You said: As mentioned above, Baruch’s complaint, which is described in this verse, actually comes before the LORD’s response to Baruch’s complaint in verse 2.

Woe is me!: This is a frequently used formula of despair (see 4.13, 31; 6.4; 10.19; 13.27; 15.10; 22.13; 23.1; 48.1, 46; 50.27). Translators can express this as something like “How terrible for me” or “Things are going to be terrible for me.”

The LORD has added sorrow to my pain: It is Baruch who experiences the sorrow, as in “In addition to all my troubles, the LORD now gives me sorrow.” The word rendered pain occurs elsewhere in Jeremiah only in 30.15 and 51.8. Revised English Bible has “trials” and Good News Translation “troubles.”

I am weary translates a verb used elsewhere in Jeremiah only in 51.58, where it appears in the construction “The peoples labor for naught” (Revised Standard Version). The literal sense is something like “I have worn myself out” (Revised English Bible); but most versions either follow Revised Standard Version or say “I am worn out” or “I am tired” (so Contemporary English Version).

I find no rest: Rest is used elsewhere in Jeremiah only in 51.59 (where it occurs in the phrase “officer of the resting place,” which Revised Standard Version renders “quartermaster”). In this context translators can say, for example, “There just is no let up” or “I just can’t get any relief [from the pain].”

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 .