In Hebrew verses 9-10 are a single sentence, which is carried over into English by Revised Standard Version. The result is a highly complex and difficult construction, containing a question with an embedded statement followed by direct discourse. Since the Hebrew question expects an affirmative answer, it is possible to shift away from a question form to that of a statement, as with Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and New English Bible. Moreover, it is probably best in most languages to divide these verses into several separate sentences, as Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have done.

In some languages the verb steal must have an object of some kind, as in “You steal things [from others].”

In this verse commit adultery is meant literally, not as a metaphor for being unfaithful to God.

For swear falsely, see 5.2. The idea is to swear an oath insincerely or dishonestly. Revised English Bible uses “perjury,” and Good News Translation has “tell lies under oath.” If neither of these expressions can be used, translators can say “call on God’s name to declare something true when it is false.”

Burn incense may also mean “offer sacrifices” (see 1.16). Translators could also have “you burn incense on altars for Baal.”

For Baal see 2.8.

Go after other gods: See verse 6.

That you have not known means “that you know nothing about” or “that you have had no experience with.” Jeremiah is affirming that the foreign gods are not to be relied on, because Israel has never before had any occasion in which to prove these gods. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “… which are no concern of yours.”

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 .