Jeremiah 3:21

3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.

It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.

Indeed they have followed sinful ways; ¹ 

they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. ² 

Jeremiah 13:10

13:10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. ³  They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance ⁴  to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So ⁵  they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing.

Jeremiah 13:25

13:25 This is your fate,

the destiny to which I have appointed you,

because you have forgotten me

and have trusted in false gods.

Jeremiah 18:15

18:15 Yet my people have forgotten me

and offered sacrifices to worthless idols!

This makes them stumble along in the way they live

and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. ⁶ 

They have left them to walk in bypaths,

in roads that are not smooth and level. ⁷ 

Psalms 9:17

9:17 The wicked are turned back and sent to Sheol; ⁸ 

this is the destiny of ⁹  all the nations that ignore ¹⁰  God,

Psalms 106:21

106:21 They rejected ¹¹  the God who delivered them,

the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,

Isaiah 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ¹²  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ¹³ 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 22:12

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ¹⁵  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ¹⁶  declares the sovereign Lord. ¹⁷ 

Hosea 8:14

8:14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces,

and Judah has built many fortified cities.

But I will send fire on their cities;

it will consume their royal citadels.

[3:21]  ¹ tn Heb “A sound is heard on the hilltops, the weeping of the supplication of the children of Israel because [or indeed] they have perverted their way.” At issue here is whether the supplication is made to Yahweh in repentance because of what they have done or whether it is supplication to the pagan gods which is evidence of their perverted ways. The reference in this verse to the hilltops where idolatry was practiced according to 3:2 and the reference to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the preceding verse make the latter more likely. For the asseverative use of the Hebrew particle (here rendered “indeed”) where the particle retains some of the explicative nuance; cf. BDB 472-73 s.v. כִּי 1.e and 3.c.

[3:21]  ² tn Heb “have forgotten the Lord their God,” but in the view of the parallelism and the context, the word “forget” (like “know” and “remember”) involves more than mere intellectual activity.

[13:10]  ³ tn Heb “to listen to my words.”

[13:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [they follow] after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[13:10]  ⁵ tn The structure of this verse is a little unusual. It consists of a subject, “this wicked people” qualified by several “which” clauses preceding a conjunction and a form which would normally be taken as a third person imperative (a Hebrew jussive; וִיהִי, vihi). This construction, called casus pendens by Hebrew grammarians, lays focus on the subject, here calling attention to the nature of Israel’s corruption which makes it rotten and useless to God. See GKC 458 §143.d for other examples of this construction.

[18:15]  ⁶ sn Heb “the ancient path.” This has already been referred to in Jer 6:16. There is another “old way” but it is the path trod by the wicked (cf. Job 22:15).

[18:15]  ⁷ sn Heb “ways that are not built up.” This refers to the built-up highways. See Isa 40:4 for the figure. The terms “way,” “by-paths,” “roads” are, of course, being used here in the sense of moral behavior or action.

[9:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “the wicked turn back to Sheol.” The imperfect verbal form either emphasizes what typically happens or describes vividly the aftermath of the Lord’s victory over the psalmist’s enemies. See v. 3.

[9:17]  ⁹ tn The words “this is the destiny of” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The verb “are turned back” is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[9:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “forget.” “Forgetting God” refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see also Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 44:20). The nations’ refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty accounts for their brazen attempt to attack and destroy his people.

[106:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “forgot.”

[17:10]  ¹² tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[22:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ¹⁶ sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ¹⁷ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.