Then all the men who knew that their wives offered sacrifices to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, including the Israelites who lived in southern Egypt---a large crowd in all---said to me,

We will do everything that we said we would. We will offer sacrifices to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out wine offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our king and our leaders, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food, we were prosperous, and had no troubles.

And the women added, "When we baked cakes shaped like the Queen of Heaven, offered sacrifices to her, and poured out wine offerings to her, our husbands approved of what we were doing."

You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe.

They are like wild waves of the sea, with their shameful deeds showing up like foam. They are like wandering stars, for whom God has reserved a place forever in the deepest darkness.

The king was sad, but because of the promise he had made in front of all his guests he gave orders that her wish be granted.

The next morning some Jews met together and made a plan. They took a vow that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul.

Then they went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We have taken a solemn vow together not to eat a thing until we have killed Paul.

There is no darkness dark enough to hide a sinner from God.

But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires.

Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.