This verse seems to be addressed to those who had been taken into exile after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Jeremiah 52.28-30 refers to three separate groups of exiles. The first group were taken away with King Jehoiachin, the second at the end of Zedekiah’s reign, and the third some years later.
The two units of verse 22 are neatly balanced in the Hebrew. The first half of the verse speaks of the punishment of Jerusalem as being over, and that is matched in the second half by the punishment of Edom yet to come. In the first half Jerusalem’s exile is over, and in the second half Edom’s sin is yet to be made public.
Punishment of your iniquity is one word, “your iniquity,” in Hebrew. As in 3.39, iniquity refers to the consequence of wrongdoing, and so, when used with is accomplished (or, “completed”), means punishment. In many languages these nouns must be changed to verbs; for example, “The LORD will not punish you any more for the evil you have done” or “You people of Jerusalem have been punished for your wrongdoing, and it is ended.” For daughter of Zion see comments on 1.6. Good News Translation “paid for her sin” is an English idiom which means “She has suffered for her sin” or “She has been punished for her sin.”
Will keep you in exile no longer: literally “will not add to your exile.” This statement may be translated in two ways: as a promise that Jerusalem’s people will not be forced into another exile again, or as a promise that the exile will soon end, will not be prolonged. Translations that understand it to refer to no more exiles are Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and New English Bible. For example, New English Bible translates “and never again shall you be carried into exile.” New International Version, New American Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible join Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in referring to not prolonging the present exile. Translators may follow the New English Bible model or that of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. If we follow the New English Bible model we may adapt it to say, for example, “he will never send you away into exile again,” “God will not send you away to live as prisoners in foreign lands,” or “… as prisoners in other tribes.”
Many translations show the contrast between the first and second halves of this verse by using a contrasting word such as but. We may also say, for example, “as for you people of Edom….”
He will punish is literally “he will visit,” that is, come for the purpose of punishing. See also Exodus 32.34; Hosea 8.13; 9.9. Daughter of Edom follows the pattern used throughout the book, in which Zion, Judah, and Jerusalem have been addressed directly as a woman. The reference is again to the people of Edom.
Translators may find it natural to begin both units of this verse with the address forms and so maintain the matching patterns between the units in the verse. Good News Translation keeps “Zion” and “Edom” at the beginning of each half of the verse, but only “Edom” is kept as an address form.
Iniquity in relation to Edom is the same word in Hebrew as in the first unit. The two half-lines of the second unit are parallel in sense, so that “punish your iniquity” is matched by uncover your sins. Uncover translates the same Hebrew word rendered “exposing” by Good News Translation in 2.14. The sense is to reveal or make known, or as Bible en français courant says, “He will unmask your crimes.” In some language areas uncover your sins may be expressed “God will bring your sins out into the open” or “The evil things you have done will be seen by everybody.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .