17. Have you not seen what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18. The sons gather the wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the wives spread the grease, so as to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to offer libations to strange gods, and so as to provoke me to anger.
19. But are they provoking me to anger, says the Lord? Are they not provoking themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?"
20. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: "Behold, my fury and my indignation is kindled against this place, over men and over beasts, and over the trees of the countryside and over the fruits of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished."
21. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your holocausts to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
22. For concerning the matter of holocausts and sacrifices, I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not instruct them, in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt.
23. But on this matter I did instruct them, saying: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. And walk in the entire way that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.
24. But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, they walked by their own will and in the depravity of their own wicked heart. And so, they went backward, and not forward,