Bible Strands
Jeremiah 44:21
“As for the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—did the LORD not remember and bring this to mind?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks to the Judean exiles in Egypt who are justifying their idolatry. He confronts them regarding the collective participation of kings, officials, and ordinary residents in burning incense across Judah and Jerusalem.
The words — The verse turns on הֲלֹא (halōʾ), translated literally as "is it not," and הַקִּטֵּר (haqqittēr), meaning "the incense." These words frame a rhetorical inquiry into whether God overlooked their historical worship practices.
The thread — The motif of divine remembrance of human actions runs through Psalms 79:8 and Isaiah 64:9, where petitioners plead for God not to hold past sins against them or remember their iniquity forever. Jeremiah 44:21 inverts this expectation by affirming that God actively remembered their incense-burning as a direct cause for the land's desolation.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that sustained rebellion is neither forgotten nor excused by divine patience. It requires readers to accept the direct causal link between idolatrous worship and national ruin without softening the judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and came it not into his mind?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 44:17 Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.
- Psalms 79:8 Do not hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come quickly, for we are brought low.
- Isaiah 64:9 Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!
- Jeremiah 11:13 Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
- Jeremiah 14:10 This is what the LORD says about this people: “Truly they love to wander; they have not restrained their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity and punish them for their sins.”
- Jeremiah 44:9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and of the kings of Judah and their wives, as well as the wickedness that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
- Hosea 7:2 But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.
- Amos 8:7 The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
- 1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- 1 Kings 17:18 “O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”