This shall be the sign to you: Good News Translation has “I … will give you proof.” This refers to the event described in verse 30. The problem is that the mention of the sign at the beginning of verse 29 and the description of it in verse 30 are so far distant that the reader (and more especially the hearer) may lose the connection. It would perhaps be best to reorder verse 29 so that the mention of the sign comes immediately before its description in verse 30; for example, “I want you to know that I will punish you in this place and that my promise to destroy you will come true. Here is the way I will prove it.”

My words will surely stand against you for evil: New International Version renders “my threats of harm against you will surely stand,” which is still somewhat literal. New Jerusalem Bible has “the words with which I threaten you will come true.”

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 .