Jeremiah 44:16-18

Living Bible

¹⁶ “We will not listen to your false ‘Messages from God’! ¹⁷ We will do whatever we want to. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven^[a] and sacrifice to her just as much as we like—just as we and our fathers before us, and our kings and princes have always done in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and happy! ¹⁸ But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her, we have been in great trouble and have been destroyed by sword and famine.”