Since a new section opens with verse 20, Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch clarify the speaker: “The LORD says.”

Declare may be “Tell” or “Say this to.”

The house of Jacob is translated “the descendants of Jacob” by Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. See the comment at 2.4. It may well be that the house of Jacob and the people in Judah are one and the same, though translations tend to retain both as separate expressions.

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 .