The word which the LORD spoke … by Jeremiah the prophet: The word which the LORD spoke is a Hebrew way of saying “This is what the LORD said.” Jeremiah is the instrument (person) the LORD uses to speak his message to the people. Most translations follow the Hebrew literally, and so do not have a complete statement. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “The Lord let the following message concerning Babylonia and its capital Babylon be proclaimed through Jeremiah the prophet.” Good News Translation expresses it as “This is the message that the LORD gave me about the city of Babylon and its people.” This is probably the best model, except that some translators will retain “Jeremiah” instead of “me” (Good News Translation). In most languages “Jeremiah” does not need to be modified by the prophet.

Concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans: Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans are one and the same (see 21.4). Translators can either drop one of the terms, as Good News Translation does, or say, for example, “the city of Babylon and the land of the Babylonians.”

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 .