second Edition; official PDF accessed 2026
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, names, textual problems, and material translation alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Jeremiah PDF, pp. 1258-1459, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Jeremiah 44:15–19
Open the official NET Jeremiah PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Jeremiah: Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Themes, and Bible in the World
Terence E. Fretheim and Michael Chan
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current public course accessed 2026
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with ancient-to-modern limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Jeremiah course, Outline and Bible in the World: post-fall community, Egypt migration, trauma, and Baruch; applied to Jeremiah 44:15–19
Open the Enter the Bible Jeremiah course ↗open university study guide series
Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Jeremiah Parts 1-3 Study Guides
Joel S. Baden and Jacqueline Vayntrub
Yale Bible Study, 2024
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and explicit composition questions.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah Part 3 study guide, pp. 1-6: Jeremiah 36, Baruch, scroll rewriting, composition, and final form; applied to Jeremiah 44:15–19
Open the Yale Jeremiah and Ezekiel course ↗peer reviewed open access gender critical article
Whose Gendered Language of God? Contemporary Gender Theory and Divine Gender in the Prophets
Corrine L. Carvalho
Currents in Theology and Mission 43.3, 2016
Supports: Controls gendered and sexualized rhetoric, Jeremiah's body and confessions, women mourners, celibacy, and ethical reading of violent imagery.
Exact location: Carvalho, 'Whose Gendered Language of God?,' Currents 43.3 (2016), pp. 13-15; applied to Jeremiah 44:15–19
Open Carvalho on prophetic gender language ↗