If I say can be “If I say to myself” or “If I tell myself.”

I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name: The pronouns him and his refer to the LORD, as Good News Translation makes clear. Mention renders a verb that normally means “remember” (Revised English Bible “call … to mind”; New Jerusalem Bible “think about”), which is the basis for the Good News Translation rendering of not mention him as “forget the LORD.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “no more think about God.” Speak … in his name may be rendered either “speak in his behalf” or “speak on his authority.”

There is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones is rendered “your message is like a fire burning deep within me” by Good News Translation and “your word burns within me as a fire” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. Both of these translations take in my heart and in my bones as referring to the innermost part of a person. The text does not say what a burning fire is, but the context makes it clear that it is the message the LORD has given Jeremiah to deliver. Many translators will follow Good News Translation in this with “your message is like a fire.”

I am weary with holding it in is translated “I try my best to hold it in” by Good News Translation and “I muster up all my strength in order to hold it back” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (compare 6.11). In verse 7 Jeremiah said the LORD was too strong for him. Here he acknowledges that even the LORD’s word is too strong for him.

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 .