Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch introduces a new section heading here (“A people with whom one cannot live”), which includes verses 2-8. Translators who accept this structure could have a heading such as “It is impossible to live with these people.” In the verse now under consideration Jeremiah expresses his desire to find a place where he can hide from his people.

As with the structure of the previous verse, O that I had expresses a wish for something that is contrary to fact, and some translations have “How I wish” or “If only I had.”

Desert is the same word rendered “wilderness” in 2.2.

A wayfarers’ lodging place is translated “a place to stay” by Good News Translation and “a shelter by the wayside” by New English Bible. The reference is to a temporary lodging place set up for the night (see Gen 42.27). Some translators have said “a place for travelers to stay.” For the first two lines Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “I wish I had a place in the desert, a lodging place for traveling caravans!”

That I might leave my people can also be rendered by a new sentence, such as “Then I could leave my people.”

The prophets often describe the unfaithful among Israel’s people as adulterers. The usage probably reflects the people’s practice of participating in the fertility cults of the Canaanite gods. See the discussion at 2.20. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “they all have broken faith with the Lord.”

Treacherous is made from the same verb as is “false” in 3.8. Whereas some render a company of treacherous men as “a faithless mob” (so Revised English Bible), “a band of traitors” (New Revised Standard Version) is closer to the meaning. Of course, men here refers to all the people, not just the males, so translators may say “people.”

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 .