Proclaim (so also New International Version) translates a Hebrew verb that may refer to many different kinds of speech, depending upon the context. The Revised English Bible (Revised English Bible) has “make this proclamation,” while New American Bible has “cry out this message” and Good News Translation “proclaim this message.” Luther 1984 renders “preach openly.”
In the hearing of Jerusalem (literally, as in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, “in the ears of Jerusalem”) addresses the city as though it were a person. The inhabitants of the city are the intended object of the prophetic message, and it may be necessary to indicate this in translation: “to everyone in Jerusalem” (Good News Translation) and “to all the people in Jerusalem” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).
Thus says the LORD is a totally different construction from “says the LORD” (1.8), though it also functions to emphasize the saying with which it is connected. Whereas “says the LORD” may appear at the beginning, the end, or even in the middle of a prophetic saying, Thus says the LORD always comes before the saying to which it is attached. For many readers the use of Thus says the LORD immediately before the LORD’s words, along with the use of “says the LORD” (verse 3) immediately after his words, may convey the opposite effect from what it does in Hebrew. So both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch bring together the two statements into one. Good News Translation accomplishes this by placing “I, the LORD, have spoken” at the conclusion of the LORD’s words, while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch introduces the LORD’s words with the formula “Hear what the Lord says to his people.” However, translators are referred to the discussion at 1.8 for other models to follow. Here, for example, “Listen to what the LORD says” would call attention to the importance of the utterance that was to follow, while the utterance itself could be closed at the end of verse 3 with “This is what the LORD says.” In this way the authoritative nature of the prophet’s message is retained more forcibly in most languages than is the case with the Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch models.
Devotion is customarily translated “steadfast love” by Revised Standard Version when used of God’s graciousness toward his people. In fact, the construction remember … devotion is translated “remembered … steadfast love” by Revised Standard Version in Psa 98.3. The noun covers a wide area of meaning, but it generally involves the notion of faithfulness, which makes it especially applicable to a marriage situation. Luther 1984 translates the devotion of your youth as “the faithfulness of your youth.” In many languages the idea would more naturally be rendered with a verb, as in “how devoted you were to me when you were young.” Similarly Good News Translation has “how faithful you were when you were young” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “how faithful you were to me in your youth.” In some languages it would not be natural or possible to simply say that Israel was faithful or devoted without saying what they were faithful to, hence the examples such as “devoted to me” or “faithful to me.”
Your love as a bride is more literally “the love of your engagement period.” However, commentators and translators alike assume the reference to be to the early days of marriage, when Israel could be compared to a young bride. This noun construction may need to be restructured as a verb phrase: “how you loved me when you were a bride” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation has “how you loved me when we were first married.”
For some languages the metaphor of marriage is not natural when speaking of the relationship between Israel and God. However, in this book and the other prophetic writings it is one of the most common images used, and translators should really retain it. It might be necessary to have an expression such as “how you loved me like a new bride loves her husband”; but after many occurrences of the expression this would seem a little heavy stylistically, and a general note about the figure in the introduction to the book would be more appropriate. But it should always be clear that this image is speaking of Israel’s love for God which is compared to the love a bride might have for her husband in the early days of a marriage.
How you followed me in the wilderness is taken by most commentators as a reference to the period from the exodus to the entry into the land of Canaan. However, some commentators limit the time period to that between the exodus and God giving the covenant on Mount Sinai. In either case the reference is not merely to “the good old days,” but rather to the earliest days of God’s working with Israel, when they first acknowledged him as their LORD. Hosea thinks of the earliest relationship between the LORD and his people in the same marital terms, and describes the final period of salvation as a return to this early condition (Hos 2.14-20).
Followed could be understood to mean “served” or “obeyed,” or it could refer literally to following after God according to where he led, possibly through the pillar of cloud by day and column of fire by night. Certainly this latter one is the interpretation seemingly followed by Good News Translation: “followed me through the desert.” But most translations have “followed me in the desert,” which makes it clear that God is speaking of how the people served and obeyed him at the time they were in the desert. This interpretation probably is better in this context.
Wilderness (so also Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible [Jerusalem Bible]) is translated “desert” by Good News Translation, New International Version, An American Translation, and New American Bible. According to Holladay, “[The Hebrew word is] perfectly defined by its parallel ‘a land unsown,’ the area receiving insufficient rainfall for rain-fed farming. It is not necessarily the sand desert but includes the parched area of Sinai, the Negeb, the steppes of the Transjordan that produce nothing but thorns and briars (Judg 8.7; Isa 41.18-19; 55.13).” What all these different areas have in common are (1) a scarcity of vegetation and (2) the inability to support a dense population.
Translators in areas where the desert is unknown have sometimes wanted to render wilderness as “sandy area,” but “uninhabited area” is normally better. It is a land where there can be no expectation of a harvest, and so it may be described as a land “where people do not plant seed” (Luther 1984). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the last two lines of this verse as a separate sentence: “You followed me in the desert, in a land where nothing grows.”
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 .