Noise can be expressed as “sound.” It may be helpful to indicate who is hearing the noise, as in “When the people of all the cities hear the sound of horsemen and archers [coming], they will all flee.”

Horseman and archer refers to soldiers. Some translators have “soldiers on horses and [soldiers] with bows.” Notice that the plural “soldiers” is often more natural than the singular form of Revised Standard Version.

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project understands every city to have a collective meaning, “all the cities,” that is, “the people of all the cities.” This would be a reference to the unprotected towns from which people fled in times of war to look for a safer hiding place. Some scholars believe that every city was brought in from the last part of the verse, and that the text should have “the land,” following the Septuagint. But it is the opinion of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project that the Hebrew may stand as it is. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “everyone who lives in the land,” which may be a restructuring of the Hebrew on the assumption that every city is equivalent to “everyone.”

Thickets are thick growths of brush or trees. The people enter these to hide, so translators may say “they hide in the thick forest [or, thick bush]” or “they go to the thick bush to hide there.”

Before they enter thickets the Septuagint includes “they hide in caves.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project believes that this clause was an original part of the Hebrew text, but was later unintentionally omitted in the copying of the manuscript. This could easily have happened, since in Hebrew it ends with the same sequence of letters as the word before it, and a scribe’s eye could have played tricks on him. Among those who favor the longer text are Moffatt, An American Translation, Revised English Bible, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.

As in the case of the thickets, people climb among the rocks to hide and escape their pursuers, so that “to get away” or “to flee” can be added if the meaning is not otherwise clear.

Forsaken here means “deserted” in modern English. And no man dwells in them is an expansion of all the cities are forsaken. Good News Translation takes the clause to mean “and no one will live in them again.” Notice that throughout verses 28-29 Good News Translation shifts to a future tense, whereas Revised Standard Version retains the present. Since the Hebrew will support either meaning, translators should perhaps seek for what is the most effective and dramatic form in the context.

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 .