⁹ Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^(A)stone and tree.

¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^(A)and the women knead dough, to ^(B)make cakes for ^(C)the queen of heaven. And ^(D)they pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^(E)to provoke me to anger.

³⁹ “As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: ^(A)Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; ^(B)but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.

^17 (A)But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to ^(B)the queen of heaven ^(C)and pour out drink offerings to her, ^(D)as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. ¹⁸ But since we left off making offerings to ^(E)the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything ^(F)and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” ¹⁹ And the women said,^[a] “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven ^(G)and poured out drink offerings to her, was it ^(H)without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, ^(I)men and women, all the people who had given him this answer: ^21 (J)“As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, ^(K)did not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? ^22 (L)The Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and ^(M)the abominations that you committed. ^(N)Therefore your land has become ^(O)a desolation and a waste and a curse, ^(P)without inhabitant, as it is this day. ²³ It is because you made offerings ^(Q)and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies ^(R)that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.”

²⁴ Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, ^(S)all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(T)You and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made, ^(U)to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm your vows and perform your vows!

²⁹ The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city ^(A)shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, ^(B)with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal ^(C)and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, ^(D)to provoke me to anger.

¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—^(A)all the houses on whose ^(B)roofs offerings have been offered ^(C)to all the host of heaven, and ^(D)drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled ^(E)like the place of Topheth.’”