In those days and in that time: See verse 4. Good News Translation renders “When that time comes,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has simply “Then.”

Says the LORD: See 1.8.

Iniquity shall be sought in Israel, … and sin in Judah, and none shall be found: Iniquity is first used in 2.22, where Revised Standard Version renders “guilt.” Here it is used in parallel with sin (Hebrew has plural “sins”). See 5.25, where both these terms occur for the first time in Jeremiah. This part of the verse may be difficult to translate, since iniquity represents both an act and an event. Moreover, some languages will have difficulty with the passive construction shall be sought. Finally, it may not be possible to distinguish between iniquity and sin in the translator’s language. It may then be necessary to combine these terms and render “you will look for sinful people in Israel, but you will not find any. And nor will you find people committing sin in Judah.”

A remnant: See 6.9. Good News Translation renders the last clause of this verse as “because I will forgive those people whose lives I have spared.”

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 .