Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

Behold: See 1.6.

I will plead your cause: See 50.34. Most take the second person pronouns you and your to refer to “the people of Jerusalem” (Good News Translation).

Take vengeance for you: As in Good News Translation, this means “make your enemies pay for what they did to you.”

I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry: See verse 13. Babylonia’s existence depended upon its rivers and canals, which were thought to have come from a sea or ocean beneath the surface of the earth. Once this sea and the source from which it flowed (her fountain) were dried up, Babylonia would be completely destroyed. Good News Translation renders this clearly: “I will dry up the source of Babylonia’s water and make its rivers go dry.” Sea here could also be rendered as “spring”; Contemporary English Version translates this last part of the verse as “I will cut off its water supply, and its stream will dry up.”

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 .