²⁰ Then to all the people, both men and women, who had given him this answer, Jeremiah said, ²¹ “In regard to the incense offerings that you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the Lord certainly remembered them and kept them in mind. ²² When the Lord could no longer endure your wicked deeds and your loathsome practices, your land became a desolate waste, an accursed object of horror without inhabitants, as it is to this day.