Is evil a recompense for good?: Jeremiah had previously prayed for the LORD to be merciful to his enemies (15.11; 17.16). But in spite of that, they still wish to trap and kill him. Jeremiah asks if this is just. If translators think that it will not be clear to readers why Jeremiah asks this question, they can say “Is evil the payment I will receive for doing good?” The answer to this question is clearly “No,” but the people are doing exactly that. Yet, which begins the next line, emphasizes that contrast. There are various ways languages convey the same sense; for example, “Good should not be repaid with evil, but they are digging a pit for me” and “Is good to be repaid with evil, that they have dug a pit for me?” (Revised English Bible).

They have dug a pit for my life is omitted by some on the assumption that it was brought in from verse 22. However, there is no textual basis for its omission, and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that it be retained. Pit refers to a pit for trapping animals. Elsewhere the word is used in Psa 57.6; 119.85. Life represents the Hebrew word often translated “soul” (see 17.21). For this line Good News Translation has “they have dug a pit for me to fall in.” New American Bible understands the expression to mean that the people want to kill Jeremiah: “they … dig a pit to take my life.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch does away with the figure: “They wanted me in their power.”

How I stood before thee: See 15.1. This is the posture of prayer (New Jerusalem Bible “how I pleaded before you”). Moffatt translates this and the following line as “men for whom once (remember) I made intercession, pleading in thy presence.”

To speak good for them is generally translated “to speak on their behalf.”

The next line gives the content of Jeremiah’s prayer: to turn away thy wrath from them. Good News Translation expresses this as “so that you would not deal with them in anger.”

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 .