Who preceded you and me translates the Hebrew idiom that is literally “who were to my face and to your face.” A literal translation would, of course, be ludicrous. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “who lived long before me and you.” From ancient times makes this even clearer. They spoke “long ago.”

Prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms: Here prophesied can be expressed as “delivered messages from God.” However, “predicted” (Good News Translation) fits better in this context. In place of “sword” (as in 14.12 and elsewhere), the Hebrew text here has war. However, in such a context “sword” would be the equivalent of “war.” In place of famine (supported by some Hebrew manuscripts), the Masoretic Text has “disaster,” which is the preference of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. Since famine is generally found in the series of terms, it is quite possible that the original text of this verse was “disaster,” which was changed to “famine” in some manuscripts to make it conform with the usual pattern. But it also makes sense in this verse to speak of “disaster,” which is our recommendation for translators.

It is not possible or natural in some languages to say prophesied war … against. Even the expression in Good News Translation, where ideas like war and disease are said to “come to many nations” may not be natural. Translators may prefer a sentence such as “predicted that there would be war, disaster, and disease in many countries and great kingdoms” or “predicted that in many nations and great kingdoms many people would die from war or other disasters or disease.”

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 .