Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab is rendered fairly literally by most versions. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is an exception: “Happiness and rejoicing are a thing of the past in the orchards and vineyards of Moab.” This is a helpful model for languages where it would be unnatural to speak of happiness and joy being taken away. Another possibility is “The people no longer experience joy and happiness….” Fruitful land (see 4.26) is “a fertile land” (so Good News Translation).

I have made the wine … shouts of joy: Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is also dramatic in its rendering of the last half of the verse with “No wine flows in the vat, since no one treads the grapes, and in place of the joyful shouts, one hears loud cries of mourning.” This is good, except that the Hebrew indicates that the LORD (I) is the one responsible for this condition. Translators in areas where making wine is not known can say something like “I have stopped the people from making wine. They are no longer shouting happily as they tread the grapes, and no wine is coming out of the wine presses [or, the containers where the grapes are squeezed].” For wine see 13.12.

A slight problem also exists in the Hebrew of this verse, which repeats the word rendered shouts of joy, shouting, and shout of joy. However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project agrees with Revised Standard Version that the meaning is “No one shouts in joy and tramples the grapes. There is shouting, but not the shouting of joy.” Thus the shouting is not the shout of joy can be expressed as “People are indeed shouting, but not for joy.”

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 .