The woods and every fragrant tree …: Since groups of fragrant or sweet smelling trees make a forest just as much as a group of any other kind of tree, Good News Translation quite sensibly expresses this as “forests of fragrant trees.” The text does not say that these trees “will spring up” (Good News Translation), but it is not unreasonable to assume this, since it is said that they will provide shade at God’s command. If the trees were already there, the shade would already be there, and God would not have to issue a command.

Have shaded Israel: There is a puzzle here. In the midst of this passage describing the return of the exiles as either present or future, this one verse is expressed as happening in past time. The simplest explanation for this is that the author is relying on The Psalms of Solomon 11.5 (see this passage quoted above in the comments on verse 5). The corresponding line there is past tense, and the author of Baruch failed to make an appropriate change. The translator may take either of two approaches. One approach (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible) is to assume that the author is using the past tense in a way familiar in the Old Testament prophets, to refer to a future event. In that case, the future tense may be used in translation, consistent with the context. Another approach (Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, New American Bible) available to translators into English, at least, is to use a form of past tense which does not identify the act involved—trees shading Israel—as having happened at a particular time. By saying have shaded Israel, the translator states that this has been God’s way in the past, and it presumably will continue as the exiles return. If translators follow this approach, the addition of “always” may make the rendering smoother: “have always shaded Israel.” Translators will probably find following Good News Translation simpler, however.

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.