Moreover, I will give … into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them is restructured by Good News Translation to “I will also let their enemies plunder….”

The noun translated wealth is found elsewhere in the Old Testament only in Pro 15.16; 27.24; Isa 33.6; Ezek 22.25. Its basic meaning is “treasure” or “stores.” In the other passages Revised Standard Version translates it as “treasure” or “riches.”

Gains refers primarily to what a person benefits through toil or labor; in 3.24 the Hebrew “gains of our fathers” is rendered by Revised Standard Version as “all for which our fathers labored.” Translators can also use “products” (New International Version) or “all they have earned.”

Prized belongings (Good News Translation “property”) derives from a word that means “precious” or “honored.” Note its usage in Ezek 22.25, where Revised Standard Version has “precious things.”

All the treasures of the kings of Judah can usually be translated fairly literally, but translators in some languages need to say “the valuable [or, precious] things that belong to the kings of Judah.”

Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders the four nouns wealth … gains … prized belongings … treasures as “riches … possessions … valuables … treasures.” It is doubtful that the biblical writer would have distinguished too sharply between the usage of the various terms.

If there is a distinction to be made between plunder and seize, then plunder may suggest an element of wastefulness. But it is often difficult to make any real distinction here, and translators often end the verse with something such as “They will seize all these things by force, and carry them away to Babylon.”

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 .