¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the ^[a]queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods that they may offend and provoke Me to anger.

¹⁷ But rather we will certainly perform every word of the vows we have made: to burn sacrifices to the ^[a]queen of heaven (Ishtar) and to pour out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves and our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for [then] we had plenty of food and were prosperous and saw no misfortune. ¹⁸ But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” ¹⁹ And said the wives, “When we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without [the knowledge and approval of] our husbands that we made cakes [in the shape of a star] to represent her and pour out drink offerings to her?”