Translation commentary on Jeremiah 9:17

For Thus says the LORD of hosts, see 2.2, 19. Some commentators omit the LORD of hosts because no oracle from the LORD immediately follows. Of the modern translations, only Jerusalem Bible drops the phrase.

Consider is not found in the Septuagint, and it is also omitted by Revised English Bible and Jerusalem Bible. Since there is no basis in the Hebrew text for its omission, the command is best retained in translation. It can mean either “Take a good look and draw your conclusions” or simply “Keep alert, pay attention.” “Attention!” is the rendering of New American Bible (similarly Luther 1984), while Moffatt has “Listen….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a contemporary idiom, “Consider what hour has struck,” and Good News Translation translates “Think about what is happening!”

The mourning women are best identified with the skilful women. This is the basis for Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“Call the mourning women! Bring all of the women who know what to do at the time of death!”). Women evidently played a more prominent role in mourning for the dead than men did, and among them there seems to have been a professional class trained especially for the occasion.

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 10:24

Correct is the same verb first used in 2.19 (“chasten” in Revised Standard Version). As there, it has the idea of chastising or disciplining people.

In place of me … me, the Septuagint has “us … us” (New English Bible). However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project believes that the first person singular me is here used in a collective sense of all the people, as is “me … I … I” in verse 19. Thus the matter may be handled translationally, without introducing a note, as is done in Good News Translation: “your people … us” (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

In just measure translates the same construction earlier rendered “in justice” in 4.2. New Jerusalem Bible translates “with moderation” and Good News Translation “but do not be too hard on us.”

The LORD is also asked not to punish the people when he is angry for fear they won’t survive it! Lest thou bring me to nothing, therefore, can be expressed as “That would completely destroy us” or “For then there would be nothing left of us.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 12:8

Heritage is the same word used in verse 7.

The manner in which Israel has become like a lion is defined in what follows: she has lifted up her voice [roared] against me; that is, she has become hostile to me. Revised English Bible has “My own people have turned on me like lions from the jungle; they roar against me, therefore I hate them.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 13:26 - 13:27

The prophet now returns to the imagery of Israel as an unfaithful wife. Her punishment (your skirts over your face) will conform to the nature of her sin, adulteries … lewd harlotries.

If someone exposes a woman’s sexual organs, this is a great cause of shame for her. Shame in this context refers to Israel’s nakedness being exposed as an unfaithful wife. So Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the last part of verse 26 as “everyone will see your nakedness!” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible is even more open: “everyone will see your sexual organs.” Translators should be direct enough to make the meaning clear, yet do so without offending the readers.

Abominations (Good News Translation “the things he hates”) is first used in 4.1.

For on the hills in the field, Good News Translation has “on the hills and in the fields.” Both have essentially the same meaning, which is that these were places where the worship of pagan idols took place. On the hills in the field clearly signals that adulteries … neighings … lewd harlotries have to do with sexual immorality committed in connection with the worship of pagan gods (see “every high hill” in 2.20). Thus Good News Translation translates your lewd harlotries as “you go after pagan gods,” while spelling out clearly the meaning of adulteries (“like a man lusting after his neighbor’s wife”) and neighings (“like a stallion after a mare”). Neighings are the whinnying sounds a horse makes, as for example when a male desires a female. This accounts for the Good News Translation translation.

The first part of verse 27 may be restructured as “I have seen you do the things I hate, as on the hills in the fields you commit adultery as you pursue other gods like a man lusting after a woman who is not his wife, or a stallion chasing a mare.”

The last part of verse 27 is actually not clear in the Hebrew. Made clean may be independent of Woe, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Or it may be dependent on it, as in Revised English Bible “Woe to you, Jerusalem, in your uncleanness! How long will you delay?” Following this model, the translation could be “How terrible for you in your impurity, Jerusalem! How long will this go on?” Translators may accept either interpretation. For Woe see 4.13.

