I will restore the fortunes: See 29.14. Good News Translation has “The LORD will make Moab prosperous again.” Although restore the fortunes is the rendering of many versions, the Hebrew idiom is literally “bring back [or, turn again] the captivity.” Some versions see a more literal rendering as very appropriate in the context of the messages of disaster against the various nations; hence New Jerusalem Bible renders “I shall bring back Moab’s captives” and Contemporary English Version “I will bring your people back home.” At Psa 126.1, which uses this same idiom in Hebrew, Good News Translation renders “When the LORD brought us back [from captivity] to Jerusalem.”

In the latter days (see 23.20) is translated by Good News Translation as “in days to come,” and by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “later.” In some languages the order of elements in the sentence may need to be reversed: “Yet in the days to come I will make Moab prosperous again.”

Says the LORD: See 1.8.

Thus far is the judgment on Moab: Good News Translation combines this with says the LORD and renders “All of this is what the LORD has said will happen to Moab.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “Here ends the word of judgment on Moab,” while New Living Translation makes a very natural end to the section in English by saying, “This is the end of Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning Moab.”

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 .