Yeremia 44:17

44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ¹  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ²  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ³ 

Yeremia 44:21

44:21 “The Lord did indeed remember and call to mind what you did! He remembered the sacrifices you and your ancestors, your kings, your leaders, and all the rest of the people of the land offered to other gods ⁴  in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ⁵ 

Yeremia 11:12

11:12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will ⁶  go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means ⁷  be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

[44:17]  ¹ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

[44:17]  ² tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

[44:17]  sn See the translator’s note and the study note on 7:18 for the problem of translation and identification of the term translated here “the goddess called the Queen of Heaven.”

[44:17]  ³ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

[44:21]  ⁴ tn The words “to other gods” are not in the text but are implicit from the context (cf. v. 17). They are supplied in the translation for clarity. It was not the act of sacrifice that was wrong but the recipient.

[44:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “The sacrifices which you sacrificed in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them and [did they not] come into his mind?” The question is again rhetorical and expects a positive answer. So it is rendered here as an affirmative statement for the sake of clarity and simplicity. An attempt has been made to shorten the long Hebrew sentence to better conform with contemporary English style.

[11:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Then the towns of Judah and those living in Jerusalem will…”

[11:12]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic involving the use of an infinitive of the verb before the verb itself (Heb “saving they will not save”). For this construction to give emphasis to an antithesis, cf. GKC 343 §113.p.