Truly, twice in this verse, gives emphasis to the pronouncements here. Translators can have “Indeed.”

Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains translates a Hebrew text that one commentator describes as “impossible.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives the following interpretation: “(Truly,) it is pure lying [that which comes] from the hills, the mountains [are] noise.” In other words, the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project Committee believes the writer is saying that the noisy worship of the pagan gods on the hills and mountains is useless; it merely deceives the worshipers. Both Good News Translation “We were not helped at all by our pagan worship on the hilltops” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “The noisy commotion on the mountains and hills cannot help us” attempt to convey this meaning, as does Bible en français courant “Yes, we allowed ourselves to be duped [deceived] by the pagan worship on the hills, by all the noise made on the mountains.” To retain some of the parallelism, translators can also try “All that activity on the hilltops and mountains is a disappointment and nothing but noise.” If mountains are unknown, translators can say “very high hills.”

Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel represents a typical Hebrew construction. Luther 1984 translates “Truly, Israel has no other help than the LORD, our God.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a second person: “only you, our God, bring help to Israel.”

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 .