Hark can be expressed as “Listen” (New International Version). Good News Translation and some other versions omit this element.

A cry from Horonaim is rendered by Good News Translation as “The people of Horonaim cry out,” and another possible rendering is “You can hear the people of Horonaim crying out.” Some translations have the people crying out “for help” (Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and others have them crying out in pain or “agony” (New Jerusalem Bible). The cries can also be tied directly to what follows: “cry out, ‘Violence! Destruction!’ ” (Good News Translation). The site of Horonaim is unknown (see also verse 34). As Good News Translation indicates, the name of the city here stands for the people who are doing the shouting.

For Desolation see 6.7, where Revised Standard Version has “destruction”; for great destruction, see 4.6.

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 .