For Israel and Judah … the LORD of hosts: It may be best to shift this to an active sentence; for example, “The LORD God Almighty has not forsaken Israel and Judah.” Israel and Judah are used respectively of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. Forsaken can also be “abandoned.” The word in the Hebrew text actually means to be made or left a widow.

The LORD of hosts: See 2.19.

But the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt: Evidently Revised Standard Version attempts to avoid the possible ambiguity of “their land” by translating the Hebrew expression as the land of the Chaldeans. Good News Translation interprets “their land” as a reference to Israel and Judah: “… have not abandoned Israel and Judah, even though they have sinned against me.” In fact, almost all major translations retain “their land,” meaning the land of Israel and Judah, with an expression such as “even though their land is full of guilt.” Translators can also say “even though they sinned against me throughout their land.” Good News Translation and many other translations understand full of guilt as referring to the fact that they have sinned (and therefore are guilty). Translators can have “even though they are guilty of sin against me throughout the land.”

For the Holy One of Israel, see 50.29.

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 .