They will praise me in the land of their exile: The word “There” in Good News Translation (also Contemporary English Version) does not correspond to any word in the Greek text. But with it Good News Translation makes an effective opening. It makes clear to the reader the standpoint from which God is speaking (in Israel) and builds an element of emotion into “the land of your exile” by pointing out that that land is not here, where you belong, but there. The land of their exile may be rendered “the land where you have been taken captive” or simply “the nation where you are living” (Contemporary English Version).

Remember my name: Good News Translation simply has “remember me.” But remember my name must not be understood to mean that the Israelites have forgotten what God’s name is or even that they have forgotten about God. New English Bible “turn their thoughts to me” is very close to the sense, and “turn their thoughts back to me” would be a bit closer still. There are other possibilities, such as “honor me once again as their God” or “take me [or, my commands] seriously once again.” New American Bible takes a different approach, saying “invoke my name.” This suggests the following rendering for the whole verse:

• There in the land of their exile they will praise me and once again call upon me [or, honor me] as their God.

We believe the New American Bible approach is better and suggest that translators follow it. Such a translation can be effectively joined to the first clause of the next verse, as is suggested in the comments on the next verse.

We should note at this point that the word remember, as used here in verses 32-33, is going to be found repeated at Bar 3.5 in a striking manner.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.