forget

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “forget” in English is translated in Noongar as dwangka-anbangbat, lit. “ear-lose.” (Source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).

See also remember and forget (Japanese honorifics).

Jerusalem

The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:


“Jerusalem” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jerusalem .

Translation commentary on Baruch 4:8

You forgot the everlasting God: Forgot is the opposite of “remember” as used in Bar 2.32 (see the comments there). It has the meaning of “put out of mind,” “ignored,” or even “rejected,” so Contemporary English Version has “You rejected the eternal God.” The everlasting God may be rendered “the God who lives forever” or “the God who never dies.”

Who brought you up … who reared you: These two clauses have the same meaning. In this verse Israel is being compared to a child, with both God and Jerusalem compared to the child’s parents. In fact, both are compared to the child’s mother. The Greek verb translated brought … up actually refers to nursing a baby at the breast. The only other time it is used in the Greek Bible is at Exo 2.7. The translator will have to decide the extent to which this clearly feminine imagery will be expressed. Similes are often easier than metaphors, so the following rendering of the first line with a simile is suggested: “You forgot the everlasting God, who was like a mother to you.” Good News Translation uses this simile for Jerusalem in the next line. New Jerusalem Bible also transfers the imagery of a mother to Jerusalem by saying “… Jerusalem who nursed you” (similarly Moore). The Greek term rendered reared refers to the bringing up of a child. The term that means breast-feeding is unmistakably used only of God. (Compare Deut 32.18, where God is compared to a mother who gives birth to the child.) Notice that the two lines in this verse are parallel in meaning:

You forgot — the everlasting God — who brought you up
you grieved — Jerusalem — who reared you

Since who brought you up is parallel to who reared you, Good News Translation uses two clauses with similar meaning: “who had nourished you as a child” and “who had been like a mother to you.”

And you grieved Jerusalem: Good News Translation renders the connector and as “and so.” However, the Greek text does not say that Jerusalem’s grief is the result of the people forgetting God. “You also brought grief to Jerusalem” or “You also caused Jerusalem to grieve” is really all it says.

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.