The pronoun thou is emphatic in the Hebrew sentence.

Forgive and blot out are here used in the same sense, as are iniquity (see 2.22) and sin (see 5.25). Translators sometimes keep two terms for both; for example, Good News Translation has “Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin.”

Let them be overthrown before thee: If before thee is taken as the instrument or means of destruction, then we may translate “Destroy them” or “Throw them down in defeat” (Good News Translation). The verb overthrown actually means “stumbled,” so New Revised Standard Version has “Let them be tripped up before you” and Revised English Bible “when they are brought stumbling before you.” But the context suggests the meaning given in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Deal with them in the time of thine anger; that is, “deal with them in anger.”

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 .