Translation commentary on Jeremiah 29:8

For diviners see 27.9, which is similar to this verse.

Do not listen to the dreams which they dream: As Good News Translation makes clear, do not listen to means “do not pay attention to.” The dreams which they dream represents a conjecture; the Masoretic Text has “your dreams which you cause to dream” (Revised Standard Version note). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends following the Masoretic Text and interprets it to mean “your dreamers whom you get to dream.” (Compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “those dreamers who dream for you what you wish!”) In modern Western society, the expression in Good News Translation, “pay attention to their dreams,” could easily be misunderstood to refer to a person’s hopes and aspirations, and not to a method of predicting the future. If it is not clear that these dreams are predictions, translators can say “don’t pay attention to those people who predict through their dreams what you wish them.”

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 .

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