Warriors … princes is rendered “officers … chief men” by New Jerusalem Bible. New American Bible has “officers … princes” and Revised English Bible “bodyguard … officers.” Warriors means “strong young men,” and is frequently used of men connected with the military (Good News Translation “soldiers”), as would seem to be the case in the present context. Compare with “mighty men” in 5.16, which translates the same Hebrew word. Princes is frequently used as the equivalent of “officials” (see verse 10; 1.18).

Afraid and fled are translated as a verb plus adverbial expression by Good News Translation: “fled in terror.” It is possible also to combine these two verbs with escaped, as in New English Bible: “he was afraid and fled to Egypt” (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

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 .