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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.

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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.

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.(A) They pour out drink offerings(B) to other gods to arouse(C) my anger. 19 But am I the one they are provoking?(D) declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?(E)

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