The warning from Yahweh

16 Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah, do not pray for these people any longer.

Do not cry for them or plead for me to help them,

because I will not pay any attention to you.

17 Do you see the wicked things that they are doing in the streets of Jerusalem and in the other towns in Judah?

18 The children gather firewood

and their fathers use it to make fires on the altars to burn sacrifices.

The women knead/make dough to make cakes to offer to their goddess Astarte who is called the Queen of Heaven.

And on their altars they pour out offerings of wine to their other idols.

All of those things cause me to become extremely angry!

19 But I am not [RHQ] the one whom they are hurting;

they are really [RHQ] hurting themselves by doing these things for which they should be very ashamed!”

20 So Yahweh the Lord says this:

“Because I am extremely angry with what happens at this place,

I will punish these people severely [MTY];

my being very angry will be like [MET] a fire that will not be extinguished,

and I will destroy the people, their animals, their fruit trees, and their crops.”

21 Therefore, this is what the Commander of the armies of angels says:

“Take away [IRO] your offerings that you bring to burn completely on your altars and your other sacrifices;

don’t give them to me; eat them yourselves!

22 When I led your ancestors out of Egypt,

it was not offerings to be completely burned on the altar or other sacrifices that I wanted from them.

23 What I told them was, ‘Obey me;

if you do that, I will be your God and you will be my people.

If you do the things that I want you to do,

everything will go well for you.’

24 But your ancestors would not pay any attention [DOU] to me.

They continued to do the evil things that they wanted to do,

everything that in their stubborn inner beings they desired to do.

Instead of coming closer to me, they went further away from me.

25 From the day that your ancestors left Egypt until now,

I have continued to send my prophets to you.

26 But you, my people, have not listened to me or paid attention to what I said;

you have been stubborn, and you have done more sinful things than your ancestors did.”

27 Then Yahweh said to me, “When you tell all this to my people,

they will not listen to you.

When you call to them,

they will not answer.

28 Say to them, ‘You people of Judah have not obeyed Yahweh, your God;

you have not accepted it when he tried to correct you.

No one among you is truthful;

you do not say anything that is true; you speak only lies.’

29 So, tell them to cut off their hair to show that they are mourning;

tell them to go up into the hills and sing a sad funeral song,

because I have completely rejected [DOU] this generation of people who have made me angry.”