The connector And indicates that the pronouncement of the LORD is continuing. It is not natural in all languages to do this, so Good News Translation deletes it.
God’s judgment upon his people grows out of the covenant relationship that had been established between him and them. Since the word judgments conveys the sense of a legal decision, New English Bible translates I will utter my judgments against them as “I will state my case against my people.” Good News Translation sees here God actually carrying out his judgments against his people: “I will punish my people.” Bible en français courant is quite clear: “Thus [In this way] I will carry out the sentence that I have pronounced against the inhabitants of the land.” The noun judgments (or “justice”) is found elsewhere in 4.2, 12; 10.24 (Revised Standard Version “just measure”); 12.1 (Revised Standard Version “case”); 17.11 (Revised Standard Version “right”); 21.12; 46.28 (Revised Standard Version “just measure”); and many other places.
Wickedness translates the same Hebrew noun rendered “evil” in verse 14, and Jeremiah doubtless intends a play on words: the LORD’s punishment upon his people is in keeping with the nature of their sin against him. It may be impossible in most languages to carry through this play on words. Normally translators have to use some word such as “evil” or “wicked,” although in a Study Bible this play on words could be mentioned in a note. The sins that God’s people have committed are two: they have abandoned him, and they have worshiped other gods. It is important for readers to understand that wickedness in this verse has the particular sense that they abandoned God and worshiped other gods, so the last half of the verse may be translated as follows: “for the evil they committed in abandoning me and offering sacrifices to other gods, and making idols and worshiping them.”
Burned incense (similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New International Version, La Bible Pléiade) translates a Hebrew verb that means “let [something] go up in smoke.” It is possible that the reference is to incense, though it seems more probable that the burning of sacrifices is intended (so Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Luther 1984, New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). New Revised Standard Version has “made offerings to other gods.”
Other gods often poses something of a problem for translators if “God” is rendered by a name or other proper noun that is not normally pluralized. A frequent example is in languages that either use “Allah” or a borrowed form of that name. One solution some have followed has been to use a term such as “idols,” but that is really too limited in sense and would not allow for things people worshiped that were not idols. “Things [or, beings] people worship [as if they were God]” is another possibility, or even “things people worship like they were God.”
The works of their own hands refers to something that the people had made with their own hands. Here the reference is to “idols” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Technically, the people did not worship these idols, but worshiped the gods they supposedly represented. However, it is not always possible to make that distinction in translation.
Worshiped comes from a verb that means “bow down” or “prostrate oneself” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, La Bible Pléiade). The picture is that of the worshiper lying face down before the deity. The term can be rendered as “pray to” or “honor reverently.”
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 .