As Revised Standard Version indicates, idols is literally “They” in Hebrew. However, this meaning is clearly intended, and it may be brought out in translation without the necessity of a footnote. Moffatt, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New International Version, and Good News Translation all have “idols,” while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “gods.” Translators can also say “these carvings [or, statues] of gods.”

Not all societies are familiar with scarecrows, objects that look like a person and that people put up in fields to frighten away the birds so they won’t eat the seed that has been planted or the new crops, in this case the cucumbers. If there is no word in the language for scarecrows, translators can say something like “objects that look like a person,” or even “figures people put in fields to frighten birds.”

The noun translated cucumber field is found only here and in Isa 1.8. The interpretation of the word is in dispute, and it may mean “melon patch” (New Jerusalem Bible, followed by Good News Translation). If cucumber is not known, translators may use another gourd or food that grows on vines, or possibly a more general term such as “vegetable.” For the first line of this verse, Bassa in Liberia has “Their idols and a stick that a person decorates with clothes and sets in a farm are alike.”

And they cannot speak … they cannot walk: This explains how they are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. The presence of the Hebrew connecting particle translated and in the construction and they cannot speak is deceptive, for it suggests a comparison other than that of like scarecrows. In such a construction the function of the particle is explanatory rather than linking. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch introduces a new sentence: “They cannot produce a word, and they must be carried around, because they are not able to walk by themselves.”

Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil can be expressed as “There is no reason to be afraid of them, because they can’t cause anything bad to happen [to you].”

Neither is it in them to do good reflects a Hebrew expression that may more naturally be rendered “and they can do you no good” (Good News Translation) or “and they don’t have the ability to do you any good either.”

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 .