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).

complete verse (Jeremiah 3:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 3:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “The people of Israel are crying
    and they are pleading on the mountain
    because sin has made them get lost
    and they have forgotten me their God.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Noise is-heard on the top of the clear mountains. The people of Israel are-weeping and pleading. For their ways are wicked and they forgotten me, the LORD their God.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “People will hear a noise on the barren hilltops.
    It will be the noise made by people weeping and pleading for God to be merciful to them.
    They will be admitting/saying that they have forgotten Yahweh their God,
    and that they turned away from behaving as God wanted them to.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 3:21

In many languages it would not be natural to have a passive such as A voice … is heard, or even the Good News Translation “A noise is heard.” It may be better to say “people will hear a noise … It is [the sound of] the people of Israel weeping and pleading….”

The bare heights: See 3.2. This can be rendered “the bare hilltops” or simply “the hilltops.”

In the very place where the fertility gods were worshiped, the people of Israel will be heard weeping and pleading. Many languages need an object of pleading, and will follow Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Revised English Bible with “pleading for mercy.”

Israel’s sons does not mean just the young men of Israel. “People of Israel” is certainly clearer.

Perverted their way is translated “gone wildly astray” by New Jerusalem Bible and “have lived sinful lives” by Good News Translation. It may be best to place forgotten the LORD before have perverted their way: “because they have forgotten the LORD their God and have turned from the right way.”

For LORD their God, see 2.17.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .