Following the transitional marker but, it may be necessary to reintroduce the information contained in “when it shall no longer be said” of the previous verse; for example, “instead, people will swear….”

The north country: Throughout the book Israel’s enemies are described as approaching from the north (see 1.14).

For where he had driven them, see 8.3.

The sentence in verse 14 and the first half of verse 15 can also be restructured as follows:

• But listen, the time is coming when if people affirm something to be true and they call on me as a witness, they won’t anymore call me the living God who delivered the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Instead, they will call me the living God who delivered the people of Israel out of a land in the north, and out of all the other countries where I scattered them.

For introduces the reason why the people will change how they refer to the LORD: he will bring them back. Good News Translation omits this, and readers thereby miss the relationship. So For should be retained, or rendered with a clause such as “They will say that because….”

I will bring them back is rendered “I will permit them to return” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.

Fathers (see 2.5) is here the equivalent of “ancestors” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

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 .