In the shadow of Heshbon: For Heshbon see verse 2. The shadow of is best understood in the sense of “the shelter of” (New Jerusalem Bible), which is the basis for Good News Translation “try to find protection in Heshbon.”

Fugitives … without strength are “Helpless refugees” (Good News Translation) or “fugitives … exhausted” (New Jerusalem Bible).

A fire has gone forth from Heshbon: Not only is the city on fire, but the fire has spread out from the city to burn its surroundings. This line is in parallel with the next one, a flame from the house of Sihon. Sihon was an Amorite king who once ruled the city of Heshbon (Deut 2.26, 30). Jeremiah is still making the point that the city of Heshbon, once ruled by King Sihon, is now on fire, and the fire has spread throughout all of Moab. For these two lines translators can say something like “For a fire has blazed forth from the city of Heshbon; yes, out of the headquarters of King Sihon come the flames.”

It has destroyed the forehead of Moab, the crown of the sons of tumult: Good News Translation understands forehead to mean “frontiers” and crown to mean “mountain heights.” Most other translations are fairly literal, though Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant render the two expressions as “from the edge to the center of Moab.” The sons of tumult is a Hebrew idiom, which is rendered “a turbulent brood” by New Jerusalem Bible and “the noisy boasters” by New International Version. Good News Translation prefers “the war-loving people.” If translators see value in the interpretation of Good News Translation, they can restructure its rendering of these two lines slightly: “Fire has burned all from the frontiers to the mountain heights of the Moabites, these war-loving people.”

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 .