Have you not observed…?: In many languages this negative rhetorical question will be better expressed as a positive affirmative statement with “Surely you have noticed how….” Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch both retain the question form, though without the negative. In so doing, Good News Translation uses indirect discourse for what the people are saying: “Have you noticed how people are saying that I have rejected…?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, on the other hand, supplies an answer to the rhetorical question: “Have you heard what certain people are saying? They are affirming, ‘The Lord has forsaken Judah and Israel, whom he chose for himself.’ ” In some West African languages, the most natural way to convey the meaning would be to say “These people are saying the LORD has rejected the two families he chose, Israel and Judah. Haven’t you noticed that? [or, Surely you have noticed that!]”

It is not immediately clear who these people are. Some translators have said “certain people,” “some people,” or “people” (Good News Translation).

The two families are Judah and Israel (as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Good News Translation indicate), and in translation it will be wise to make this information clear, so as not to confuse them with the families of David and Levi, mentioned in the previous passage.

Despised is used elsewhere in 14.21 (Revised Standard Version “spurn”) and 23.17.

So that they are no longer a nation in their sight: Since this is potentially ambiguous, Good News Translation renders “And so they … no longer consider them a nation.”

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 .