Shepherds (see 6.3) are to be understood as “foreign rulers” (Good News Translation); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Foreign shepherds.”

For the picture of Israel as the LORD’s vineyard, see 2.21; 5.10. The imagery is brought out in more detail in Isa 5.1-7. If translators believe their readers would understand the expression too literally here, they can express the comparison directly: “my people who I care for like a farmer tends his vineyard” or simply “my people, my vineyard.”

Portion translates a noun that in the context means “field” (New English Bible, New International Version); Good News Translation uses the plural “fields.” The noun is here used parallel to vineyard.

Pleasant is first used in 3.19; see also 25.34, where Revised Standard Version translates the term as “choice.” My pleasant portion is represented in Good News Translation as “my lovely land” and in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “the magnificent fields”; New English Bible has “my pleasant field.”

Desolate is first used in 4.27, where it is rendered “desolation.” For wilderness see 2.2.

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 .