Deliver is the same verb used in verse 20, where it is parallel to the verb “save.” Its first occurrence is in 1.8, though it occurs again in the parallel passage of 1.19. In the present context it is used in parallel with redeem, which occurs elsewhere in Jeremiah only in 31.11. The meaning of both verbs in this context is “rescue” (Good News Translation).

As in many other places, hand refers to power. Grasp, which is parallel to hand, has the same meaning. Hence Good News Translation translates “I will rescue you from the power of….”

Ruthless is found elsewhere only in 20.11, where Revised Standard Version translates “dread.” Here Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible have “violent” and Revised English Bible “ruthless.”

Since deliver and redeem both mean “rescue” in this context, Good News Translation is justified in combining the two lines here: “I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent people.” However, if translators want to keep the two parallel statements, they can say something like “I will save you from the power of the wicked, and rescue you from the violent.”

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 .