¹⁶ “As for you [^CJeremiah], don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry out for them or ask anything for them or ·beg me to help them [intercede with me], because I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Don’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers use the wood to make a fire. The women ·make [knead] the dough for cakes of bread, and they offer them to the Queen ·Goddess [^Lof Heaven; ^Cprobably Ishtar or Asherah, important goddesses of the surrounding cultures; 44:17–18]. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry. ¹⁹ But ·I am not the one [^Lis it I whom…?] the people of Judah are really hurting, says the Lord. ·They are [^LAre they not…?] only hurting themselves and bringing ·shame [humiliation] upon themselves.

²⁰ “‘So this is what the Lord God says: I will pour out my anger and wrath on this place, on people and animals, on the trees in the field and the ·crops in the [^Lfruit of the] ground. My anger will not be ·put out [extinguished; ^Clike a fire].