Runner and messenger have the same meaning in this context, and are used to refer to the person (here collectively the persons) sent to take a message to the king of Babylonia. Good News Translation renders the first two lines as “Messenger after messenger runs,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “One messenger comes after the other.”

Is taken on every side: The sense of this is as in Good News Translation “has been broken into from every side.”

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 .