Queen of Heaven

"Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty,

the God of Israel, says:

I am determined to bring disaster on you

and to destroy all Judah.

. . . None of the remnant of Judah

who have gone to live in Egypt

will escape or survive

to return to the land of Judah,

to which they long to return and live;

none will return except a few fugitives."

Then all the men who knew

that their wives were burning incense to other gods,

along with all the women who were present -

a large assembly -

and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt

said to Jeremiah,

"we will not listen to the message

you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord!

We will certainly do everything we said we would:

We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven

and pour out drink offering to her

just as we and our fathers,

our kings and our officials did

in the towns of Judah

and in the streets of Jerusalem.

At that time we had plenty of food

and were well off and suffered no harm.

But ever since we stopped burning incense

to the Queen of Heaven

and pouring out drink offerings to her,

we have had nothing

and have been perishing by the sword and famine."

The women added,

"When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven

and poured out drink offerings to her,

did not our husbands know

that we were making cakes like her image

and pouring out drink offerings to her?"

Then Jeremiah said to all the people,

both men and women, who were answering him,

"Did not the Lord remember and think about

the incense burned in the towns of Judah

and the streets of Jerusalem 

by you and your fathers,your kings and your officials

and the people of the land? 

When the Lord could not longer endure

your wicked actions and the detestable things you did,

your land became an object of cursing

and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.

Because you have burned incense

and have sinned against the Lord

and have not obeyed Him

or followed His law or His decrees or His stipulations,

this disaster has come upon you, as you know see.

(Jeremiah 44:11, 15-23)