¹⁶ “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea^(A) or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen^(B) to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven.^(C) They pour out drink offerings^(D) to other gods to arouse^(E) my anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking?^(F) declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?^(G)

²⁰ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign^(H) Lord says: My anger^(I) and my wrath will be poured^(J) out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.^(K)

²⁹ “‘Cut off^(A) your hair and throw it away; take up a lament^(B) on the barren heights, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned^(C) this generation that is under his wrath.