Slay all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter: Bulls is here used of “young men” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation renders “soldiers,” assuming that this refers to the young men of the army. Let them go down to the slaughter may be either “Slaughter them” (Good News Translation) or “Take them down to where you will slaughter them.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch manages to retain something of the imagery for these two lines: “Bring the young men, lead them away as young cattle to the slaughter!”

Woe to them: See 4.13; 22.13.

Their day has come, the time of their punishment may be more succinctly expressed as “The time has come for them to be punished!” (Good News Translation).

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 .