Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: Good News Translation does not translate Thus, but many translations do with an expression such as “Here is what the LORD, Israel’s God, told me to do” or “This is what the LORD … said to me.”

Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath: For the cup as a symbol of God’s wrath, see 49.12; 51.7; Psa 75.8; Isa 51.17, 22; Ezek 23.31-33. The whole construction this cup of the wine of wrath is difficult, and so Good News Translation renders “a wine cup filled with my anger.” It is legitimate on the basis of the context to identify the anger as the LORD’s, as Good News Translation has done. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch differs sightly from Good News Translation: “Take this wine cup from my hand. It is filled with my anger.” A slight variation of this is “Take this cup. The wine in it represents my anger” or “Take this cup. The wine in it represents the punishment I will bring on those who drink it.” If wine is not known, translators can use an expression like “fermented fruit juice,” possibly adding “called wine” since this is such an important symbol in the Bible (see 13.12).

Drink it: In many languages people do not drink a cup, but rather the contents of the cup. This is the basis for Good News Translation “drink from it.” Others have “drink what is in 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 .