For Behold see 1.6.

Sword, famine, and pestilence: See 14.12.

Vile occurs only here in the Old Testament; it is related to the two words rendered “horrible” (5.30 and 23.14; 18.13) by Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation translates it by “rotten,” as do New Jerusalem Bible and Revised English Bible.

For figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten, see 24.1-2. If figs are unknown, translators can use a general term, such as “fruit.”

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 .