Afterwards; that is, “After the war.”

Good News Translation places says the LORD at the end of the pronouncement, but it is more common to keep it at the beginning: “The LORD also says.”

Servants are not household servants in this context, as Good News Translation (“officials”), Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“high officials”), and New American Bible (“ministers”) make clear.

As elsewhere, pestilence, sword, and famine refer to death by disease, warfare, and famine (or, hunger). See 14.12.

Their enemies … who seek their lives: See 19.7.

Nebuchadrezzar, their enemies, and those who seek their lives are not three separate groups, but three ways of referring to the king and his people, as in “I will let you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, your enemies who want to kill you.”

As Good News Translation makes clear, smite them with the edge of the sword can be translated as “put them to death.”

Pity … spare … have compassion: See 13.14.

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 .