In this verse judged the cause has the meaning of “defended” or “pleaded the cause of.” See 5.28.

Poor translates a noun used only here in Jeremiah. Needy occurs in 2.34 (Revised Standard Version “poor”); 5.28; 20.13. It may be equivalent in meaning to “poor” (Deut 15.4, 7, 9, 11), or else it may mean “oppressed” (Amos 4.1). Good News Translation has treated the two terms as meaning the same, and has combined them into “poor.” Other versions say “poor and oppressed” or “poor and lowly.”

Then it was well translates the Hebrew text. Luther 1984 “and it went well with him” depends on an adjustment to the Hebrew text. Some translations (Bright, New English Bible) omit this clause, assuming it to be a repetition of “Then it was well with him” in verse 15. However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project believes the original text to have been “then it was well.” In fact, this fits fine in the context, suggesting that things went well for all because the king acted with justice. Translators should say something like “Then [or, Because of this] things were [or, went] well.”

Is this not to know me?: The negative rhetorical question of Revised Standard Version is changed into a strong statement in Good News Translation (“That is what it means to know the LORD”) and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“Whoever acts in this way shows that he knows me”).

Says the LORD: See 1.8.

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 .