Jeremiah 18:15
in Jeremiah 18Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up;
KJV
Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
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This verse in Jeremiah 18
Commentary
11 notes on this verse(Verse 15) Because my people have forgotten me, offering sacrifices in vain and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world (or eternal) in order to walk through them on an untrodden journey. Whoever forgets God and forsakes him, who says: 'I am the way' (John 14:6); offers sacrifices to foreign gods, stumbles in his own ways, not God's, and forsakes the ancient and eternal paths, which are trodden by the footsteps of all who worship God.
This site's exposition
Does the snow of Lebanon ever
on Jeremiah 18:14-17
The LORD argues from the constancy of nature: “Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky slopes?” “Yet My people have forgotten Me,” leaving “the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.” The scattering “like the east wind” recalls the desert wind.
This site's exposition
Yet My people have forgotten Me
To forget God, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note, Judah first had to know Him, so the lapse was willful. They blame the false prophets and idol priests for the stumbling. Albert Barnes notes that the word for worthless idols means falsehood, so idol worship does harm as well as fail.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"Shall the breasts fail from the rock, or the snow from Lebanon? Or shall water be turned aside that is borne violently by the wind? For my people have forgotten me; they have burned incense in vain, and they shall grow weak in their ways, the everlasting paths, so as to walk in tracks that have no way for journeying, so as to make their land a desolation and a perpetual hissing." He has here spoken of differences of waters: first in "shall the breasts fail from the rock?"; second in "or the snow from Lebanon?"; third in "or shall water be turned aside that is borne violently by the wind?" These three kinds of waters are the springs of the waters which the soul of the righteous, likened to the deer, longs for, so that each one may say: "As the deer longs for the springs of the waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." Who, then, has become a deer, an enemy to the race of serpents, suffering nothing from their venom, as is recounted concerning the deer? Who has so thirsted for God as to say, "My soul thirsted for the living God"? Who has so thirsted for the breasts of the rock? "And the rock was Christ." Who has so thirsted for the Holy Spirit as to say, "As the deer longs for the springs of the waters, so my soul longs for you, O God"? If we do not thirst for the three springs of the waters, we shall find not even one spring of the waters. The Jews seemed to have thirsted for one spring of the waters, God; but since they did not thirst for Christ and the Holy Spirit, they cannot drink even from God. Those from the heresies seemed to have thirsted for Christ Jesus; but since they did not thirst for the Father, who is the God of the Law and the Prophets, therefore they do not drink even from Jesus Christ. […]
"For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense in vain." Everyone who sins has forgotten God, but the righteous one says, "All these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we done wrong" — and he burned incense in vain. But what "they have burned incense in vain" means must be considered. If we take up again the things said earlier upon the hundred and fortieth Psalm, we shall understand what "they have burned incense in vain" is. Now there was in the Psalm something of this sort said: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you." Therefore my prayer, being composed of a fine heart — when our heart is not made gross — being sent up, becomes as incense before God. If, then, the prayer of the righteous is incense before God, the prayer of the unrighteous is indeed incense, but such incense that it may be said concerning it and concerning the unrighteous who prays, "they have burned incense in vain"; as is written concerning Judas, "Let his prayer become sin." That man, in his praying, burned incense in vain. And who it is that burns incense in vain, let us consider still further in this way. "Three times in the year," it says, "shall every male of yours appear before the Lord your God," to which is immediately added, "You shall not appear before me empty."
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Because my people hath forgotten me,.... Or, "that they have forgotten me" (z); this is the horrible thing they have done, which was unheard of among the Gentiles, who were always tenacious of their gods, and the worship of them; and that foolish and unwise thing, which was like leaving pure flowing streams of water for dirty puddles.
), have quitted a fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. They have burnt incense to idols, that are as vain as vanity itself, that are not what they pretend to be nor can perform what is expected from them." They had not the common wit of travellers, but even their leaders caused them to err, and they were content to be misled.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
The margin reads it, " Will a man that is travelling the road leave my fields, which are plain and level, for a rock, which is rough and hard, or for the snow of Lebanon, which, lying in great drifts, makes the road impassable?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The prophet's complaint to God of the base ingratitude and unreasonable malice of his enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and his prayers against them,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Because - “For.” Jeremiah returns to, and continues the words of, Jer 18:13. Vanity - A word meaning “falsehood,” which signifies that the worship of idols is not merely useless but injurious. They have caused them to stumble - Judah’s prophets and priests were they who made her to err Jer 5:31. The idols were of themselves powerless for good or evil.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
This implies a previous knowledge of God, whereas He was unknown to the Gentiles; the Jews' forgetting of God, therefore, arose from determined perversity. they have caused . . . to stumble--namely the false prophets and idolatrous priests have. ancient paths-- (Jer 6:16): the paths which their pious ancestors trod.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
For so have My people done, that they have forgotten Me and burnt incense to vanity.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Shall one abandon from rocks of the field the snow of Lebanon Shall a man who needs to drink abandon water that flows from the rock in the fields that comes from the snow of the Lebanon, which is clean?
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| שְׁכֵחֻ֥נִי | shekhechuni | they have forgotten me | H7911 → | 102 times |
| עַמִּ֖י | ʾami | people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| לַשָּׁ֣וְא | lashav' | to <the> falsehood | H7723 → | 53 times |
| יְקַטֵּ֑רוּ | yekateru | they make smoke | H6999 → | 116 times |
| וַיַּכְשִׁל֤וּם | vaiyakhshilum | and they have caused to stumble them | H3782 → | 62 times |
| בְּדַרְכֵיהֶם֙ | bedarkheihem | in ways their | H1870 → | 707 times |
| שְׁבִילֵ֣י | shevilei | paths of | H7635 → | |
| עוֹלָ֔ם | olam | antiquity | H5769 → | 438 times |
| לָלֶ֣כֶת | lalekhet | to walk | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| נְתִיב֔וֹת | netivot | paths | H5410 → | |
| דֶּ֖רֶךְ | derekh | a way | H1870 → | 707 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| סְלוּלָֽה׃ | selulah | built up | H5549 → |
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
שְׁכֵחֻ֥נִיthey have forgotten me
shekhechuniH7911 →102 times
עַמִּ֖יpeople my
ʾamiH5971 →1873 times
לַשָּׁ֣וְאto <the> falsehood
lashav'H7723 →53 times
יְקַטֵּ֑רוּthey make smoke
yekateruH6999 →116 times
וַיַּכְשִׁל֤וּםand they have caused to stumble them
vaiyakhshilumH3782 →62 times
בְּדַרְכֵיהֶם֙in ways their
bedarkheihemH1870 →707 times
שְׁבִילֵ֣יpaths of
shevileiH7635 →
עוֹלָ֔םantiquity
olamH5769 →438 times
לָלֶ֣כֶתto walk
lalekhetH1980 →1546 times
נְתִיב֔וֹתpaths
netivotH5410 →
דֶּ֖רֶךְa way
derekhH1870 →707 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
סְלוּלָֽה׃built up
selulahH5549 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 6:16This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.…
it leads to
- Isaiah 30:21
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
- Deuteronomy 32:7
Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.
- Matthew 11:28–29
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Jeremiah 7:23
but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that…
- Colossians 2:6
Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,
- Isaiah 30:21
Through
Isaiah 57:14And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 62:10
Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!
- Luke 3:5–6
Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.
- Isaiah 35:8
And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.
- Isaiah 62:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18.