Then after seventy years are completed can be expressed more simply as “Then after seventy years” or, since the period is clear from the context, “After that” (Good News Translation).

In translation it is important that Babylon … that nation … land of the Chaldeans are clearly identified as one and the same place: “After that I will punish Babylonia and its king for their sin. I will destroy that country…” (Good News Translation). Although following a different restructuring, Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch accomplish the same goal: “When the seventy years are up, I will concern myself with the crimes of the king of Babylonia and his people…” (Bible en français courant); “ ‘When the seventy years are up,’ says the Lord, ‘I will call to account the king of Babylonia and his people for the guilt that they have brought on themselves’ ” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Iniquity translates the word first used in 2.22 (Revised Standard Version “guilt”). See there for comments.

Waste is rendered “desolation” in 4.27, its first occurrence in Jeremiah.

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 .