I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings: The fruit of your doings (see 17.10) is a Hebrew expression meaning “what you have done” (Good News Translation). New International Version is a good rendering with “I will punish you as your deeds deserve.”

For says the LORD, see 1.8.

I will kindle a fire: See 17.27.

In her forest is understood figuratively by Good News Translation of the palace: “I will set your palace on fire”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “I will set fire to the forest of cedar columns in your palace.”

And it shall devour all that is round about her: The sense of this is as expressed in Good News Translation (“and the fire will burn down everything around it”).

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 .