¹² Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they will never save them in the time of their trouble.^(A)

¹⁷ Instead, we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. We used to have plenty of food and prospered and saw no misfortune.^{(A) 18} But from the time we stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have perished by the sword and by famine.”^{(B) 19} And the women said,^[a] “Indeed we will go on making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her; do you think that we made cakes for her, marked with her image, and poured out libations to her without our husbands’ being involved?”^(C)

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the people who were giving him this answer: ²¹ “As for the offerings that you made in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind?^{(D) 22} The Lord could no longer bear the sight of your evil doings, the abominations that you committed; therefore your land became a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is to this day.^{(E) 23} It is because you burned offerings 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 decrees that this disaster has befallen you, as is still evident today.”^(F)

²⁴ Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all you Judeans who are in the land of Egypt,^{(G) 25} Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have accomplished in deeds what you declared in words, saying, ‘We are determined to perform the vows that we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her.’ By all means, keep your vows and make your libations!^{(H) 26} Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you Judeans who live in the land of Egypt: I swear by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no longer be pronounced on the lips of any of the people of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the Lord God lives.’^{(I) 27} I am going to watch over them for harm and not for good; all the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall perish by the sword and by famine until not one is left.^(J)

Idols Cannot Save Babylon

Apostasy and Death of Ahaz

²² In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz.

¹⁴ Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”^(A)