Study Desk

Then ^(af)all the men who were aware that their wives were burning ^[j]sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, ^[k]including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,

"As for the ^[l](ag)message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord , ^(ah)we are not going to listen to you!

But rather we will certainly ^(ai)carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, ^[m]by burning ^[n]sacrifices to the ^(aj)queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as ^(ak)we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had ^(al)plenty of ^[o]food and were well off and saw no ^[p]misfortune.

But since we stopped burning ^[q]sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have ^(am)lacked everything and have ^[r]met our end by the sword and by famine."

"And," said the women, "when we were ^(an)burning ^[s]sacrifices to the queen of heaven and ^[t]were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it ^(ao)without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes ^[u]in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?"