On the mountains translates the Septuagint. Hebrew has a form that may mean either “mountaineer” or “my mountain.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project is of the opinion that it is a noun of address, used of someone who goes to the mountains for the sake of worshiping idols. This does not fit well with the rest of the passage, however, so most translators either link the phrase to the previous verse, as in Good News Translation “by every green tree and on the hilltops 3 and on the mountains in the open country,” or make it, along with wealth and treasures, the object of give for spoil, as in New International Version “My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder.” However, the Good News Translation interpretation fits better in the context. For mountains see 3.23.

Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil is repeated from Jer 15.13. The text does not say who the LORD will give the wealth for spoils. Many translators will find it helpful to indicate that it is “enemies,” as in Good News Translation.

As the price of your sin is a correction of the Hebrew text, which is literally “your high places for sin” (see the Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation footnotes). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch follows the Hebrew text, but combines Your wealth and all your treasures in a single term: “I will let all your possessions and all your altars be plundered. This is the punishment for your sin….”

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 .