This verse is almost equivalent with Psa 79.6-7. The main difference between the two passages is that the psalm does not include the verb phrase have devoured him, which is also absent from some Hebrew manuscripts and from the Septuagint as well for this verse. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, however, believes it to have been an original part of the Jeremiah passage. It is retained in most translations, though Revised English Bible omits it with a footnote.

Wrath (Good News Translation “anger”) is first used in 4.4. In place of the expression Pour out thy wrath, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Your wrath must strike.”

That know thee not may mean either “that do not worship you” (Good News Translation) or “who do not acknowledge you” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Revised English Bible). The expression that call not on thy name similarly means “who do not worship you” or “who do not acknowledge you as LORD.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch understands that know thee not and that call not on thy name to be equivalent to “who will have nothing to do with you.” The two clauses are evidently similar in meaning, and may be translated by one statement, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, or by something such as “who do not acknowledge you as God, nor worship you.”

Jacob (see 2.4; 10.16) is here equivalent to “Israel,” or better “the people of Israel.” Devoured is frequently used to mean “destroyed.” When joined with consumed, the meaning is reinforced to mean “destroyed completely.” If devoured is repeated, as recommended by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, then the third and fourth lines may be rendered “Yes, not only have they killed your people of Israel, they have destroyed them completely.” Further, these foreigners have laid waste his habitation; that is, they have left his country nothing but a wasteland, a barren desert. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the last three lines of the verse as follows: “As wild animals eat their prey, they have eaten your people until nothing remains, and they have turned your land into a desert.”

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 .