The expression These are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent is rendered by Good News Translation as “I wrote a letter.” Translators in many languages will find this a useful model, although those who keep this in third person will have to say “Jeremiah the prophet wrote a letter.” The letter was probably written a few years after the beginning of the exile in 598 B.C. (2 Kgs 24.12-16; 2 Chr 36.10; Jer 24.1).

The elders, as the Revised Standard Version note indicates, represents the Septuagint rather than the standard Hebrew text (New American Bible “the remaining elders”). It is quite possible, as some scholars suggest, that some of the elders had either been executed or imprisoned because of the unrest stirred up by Jeremiah’s letter. It is also possible that the Hebrew word rendered “rest” may mean “foremost” or “leading,” as it does in Gen 49.3 (Revised Standard Version “pre-eminent”). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, however, accepts the meaning “rest,” and suggests that this be followed in translation. Translators could say something like “the rest of the leaders of the people in exile” or “the remaining elders of the exiles.”

For priests see 1.1.

For prophets see 1.5.

Babylon is the nation (Good News Translation “Babylonia”), rather than the city.

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 .