With joy I nurtured them: The Greek verb rendered nurtured is similar to, but not exactly the same as, the verb translated “reared” in verse 8. Good News Translation “with great delight” is a more appropriate description of bringing up children than with joy. It conveys undertones of pride and satisfaction.

But I sent them away with weeping and sorrow: This does not describe a voluntary action, although there is something poignant in the picture of the mother so wanting to extend her care over her children that she speaks of their being forced away as I sent them away. Translators could try to express this with something like “I shed sorrowful tears when I said goodbye to them.” But as Good News Translation (similarly Contemporary English Version) says, “they were taken from me.” That is what it means. It is not clear from the Greek whether with weeping and sorrow describes Jerusalem or the exiles, but it is more likely that Jerusalem is meant from the parallelism with the expression with joy. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version are right in making it clear that Jerusalem is the one weeping and mourning. The prisoners were probably weeping and mourning also, but that is surely not what the author is thinking of here. The translator should take note at this point that an almost identical line occurs in verse 23.

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.