Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

¹⁶ “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don’t beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Don’t you see what they are doing throughout the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ No wonder I am so angry! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build sacrificial fires. See how the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. And they pour out liquid offerings to their other idol gods! ¹⁹ Am I the one they are hurting?” asks the Lord. “Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame.”

²⁰ So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I will pour out my terrible fury on this place. Its people, animals, trees, and crops will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger.”