Translators who are following the suggestion that verse 34 be restructured in the third person for God will want to take care that the third person is kept here, and not changed to the first person, as in Good News Translation.

For fire will come upon her from the Everlasting for many days: Translators can express this in a more direct way; for example, Good News Translation has “I, the Eternal God, will send down fire on her, and it will burn for many days,” and Contemporary English Version says “The eternal God will send down fire, and she will burn for days and days.” For the Everlasting, see the comments on verse 10.

This verse works in both lines with the imagery of Isa 13.19-22 and 34.9-14. The reference to fire recalls Isa 34.9-10, in which Edom suffers the fiery fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19.24). In Isa 13.19 it is said that Babylon will suffer the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. See also Jer 51.58.

For a long time she will be inhabited by demons: Good News Translation helpfully makes it clear that the city haunted by demons will be a city in ruins: “Her ruins will be haunted by demons for a long time to come.” The Greek says only that she will be inhabited by demons …, but in English “haunted” is an excellent choice of words. The idea can easily be expressed in the active voice: “Demons will haunt [or, live in/lurk within] her ruins for a long time to come.”

The word demons here does not have the same meaning as in verse 7, where demons are simply pagan gods (see the comments there). Here the Greek surely translates the Hebrew word translated “satyr[s]” by Revised Standard Version and the King James Version [King James Version] in Isa 13.21 and 34.14. The word is also used at Lev 17.7 and 2 Chr 11.15 (where Revised Standard Version translates “satyrs” and King James Version “devils”). New Revised Standard Version translates “goat-demon[s]” at each of those four places, but not here in Baruch, where it has “demons.” The Hebrew word simply means “hairy one,” which describes some kind of hideous, hairy creature, perhaps imaginary, that was thought to haunt deserted habitations. (The word “demon” is never used in King James Version because at the time of its translation the word had a favorable sense.) Other ways to express this here are “hideous spirits” and “filthy demons.”

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.