6. Finally, my anger struck like a raging flood, and today Jerusalem and the towns of Judah are nothing but empty ruins.
7. Why do you now insist on heading for another disaster? A disaster that will destroy not only you, but also your children and babies.
8. You have made me angry by worshipping idols and burning incense to other gods after you came here to Egypt. You will die such a disgusting death, that other nations will use the name of Judah as a curse word.
9. When you were living in Jerusalem and Judah, you followed the example of your ancestors in doing evil things, just like your kings and queens.
10. Even now, your pride keeps you from respecting me and obeying the laws and teachings I gave you and your ancestors.
11. I, the Lord All-Powerful, have decided to wipe you out with disasters.
12. There were only a few of you left in Judah, and you decided to go to Egypt. But you will die such horrible deaths in war or from starvation, that people of other countries will use the name of Judah as a curse word.
13. I punished Jerusalem with war, hunger, and disease, and that's how I will punish you.
14. None of you will survive. You may hope to return to Judah some day, but only a very few of you will escape death and be able to go back.
15. A large number of Jews from both northern and southern Egypt listened to me as I told them what the Lord had said. Most of the men in the crowd knew that their wives often burnt incense to other gods. So they and their wives shouted:
16. Jeremiah, what do we care if you speak in the Lord's name? We refuse to listen!
17. We have promised to worship the goddess Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, and that is exactly what we are going to do. We will burn incense and offer sacrifices of wine to her, just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did when we lived in Jerusalem and the other towns of Judah. We had plenty of food back then. We were well off, and nothing bad ever happened to us.
18. But since the time we stopped burning incense and offering wine sacrifices to her, we have been dying from war and hunger.