I pray you translates a single word in Hebrew which functions to add urgency to Jeremiah’s request. For many languages the equivalent will be “please.”

Humble plea is also a single word in Hebrew, meaning “request” or “petition.” See “supplication” in 36.7. Good News Translation combines hear, I pray you with let my humble plea come before you and renders “I beg you to listen to me and do what I ask.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has something like “be patient with me while I now beg you.”

Lest I die there: Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “This would be my certain death!”

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 .