It may be confusing that ten of the mourners are still alive after verse 7, which seems to indicate that all the mourners were killed. So Bassa in Liberia translates verses 7-8 as follows:

• 7 And as soon as they entered the town, Ishmael and his men killed seventy of them, and they threw their bodies in a water-hole. 8 The ten remaining men said to Ishmael …

Stores: This means “supplies” in this context. It can also be expressed as a verb: “We have stored wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey in hidden places in the fields.”

For wheat see 12.13.

Barley is also a grain. Translators can have “the grain barley” or “other grain.”

For oil see 31.12; 40.10.

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 .