The meaning of rumor in this context is more nearly “news” (Good News Translation, Luther 1984) or “noise” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New Jerusalem Bible). Elsewhere in Jeremiah the noun is used in 49.14, 23; 51.46. In these passages Revised Standard Version renders it “tidings” or “report.” The first line may be expressed as “Listen! There is news [to report]” or “Listen! News is on the way.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the first line of this verse as “Listen! There is a noise!” New Jerusalem Bible has “Listen! A terrible noise!”

A great commotion out of the north country means “a country in the north is making a great commotion.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch identifies the source of the commotion: “A roar and a rumble from the land in the north! The enemy army is advancing!” Commotion is translated “rushing [of chariots]” by Revised Standard Version in 47.3, its only other occurrence in Jeremiah. The noun derives from the same Hebrew root as the verb “quake” in 4.24.

To make the cities of Judah a desolation probably will need an agent supplied, as in Good News Translation “its army.” Translators could also say “that country.” Bible en français courant has made the commotion the subject with “it’s a great disruption that is coming from the north; it will reduce the cities of Judah to a bare desert, to a lair for jackals.”

The noun desolation occurs first in 4.27.

A lair of jackals: Good News Translation expresses this as “a place where jackals live,” as at 9.11. In that passage the sense of “an uninhabited place” is made clear later in the same verse; here, however, translators may need to bring out that sense; for example, “an uninhabited place where jackals live” or “a place where only jackals live.”

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 .