Children gather wood, fathers light fires, and women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out wine offerings to other gods in order to make me furious.
You have done more evil things than everyone before you. You made other gods, metal idols, for yourself. You made me furious and turned your back to me.
He said, “I raised you from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel. But you have lived like Jeroboam. You have led my people to sin, and their sins make me furious.
Those who quickly chase after other gods multiply their sorrows. I will not pour out their sacrificial offerings of blood or use my lips to speak their names.
Your idols are among the smooth stones in the ravine. They are your destiny. You have given them wine offerings and sacrificed grain offerings to them. Do you think I am pleased with all this?
You have abandoned the Lord and forgotten my holy mountain. You have prepared a table for the god of good fortune and offered cups full of spiced wine to the goddess of destiny.
I will pass sentence on my people because of all their wickedness. They abandoned me, burned incense to other gods, and worshiped what their hands have made.
The Lord of Armies planted you. He has pronounced disaster on you. This is because of the evil things that Israel and Judah have done. They have made him furious by burning incense as an offering to Baal.
The houses in Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and all the rooftops of the houses will be unclean like this city Topheth. This is because people burned incense to the entire army of heaven and poured out wine offerings to other gods.’ ”
But you haven’t listened to me, declares the Lord. You have made me furious about the idols your hands have shaped and ⌞have brought⌟ harm upon yourselves.’
“The Babylonians who are attacking this city will break in, set this city on fire, and burn it down. They will burn down the houses of people who made me furious by going up to the roofs to burn incense to Baal and to pour out wine offerings to other gods.
This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives made promises, and you have kept them. You said, ‘We will certainly do what we vow. We will burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out wine offerings to her.’ “So go ahead. Keep your vows, and do what you vow.
I brought them to the land that I promised to give them. When they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, they made sacrifices and brought offerings there to make me angry. There they offered their sacrifices and poured out their wine offerings.
Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple. There at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the entrance and the altar, were about 25 men who had their backs turned to the Lord’s temple. They were facing east and worshiping the rising sun.
He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this? Isn’t it bad enough that the people of Judah have done these disgusting things that you have seen here? Yet, they also fill the land with violence and continue to provoke me even more. Look how they insult me in the worst possible way.
They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols. So I will use those who are not my people to make them jealous and a nation of godless fools to make them angry.
Don’t let yourselves be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky—the sun, the moon, the stars, or anything else. The Lord your God has given them to all people everywhere.