Heal me … and I shall be healed: The sense is that if the LORD heals Jeremiah, he will be really healed. Good News Translation has “heal me and I will be completely well.”

Save me, and I shall be saved: The same is true of this construction as for the previous line. Good News Translation has “rescue me and I will be perfectly safe” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Help me, then I will really be helped!”

Thou art my praise means “You are the one I praise” (Good News Translation) or “You have always given me reason to praise you” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). In Hebrew the pronoun thou (Good News Translation “You”) is emphatic.

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 .