Do Not Pray for Judah

¹⁶ “As for you, do not pray for these people.^(A) Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me,^(B) for I will not listen to you.^{(C) 17} Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,^[a](D) and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ But are they really provoking me?” ^(E) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”

²⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,^(F) on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”^(G)