The house of the LORD is the temple.

Hanan is mentioned only here in the Old Testament; his sons would have been his “disciples” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant).

Man of God is frequently used to refer to a prophet (see 1Kgs 12.22; 17.18, 24, and especially 1Kgs 20.28, where the title refers to the prophet of 1Kgs 20.13, 22). Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch each have “prophet,” while Bible en français courant has “holy man.” Note that it is Hanan who is the man of God. In the text it could appear that it is Igdaliah, but this seems incorrect.

For princes see 1.18.

For Maaseiah see 21.1; 29.25. Keeper of the threshold is a literal rendering of the Hebrew text, followed by most translations. Translators can say something like “the person in charge of the main doorways [or, entrances] of the temple.” Good News Translation “important official” is based on the observation that three priests are mentioned as responsible for this position (2 Kgs 25.18; Jer 52.24), and that during the time of the reconstruction of the temple they were in charge of the financial contributions (2 Kgs 12.9). It is thought by some that each of these priests would have been in charge of one of the three main entrances to the temple.

Good News Translation has made this verse considerably easier to follow by restructuring it as several shorter sentences.

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 .