Since this begins a new section, Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch indicate who is speaking: “The LORD says” (Good News Translation); “The Lord has given this command” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Go up against is the equivalent of “Attack” (Good News Translation) or “to war against” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). See verse 3, where Revised Standard Version has “come up against.”

As the Revised Standard Version note indicates, Merathaim means “double rebellion,” and Pekod means “punishment.” Moreover, these nouns represent a play on words in Hebrew: Marratim (meaning “the land of the bitter river”) was the name of a district of southern Babylonia at the head of the Persian Gulf, while Puqudu was the name of a people in east Babylonia. However, in translation these wordplays cannot be captured, and translators will normally say something such as “Attack the peoples of Merathaim and of Pekod.”

Slay, and utterly destroy after them: The phrase after them in this construction was thought by the translators of Good News Translation to make little sense (see the Good News Translation note). However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project understands the whole clause to mean “kill them and completely destroy everything they leave behind.”

Says the LORD: See 1.8. As in Good News Translation, this may be more natural at the end of the verse.

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 .