Declare … proclaim … cry aloud … say: In the Hebrew of this verse there is much repetition with regard to verbs of speaking. As a comparison of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation will indicate, the restructuring of Good News Translation is much more economical. The use of the four verbs in parallel phrases here does not add to the information content of the verse, and therefore translators may or may not retain the four, depending on what is more natural in their own language. However, these commands are addressed to the heralds or messengers who will sound the trumpet of alarm and summon the people to prepare for war.

Blow the trumpet is another command to these same messengers. Therefore, most translators will in fact find it more natural to restructure the verse somewhat as Good News Translation has; for example, “Blow the trumpet throughout Judah and in Jerusalem, and cry out the warning. Tell the people….” For those languages where it is necessary to say who these commands are addressed to, translators may say, “You messengers, announce to the people….”

The trumpet used was an animal horn with a hole in it, so it could be blown to make a loud sound. It might be used as a signal by the attacking army to begin the siege of a city. However, it might also be used to warn the inhabitants of a city to run for refuge, which seems to be its function in this verse. Although people lived in fortified cities, they had to go outside the walls to work in their fields. If an attacking army were approaching, the trumpet would be blown as a signal for the people to return to the city for protection. Some translators have “blow the trumpet of warning.”

The people are told to assemble and go into the fortified cities. This may be expressed as indirect speech, “Tell the people to gather together and flee to the fortified cities,” or in direct speech, as in “Cry out this warning to the people: ‘You should all gather together [or, We must all gather together] and flee….’ ”

Fortified cities (see 1.18) can be expressed as “the cities with walls around them” or “the walled cities where we will be protected.”

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 .