For offspring see 22.30.

Servants is not household servants, as the term may suggest, but “officials” (Good News Translation), since they had played a big part in Jehoiakim’s fatal decision. See verse 24.

For iniquity see “guilt” in 2.22.

Bring upon … all the evil: See 4.6.

Men of Judah is a general reference meaning “people of Judah.”

But they would not hear: In Revised Standard Version this clause seems to hang without much connection to what is before it. It expresses the reason for the LORD’s destruction on the people of Judah. New American Bible renders “[all the threats of evil] which went unheeded” and Revised English Bible “[all the disasters with which I threatened them,] for they turned a deaf ear to me.” Good News Translation reverses the order, placing the causative expression first: “Neither you nor the people of Jerusalem and of Judah have paid any attention to my warnings, and so I will bring on all of you the disaster that I have threatened.”

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 .