This verse is generally taken to reflect the custom of fasting as a sign of mourning (see 2Sam 3.35). When the time of the fast had come to an end, food and drink would apparently be brought in by friends and neighbors.

Good News Translation assumes that break bread … to comfort him has the same meaning as give him the cup of consolation, and so it puts break bread and give … the cup into the same sentence: “No one will eat or drink with anyone to comfort him….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar in its restructuring. Translators can also restructure the verse as follows:

• No one is to offer food to people in mourning, to comfort them in their loss. Even if it is their father or mother who has died, don’t give them something to drink [or, a comforting drink].

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 .

The verb put to shame is used numerous times in Jeremiah; its first occurrence is in 2.26. The text has Let those be put to shame, which is a wish directed to the LORD, asking him to either bring on the disgrace or cause it to happen. Hence Good News Translation has “Bring disgrace.”

For those … who persecute, see “persecutors” in 15.15.

Be dismayed translates the verb first used in 1.17.

In this verse the pronoun me is emphatic in its second and third occurrences, while them is emphatic in its first occurrence. One way to translate this in the first four lines is to say “LORD, bring disgrace on those who are causing me to suffer, not on me [or, don’t disgrace me]. Make them the ones who are filled with terror, not me.”

The day of evil: See verse 17.

Double destruction is best taken as a means of making emphasis: “destroy them, destroy them utterly” (Revised English Bible) and “break them to pieces” (Good News Translation).

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 .

The pronoun thou is emphatic in the Hebrew sentence.

Forgive and blot out are here used in the same sense, as are iniquity (see 2.22) and sin (see 5.25). Translators sometimes keep two terms for both; for example, Good News Translation has “Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin.”

Let them be overthrown before thee: If before thee is taken as the instrument or means of destruction, then we may translate “Destroy them” or “Throw them down in defeat” (Good News Translation). The verb overthrown actually means “stumbled,” so New Revised Standard Version has “Let them be tripped up before you” and Revised English Bible “when they are brought stumbling before you.” But the context suggests the meaning given in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Deal with them in the time of thine anger; that is, “deal with them in anger.”

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 .

Why did I come forth from the womb is more naturally expressed as “Why was I born?” by Good News Translation and “Why did I have to be born?” by Contemporary English Version.

To see toil and sorrow means to experience them.

Spend my days in shame refers to the end result of Jeremiah’s life, and so Good News Translation has “to end my life in disgrace”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “and to end in shame!” For shame see 2.26.

The verse is a rhetorical question, which Good News Translation breaks into two questions. Jeremiah is really saying that his life was for nothing, completely in vain. In most languages that is clear; but if it is not, then translators may have to turn the question into some kind of affirmation; for example, “I was born for no reason. I only have trouble and sorrow, and my life will end in disgrace.”

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 .

Go up to Lebanon, and cry out …: Good News Translation identifies the persons addressed (“People of Jerusalem…”), while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch identifies both the persons addressed and the speaker (“The Lord says: ‘Go up on the peaks of Lebanon, you people of Jerusalem…’ ”). This is probably the best way to handle the verse. New Jerusalem Bible uses a note to indicate that Jeremiah is addressing “personified Jerusalem, who bewails the events of 598 B.C….”

The people of Jerusalem are told to mourn their fate on three mountain ranges. The Lebanon Mountains (see 18.14) are in Syria to the north; Bashan is across the Jordan River to the northeast; Abarim is a mountainous region in the territory of Moab across the Jordan to the southeast. Good News Translation identifies Abarim as “the mountains of Moab,” while a note in New Jerusalem Bible indicates that Nebo is its highest peak. This is where Moses died (Num 27.12; Deut 32.49). It is important that Lebanon be rendered as something like “mountains of Lebanon,” since otherwise readers will think only of the modern country Lebanon.

It may not be possible, and it is probably not necessary here, to try to make distinctions in cry out, lift up your voice, and cry.

Your lovers: These may be the leaders of Jerusalem (verse 22), the foreign gods (3.1), or the nations with which Jerusalem had entered into alliances (4.30). The New Jerusalem Bible note accepts the first of these possibilities, while a note in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible follows the third alternative. Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translate lovers as “allies.” In verse 22 “lovers” is used in parallel with “shepherds” (Judah’s leaders), but it is not necessary to assume that the two groups are identical.

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 .

Saying leaves it unclear whether it is the prophets of old or the LORD who spoke. Good News Translation opts for the former with “They told you,” but a number of other translations prefer the latter; for example, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “He said to you.” Since it is not certain, an impersonal expression such as “It was said” is good in languages that use it, or New Jerusalem Bible is helpful with “The message was this.” As in these examples, many translators will begin a new sentence here.

Turn now … and dwell upon the land may give a wrong impression regarding the meaning of the text. Turn now … is the condition that the LORD sets for allowing the people to dwell upon the land. New English Bible is clear: “If … you will turn … then you shall for ever live on the soil.” Good News Translation has “turn … so that you could go on living in the land.” We may also render “turn … and the LORD will let you go on living in the land.”

Turn … from his evil way and wrong doings: As elsewhere (see 18.11), Turn … from his evil way means to stop doing evil. Evil way is used also in 18.11; 23.22; 26.3; 35.15; 36.3, 7. It may be difficult to distinguish between evil way and wrong doings, though most translations prefer to retain both expressions rather than to combine them. Revised English Bible makes them almost the same in meaning, “wicked ways and evil conduct,” while New American Bible has “evil way … evil deeds.” Good News Translation represents the combination by “your wicked way of life and … the evil things you are doing.”

Your fathers is simply “your ancestors” (see 2.5). From of old could refer to these ancestors, as in “your ancestors of long ago,” but most translations join it to and for ever in expressions such as “as a permanent possession” (Good News Translation) or “to have forever.”

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 .

The priests and the prophets: Both groups were probably connected with the temple and its worship. For priests see 1.1. For prophets see 1.5.

Jeremiah: We should note that beginning in verse 2 Good News Translation shifts to a first person reference for Jeremiah, and this is continued throughout the chapter. Most other versions prefer to retain the third person reference.

Speaking these words in the house of the LORD: Good News Translation has “saying these things in the Temple.”

In Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch the verse appears as:

• The priests, the prophets and all the people heard what Jeremiah said in the court of the temple.

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 .