Verses 12-14 expand on how the LORD will “cut off [or destroy] all Judah.” The remnant are those who have gone to … Egypt to live (verses 12 and 14). They will be punished just like those who were back in Jerusalem (verse 13). Since they are the people Jeremiah is actually bringing the LORD’s message to, they may be addressed as “you” if a translation is using direct speech. Contemporary English Version, for example, begins this verse by saying, “There were only a few of you left in Judah, and you decided to go to Egypt. But you will die….”

I will take is handled in different ways. One way is “I will take charge” or “I take in my charge” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Another is to link this verb with be consumed; Good News Translation does this with “I will see to it that all of them are destroyed.”

The remnant of Judah; that is, “the people of Judah who are left” (Good News Translation) or “you people who have come…” (see above).

Set their faces is here used with the meaning of “determined” (see 42.15).

Good News Translation takes the two verbs be consumed and shall fall as equivalent and renders “that all of them are destroyed.” In languages where the passive is not natural, translators can say, for example, “that an enemy destroys them all.”

By the sword and by famine they shall be consumed may be rendered “They will die in warfare or from starvation.” The sword is usually rendered “war” (Good News Translation). See 5.12. Although by the sword and by famine occurs twice in the text, it will be more natural in many languages to use the expression only once, as in Good News Translation.

From the least to the greatest; that is, “all of them from the least important to the most important.” See 6.13.

Execration … horror … curse … taunt: See 42.18.

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 .