Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father: It was customary to reward a person who brought good news. But Jeremiah looks upon his birth as bad news for himself. For Cursed see 11.3.

A son translates two words in Hebrew: “a son, a male.” Good News Translation is effective in rendering this with “It’s a boy! You have a son!”

Note that Good News Translation finds it more natural to place making him very glad earlier in the sentence (“Curse the one who made my father glad by bringing him the news”).

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 .