Jeremiah 44:15-19

New International Reader's Version

¹⁵ All the Jews who were living in Lower and Upper Egypt gathered to give Jeremiah their answer. A large crowd had come together. It included men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods. Their wives were there with them. All of them said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We won’t listen to the message you have spoken to us in the Lord’s name! ¹⁷ We will certainly do everything we said we would. We’ll burn incense to the female god called the Queen of Heaven. We’ll pour out drink offerings to her. We’ll do just as we and our people of long ago have done. Our kings and our officials also did it. All of us did it in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food. We were well off. We didn’t suffer any harm. ¹⁸ But then we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven. We stopped pouring out drink offerings to her. And ever since that time we haven’t had anything. Instead, we’ve been dying of war and hunger.”

¹⁹ The women added, “We burned incense to the Queen of Heaven. We poured out drink offerings to her. And our husbands knew we were making cakes that looked like her. They knew we were pouring out drink offerings to her.”