¹⁶ “As for you, don’t pray on behalf of this people, don’t cry or offer a petition for them, and don’t plead with me, for I won’t listen to you. ¹⁷ Don’t you see what they’re doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven,^[a] and they pour out liquid offerings to other gods in order to provoke me. ¹⁹ Are they provoking me?” asks the Lord. “Is it not themselves, and to their own shame?” ²⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “I’m about to pour out my anger and my wrath on this place, on people and animals, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn, and it won’t be put out.”