And do you seek great things for yourself?: One commentator calls this an interrogative sentence with no question mark or period. As a question, it is clearly rhetorical, making the point strongly that Baruch should not think he will get special treatment. If readers would understand that, then translators can keep the question, much as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation do. However, if not, they may have to use a statement, such as “There’s no point seeking great things for yourself” or “Don’t even think about getting special treatment for yourself.” A further difficulty in this sentence is that no one seems quite sure of what the great things are. Contemporary English Version translates this as “big plans”; but on the other hand New Jerusalem Bible has “special treatment,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch follows the same interpretation for the whole question with “And should I make an exception for you?”

Evil: Once again the sense is “disaster” or “destruction.” See 1.14.

All flesh may be rendered “all people.”

Says the LORD: See 1.8. Good News Translation moves this to the end of the verse.

I will give you your life as a prize of war: See 21.9; 38.2; 39.18. Some think that this expression must have originated in the army, where victorious soldiers usually brought home the goods they had seized in war. But when a soldier escaped with only his life, he would say, “My life was the only spoils of war that I was able to bring home!” New International Version is a typical rendering: “I will let you escape with your life.” Another possible way of expressing this is “I will at least protect you from death” (Contemporary English Version).

In all places to which you may go; that is, “wherever you go” (Good News Translation, New International Version).

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 .