Be warned (so also New American Bible) is translated “Take warning” by Moffatt, An American Translation, and New International Version; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has the equivalent of “let this be a warning to you.” Elsewhere in Jeremiah the same form of the verb is translated “was chastened” (31.18) by Revised Standard Version. The verb itself has the primary meaning of “take advice” or “listen to reason.” Revised English Bible translates “Learn your lesson,” and New Jerusalem Bible “Reform.”

Lest I be alienated from you is translated “or else I will abandon you” by Good News Translation and “or else I will turn my back on you” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. The construction is literally “or else my soul will be turned away from you.” In Ezek 23.17, 18 this same construction is rendered “turned from them … turned … from her.” The verb itself means to “turn away with a jerk,” thus indicating suddenness.

Desolation is first used in 4.27. Here translators can say “or else I will make your land so desolate it will cause great shock,” “or else what I will do to the land will cause people to be greatly shocked,” or, more simply, “or else I will make you something really shocking.”

An uninhabited land: See 4.29 for the same concept. Here translators can say “I will make you a land where nobody lives.”

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 .