16 “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen 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. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger.
19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
20 “ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: My anger and my wrath will be poured 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.
21 “ ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,