High place refers to an altar. As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, high place (singular) represents the Septuagint form of the text. The Hebrew has the plural (“high places”), which is the recommendation of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. Modern translations tend to follow the singular (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, An American Translation, Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), though some do follow the plural form of the Hebrew (New International Version, Luther 1984, Moffatt). The plural form would seem to be the more difficult text, which would account for the presence of the singular. On the other hand, the plural may represent a misunderstanding of the original text, since only one high place seems to be in question, “an altar called Topheth” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). If translators retain the plural, then they can say “They keep building places of worship [or, altars].” The meaning then would be that the people did this more than once, or even in more than one place.

The precise meaning of the word Topheth is in dispute, though some authorities believe it to have been derived from an Aramaic word meaning “fireplace.” Translators usually transliterate this as a proper noun (for example, Good News Translation), but some have translated it, as in “… building altars at the place of fire.”

The altar (or altars) was located at some undefined place in Hinnom Valley (southwest of Jerusalem), where children were presented as burnt offerings either to Baal or to the LORD himself. The last two clauses of the verse, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind, suggest that the people may have actually sacrificed their children to the LORD, under the impression that this is what he expected of them. Other scholars are of the opinion that the intended recipient of the offerings was the Canaanite god Baal. It is good, therefore, not to state in the translation who the sacrifices were made to. But it must be clear that burn their sons and daughters in the fire is referring to sacrifice. See, for example, Good News Translation “sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire.” Others have said “burn their sons and daughters as a sacrifice [or, when they worship].” If the language does require an indirect object of “sacrifice,” that is, indicating who they were made to, “to the LORD” or “to God” is probably best.

Nor did it come into my mind is more literally “and it did not come upon my heart.” However, in Hebrew psychology the heart is the seat of thought. See also 5.21, where “senseless” is literally “without heart.” Here translators can say “It never even occurred to me” or “I never even thought of such a thing.”

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 .