16 “Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we are not going to listen to you!
17 But certainly we will do everything that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then we had enough to eat, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster.
18 But since we stopped making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by the famine we have perished.
19 And indeed, when we were making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out to her libations, was it not with the consent of our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes marked with her image, and we poured out to her libations?”
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and to the women, and to all the people who answered him a word, saying,
21 “The offering that you made, smoke offerings in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your ancestors, your kings, and your officials, and the people of the land, did not Yahweh remember them, and did it not come to his mind?
22 And Yahweh was no longer able to bear it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the detestable things that you committed. Thus your land became as a site of ruins, and as a horror, and as a curse, without inhabitants, as it is this day.