If you say in your heart is the equivalent of “if you ask [yourself].” Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have “If you ask….”

It is for the greatness of your iniquity can be expressed as “This has happened because your wickedness is so great.” The greatness of your iniquity can also be expressed as “your sin is so enormous” or “… so terrible” (Good News Translation).

Your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence: You suffer violence is literally “your heels suffer violence.” The noun “heels” is here used of the female sexual organs, which is the basis for Good News Translation “and you have been raped.” Some languages will require an active sentence with an agent: “Someone has lifted up your skirts and raped you.”

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 .