It may be that their supplication will come before the LORD: The word supplication occurs elsewhere in 37.20 (Revised Standard Version “humble plea”); 38.26 (Revised Standard Version “humble plea”); 42.2, 9. An almost identical word occurs in 3.21 (Revised Standard Version “pleading”); 31.9. New Jerusalem Bible translates as “prayers,” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh as “entreaty,” and Revised English Bible as “petition.” The basic notion is that of a humble request for favor. The whole expression is rendered “Perhaps they will pray to the LORD” by Good News Translation. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Perhaps … they will beg the Lord for mercy.” Note that their does not just refer to the people from Judah, but all who hear Baruch’s reading.

Every one … his is inclusive: “they … their.”

Both anger and wrath appear numerous times in the book of Jeremiah (see 7.20); they are difficult to differentiate in meaning, and when used together they strengthen one another. If a language has only one term to use, we may translate “tremendously great anger.”

Great is the anger and wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people will be a difficult construction, if for no other reason than that the object comes before the verb. Good News Translation renders “the LORD has threatened this people with his terrible anger and fury.” Translators can also say, for example, “The LORD has promised [or, threatened] to punish the people in a terrible way” or “The punishment that the LORD has promised to bring against his people will be very terrible.”

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 .