Hear, O women, the word of the LORD may need to be restructured as “You women, listen to what the LORD says.”

Hear … the word of the LORD is parallel in meaning to let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Good News Translation translates the two commands as “Listen to the LORD” and “pay attention to his words.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has the equivalent of “Get to it, you women, and understand what the Lord has said.”

Lament is the same word translated “wailing” in verses 10 and 18.

Dirge (Good News Translation “a funeral song”) is translated “lamentation” by Revised Standard Version in verse 10. The two nouns both refer to the funeral song contained in verses 21-22. The destruction is so great that the LORD himself must compose the words for the funeral song to be sung. Most translations (including Good News Translation) do not make it clear that the funeral song is contained in these verses, though Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch clearly does so by introducing verses 21-22 with “Sing to your daughters this funeral song, let each woman pass it on to the other:….” Another way to handle this would be to say something like “Here is a funeral song for you to teach to your daughters and pass on to your neighbors.”

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 .