¹⁶ “As for you, Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people. Don’t cry out for them or ask anything for them or beg me to help them, 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 the dough for cakes of bread, and they offer them to the Queen Goddess. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry.