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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.”

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16 Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Neither weep for them nor pray nor beg that I should help them, for I will not listen. 17 Don’t you see what they are doing throughout the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 No wonder my anger is great! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build fires, and the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven[a] and to their other idol-gods! 19 Am I the one that they are hurting? asks the Lord. Most of all they hurt themselves, to their own shame. 20 So the Lord God says: I will pour out my anger, yes, my fury on this place—people, animals, trees, and plants will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 7:18 Queen of Heaven, a name by which Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, was called. After the fall of Jerusalem, the refugees who fled to Egypt continued to worship her (ch. 44). A papyrus dating from the fifth century B.C. found at Hermopolis in Egypt mentions the “Queen of Heaven” among the gods honored by the Jewish community.