Wailing is repeated from verse 18.

Zion may be identified as “Jerusalem.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “Mount Zion.”

If the passive construction is heard is a problem, translators can say “Listen to the sound of people crying in Zion.”

We are ruined derives from the same stem as the participle “desolate” in 4.30. In 5.6 the active form is translated “destroy” by Revised Standard Version. Consequently, translators can say “We have been destroyed!”

Being shamed is a frequently occurring theme in the book of Jeremiah (see 2.36); here it describes the disappointment and disillusion of persons who trust in gods other than the LORD. Here the shame is connected directly with the final result of this misplaced trust: the people are forced to leave the land, and their homes have been torn down by their enemies. We are utterly shamed is translated by Good News Translation as “We are completely disgraced!” Translators can also have expressions such as “We are covered in shame” or “Our shame is very great.”

The land refers to the land of Israel, and many translators say “our land.”

They have cast down our dwellings does not state who has done this, so translators can express it as “enemies have destroyed our homes.”

These last two lines explain the cause of the shame, as in “We are completely disgraced because our houses have been destroyed and we have had to leave our land.”

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 .