My lord the king: This is an honorific expression used to address royalty; Good News Translation consistently renders “your majesty,” and translators should likewise use an appropriate phrase from their language.

These men have done evil … into the cistern: There is much repetition in the Hebrew. Translators may say simply “These men were wrong to throw Jeremiah into the cistern.”

He will die there of hunger: In spoken English it is much more natural to say “he will starve to death there.”

For there is no bread left in the city: This probably means, not the absolute absence of food in the city, but an extreme shortage. Hebrew often uses the inclusive forms (“all” or “none”) for the sake of emphasis. Since there was an extreme shortage of food in the city, it is quite doubtful that any would be brought to a prisoner, especially one held captive in a cistern. Bread is commonly used as a general term meaning “food.”

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 .