All the rest of the people who were in Mizpah … all the people who were left at Mizpah: In translation it is unnecessary to mention both groups since these phrases apparently refer to the same people. So Good News Translation translates “Then he made prisoners of the king’s daughters and all the rest of the people in Mizpah.”

Set out to cross over: This could give the impression that he had to cross a river or a lake; or it could mean “to join up with,” which seems the best interpretation. But Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch both see it simply as an indication of the direction Ishmael was going.

To the Ammonites: Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have the equivalent of “in the direction of the territory of Ammon.”

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 .