Serve: See the note at 2.20.

And live: See verse 12.

Desolation is rendered “waste” in 7.34.

Why should this city become a desolation?: This is a rhetorical question that in some languages has to be turned to a statement; for example, “There is no reason for this city to be destroyed” or “It is unnecessary for this city to become a pile of ruins.”

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 .