¹⁵ A large group of the people [^Cof Judah] who lived in ·southern Egypt [^LPathros] were ·meeting [assembling] together. Among them were many women who were ·burning incense [or making offerings] to other gods, and their husbands knew it. All these people said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to the ·message from [^Lthe word in the name of] the Lord that you spoke to us. ¹⁷ We promised to make sacrifices to the Queen Goddess [^Ca female astral deity, probably Ashtart or Asherah], and we will certainly do everything ·we promised [^Lthat came out of our mouths]. We will ·burn incense [or make offerings] and pour out drink offerings to worship her, just as we, our ·ancestors [fathers], kings, and officers did in the past. All of us did these things in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were ·successful [fine], and ·nothing bad happened to us [^Lwe saw/experienced no evil].