Judah’s Idolatry Persists
Jeremiah is told not to pray for this people, because their idolatry fills Judah's cities and Jerusalem's streets, with the whole household participating in offerings to the Queen of Heaven. The LORD says this provokes not only Him but their own shame, and His fury will therefore burn on the land, its creatures, and its produce without being quenched.
A16s for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. 19But am I the One they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame? 20Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
The LORD tells them to add their burnt offerings to sacrifices and eat the meat themselves, because from the beginning His fundamental command was obedience and covenant loyalty. Instead of listening, they followed the stubbornness of their own evil hearts and moved backward rather than forward.
21This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you. 24Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
From the Exodus onward the LORD has sent prophets again and again, yet the people have only stiffened their necks and surpassed their fathers in evil. Jeremiah is warned they will not answer him either, so he must declare that this is the nation that would not receive correction, and raise lament because the LORD has rejected this generation.
25From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again. 26Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers. 27When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer. 28Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips. 29Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’