Some translators render This is the nation with second person: “You are the nation.” Others will use indirect discourse, as in Good News Translation “You will tell them that their nation does not obey me.” The problem is that God is addressing Jeremiah and telling him what he should say to the people of Israel, and referring to them in third person (This is the nation) at that. Translators should use whatever structures in their language would keep clear who is speaking to who, and about who.

As elsewhere, obey the voice of the LORD their God can be “obey the LORD their God.” For LORD their God, see 2.17.

The term discipline is first used in 2.30, where it is translated “correction” by Revised Standard Version. Here New Jerusalem Bible translates did not accept discipline as “nor take correction” and New English Bible has “nor accept correction.” The reference is to the things that the LORD has done to the people of Israel to awaken them to their need for reform, and so Good News Translation translates “or learn from their punishment.”

Truth: See the comment at 5.1. For truth has perished, Good News Translation has “Faithfulness is dead.” If this image would be difficult for readers, translators can say “there is no more faithfulness [or, honesty].” The meaning of it is cut off from their lips is not entirely clear. Good News Translation has “No longer is it even talked about”; but it could mean that the people don’t even pretend to be honest or faithful, as in the idiomatic expression “they don’t even pay it lip service.”

In Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch the order of the last two clauses is reversed: “No longer do you even talk about truth, it is dead!”

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 .