Translation commentary on Jeremiah 16:17

As a quick reading of this verse in Revised Standard Version will indicate, there is significant repetition in the Hebrew text of this verse.

The idiomatic expression For my eyes are upon all their ways is rendered “I see everything they do” by Good News Translation and “For I see exactly what they do” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.

They are not hid from me is parallel in meaning to the previous sentence. Translators usually understand they to refer to the people, as in “They are not hidden from me,” but the meaning is not significantly changed if they is made to refer to their actions, as in Good News Translation “Nothing is hidden from me.”

The term iniquity is first used in 2.22. Revised English Bible translates this as “wrongdoing” and Good News Translation has “sins.” Nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes may be transformed into a positive statement: “I see all the evil things that they are doing.”

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 .

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments