Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles translates the Hebrew “And a curse will be taken from them for all exiles.” Good News Translation restructures: “When the people who were taken away as prisoners … want to bring a curse on someone, they will say….” The word here rendered curse (see also 24.9; 25.18; 26.6; 42.18; 44.8, 12, 22; 49.13) is different from that of verse 18, though the meaning is essentially the same.

Make you like means “treat you like” (Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible).

Roasted is used in a participial form in Lev 2.14 and Josh 5.11 of grain (Revised Standard Version “parched”). Elsewhere in the Old Testament the verb is found only in Psa 38.7, with the meaning “burning [of fever].” In some languages translators will say “burned” or “burned to death.”

Instead of using a pronoun like the English relative whom, some translators will begin a new sentence: “… like Zedekiah and Ahab. The king of Babylonia burned them to death.”

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 .