Verse 21 is similar to Jer 26.5.

We did not heed the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us: The restructuring in Good News Translation here misses the point that it was God who sent the prophets; it expresses the general idea by saying that the Lord spoke through the prophets. A way of keeping this idea might be to say “The Lord our God spoke to us in what the prophets said—the prophets he sent to us. But we paid no attention.” “But we paid no attention” renders We did not heed. It is moved to the end of the statement here to make for an easier connection with what follows.

But we each followed …: Neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation has a verse 22 (it is included in verse 21), but New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New English Bible, and New American Bible follow editions of the Greek text which have verse 22 beginning with these words. We recommend following their example and marking verse 22 at this point.

The Greek introduces verse 22 with a simple “and,” but a stark comparison is being made between the word of God through the prophets and what the people actually did. Revised Standard Version but is appropriate, but “Instead” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) is not at all too strong.

We each followed the intent of his own wicked heart tightly compresses two ideas: “each of us went our own way” and “what we wanted to do was wicked.” Good News Translation expresses this clearly with two simpler clauses: “we all did as we pleased and went on our own evil way.” “Went on our own evil way” preserves the original imagery of following a path. In some languages the image of a path will be meaningful; for example “we followed our own evil paths” or “we followed the paths that led us to do evil.”

By serving other gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God: This last half of verse 22 gives more detail about what the people did. It does not describe something new, but fills in the content of “our evil way.”

Serving other gods is literally what the Greek text says. Good News Translation renders this as “turned to other gods,” which focuses on the beginning of their service to these gods. Turning to these gods is certainly part of the meaning, but the focus is on their continuing to serve them. Contemporary English Version is better with “worshiped other gods.”

There is no connective in the Greek joining the verbs serving and doing. It is not wrong to insert and, but the Greek can also be interpreted to mean that the people served these other gods by doing what was evil in God’s sight. This latter interpretation may be intended since an unusual Greek verb is used for serving. Instead of the expected and idiomatic word, a verb is used which has a sense of “working for.” The intent may be “We were working for other gods by doing things the Lord our God hates.”

Good News Translation neglects to use the full form the Lord our God which occurs here. It should in fact be used, since there is a contrast between the God who is really their God (the Lord they should serve), and those gods they were actually serving.

An alternative translation model for verse 22 is:

• Instead, we did what we wanted, and followed the paths that led us to do evil. We were working for other gods by doing things the Lord, our own God, hates.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.