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 15:10

Woe is me is rendered more naturally in Good News Translation “What an unhappy man I am!” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “How unfortunate I am” (compare 4.31).

In the text Jeremiah’s complaint is addressed to his mother: Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me. Most translations keep the address form with something such as “How unfortunate for me, mother, that you gave birth to me [or, that I was ever born]!” However, the use is figurative and rhetorical; Jeremiah is not really expecting his statement to be heard by his mother. Good News Translation therefore puts mother in third person: “What an unhappy man I am! Why did my mother bring me into this world?” It is also possible to drop the address form: “How terrible for me that I was born!”

Strife translates the noun first used in 11.20 (Revised Standard Version “cause”). Contention translates a word found only here in the book of Jeremiah. One scholar notes that the root of this word indicates a process in a legal court, and that the two words together indicate “legal strife” and “legal contention.” Thus Jeremiah is pictured as someone who is constantly involved in legal action against his people. The Hebrew text conveys the idea that Jeremiah is the victim of the strife and contention, not the person who is its source. Thus “I quarrel and struggle with everyone” is probably not correct. Rather, translators should have “Everyone in the country opposes and quarrels with me.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “people oppose me and quarrel with me.”

The verbs lent and borrowed may require objects: “I have not lent any money or borrowed any” (Good News Translation). It may also be necessary to indicate the person the money was lent to: “I have not lent money to anyone….” In Hebrew the verbs lent and borrowed do not necessarily include the sense that the lending and borrowing were done at interest.

Curse does not refer to the use of profanity (bad language); the meaning is either “wish or ask a curse upon” or “treat with contempt.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “wish for evil to befall,” and Revised English Bible has “abuses.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 16:21

Since the LORD is now the speaker, it would be helpful to the reader to make this clear, as in Good News Translation: “ ‘So then,’ says the LORD….”

For behold, I refer to verse 16.

I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might: Both New International Version and Revised English Bible translate make them know as “teach.” But it may not be normal in some languages to “teach power” any more than to “know power.” Translators may need to render know my power and my might as “teach them how powerful and mighty I am” or “make them experience my power and my might.” Power and might are parallel here, two words for the same thing. If necessary, translators can collapse them into one word. Them is marked by Good News Translation as “the nations,” on the basis of verse 19. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar. Good News Translation translates this once as “once and for all” to express the meaning behind this phrase and the repetition of I will make them know, which it omits.

And they shall know that my name is the LORD is restructured in Good News Translation to say “they will know that I am the LORD.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is the same as Good News Translation, except that the clause is introduced by “and.” This rendering recognizes that name in such a context is equated with the LORD himself. As commentators point out, to know that he is the LORD means that people acknowledge him or confess that he is LORD. Consequently, some translators have translated the last part of the verse “and they will acknowledge that I am the LORD.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 18:5

The word of the LORD came to me: See 18.1 and 1.4.

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 .

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 19:15

The LORD of hosts: This is its third occurrence in this passage (verses 3, 11). See 2.19.

Behold is an attention-getter, which may not need to be expressed in translation (see 1.6).

I am bringing indicates determination or intention (Good News Translation “I am going to bring”).

This city and … all its towns: Jerusalem was a walled city with outlying villages unprotected by walls. In times of war the people from the villages would run into the city for protection. Translators may find that the equivalent of towns in a modern setting gives quite the wrong impression of these ancient settlements. A rendering such as “villages” or “small settlements” may be more appropriate.

As elsewhere in this book, the evil the LORD is going to bring can be rendered as “punishment” (Good News Translation) or “disaster” (New International Version). Here it is punishment that the LORD has pronounced against it, meaning punishment “I said I would carry out” or “that I promised I would do.”

They have stiffened their neck indicates stubbornness (New Jerusalem Bible “they have stubbornly…”). See 7.26. Likewise, refusing to hear my words shows stubbornness, as the people refuse to pay attention or heed the LORD’s commands. Good News Translation has “will not listen to what I say.”

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 .