Winnowed … winnowing fork: See the comment at 4.11. Many translators represent the figure with a comparison such as “As a farmer scatters chaff with a winnowing fork, I have scattered them.” Good News Translation drops the image of the winnowing fork altogether, but retains the basis of the comparison: “I threw you to the wind like straw.”

Gates is here used as the equivalent of “cities” (New English Bible); New American Bible has “every city gate.” For the use of gates in this sense, see 14.2.

I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people: Bereaved translates a verb that has as its primary meaning “make childless,” which is the basis for “I killed your children” of Good News Translation. New American Bible has “I destroyed my people through bereavement,” while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch combines the meaning contained in the two verbs bereaved and destroyed: “I destroyed them completely.” Another possible way to translate this line is seen in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and Bible en français courant, which have essentially “I destroyed my people by taking away their children.”

Ways are definitely to be understood as “evil ways” (New American Bible, Good News Translation).

Good News Translation has made clear the relation of the last line to the previous one with “because you did not stop your evil ways.”

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 Hebrew of this verse has the word “first” near the beginning, but Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint, which deletes it. A number of translations either omit this word or else assume that it will be understood in their rendering (Good News Translation, New International Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Moffatt, An American Translation). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that it be retained in translation, since it is an integral part of the Hebrew. It is best understood as indicating that in this verse the LORD is saying what he will do to the people before he delivers them, as promised in verses 14 and 15. Translators may therefore say something like “First” (similarly Revised English Bible), “But first” (Luther 1984), “Before I do that,” or “Before I deliver them.”

I will doubly recompense their iniquity and their sin: I will doubly recompense is expressed in Good News Translation as “I will make … pay double.” Iniquity (see verse 17) is first found in 2.22. It is here used in parallel with sin (see 5.25). Translators can say “I will make them pay double for their evildoing and sin.”

They have polluted my land: The expression polluted my land refers to defiling the land by doing things that dishonor the LORD. They have made it ceremonially unclean. Translators may therefore use here the expression they have used elsewhere for “unclean” in a ritual sense, or they can say “they have made my land unfit for me [or, for my worship].”

Translators may link sin in the previous clause with polluted, as in “… their evildoing and their sin of making my land unclean.”

Detestable idols translates one word in Hebrew which is rendered as “abominations” by Revised Standard Version in 4.1. Here it can be “[idols] which I hate [or, detest].” In the text these idols are described as carcasses, which New International Version renders “lifeless forms of their vile images.” Thus there are two things to say about these idols: they are lifeless, and the LORD hates them. Translators may render the second clause of the verse “they have defiled my land with their idols, which have no life and which I hate” or “they have made my land unfit for me by filling it with lifeless idols, which are a horror to me.”

My inheritance is translated “it” by Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, referring back to my land; Revised English Bible has “my possession” and New Jerusalem Bible “my heritage.” The expression is parallel to my land, but has the additional meaning of “chosen” or “possessed.” See 2.7, where it is rendered “my heritage.”

The word here rendered abominations (Good News Translation “false gods”) is first used in 2.7. It is parallel with detestable idols, and is usually translated as “vile and disgusting things.” The last two clauses of the verse can be rendered “They have defiled my land with the lifeless idols I hate; they filled the land I chose for myself with things that disgust me.”

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 .

Arise: See 1.17.

The text says go down, which may indicate that the potter’s house was in the lower part of the city, perhaps where there was a water supply. Most translators retain this, but if it is too awkward, translators can simply say “go.”

Potter’s house: Evidently the making of pottery was a profitable business in ancient Israel. Archaeologists have found numerous pottery pieces, dating from all periods of Israel’s history. Clay was shaped as bowls, pots or other vessels, then baked. While the house may have been where the potter and his family lived, it was also obviously his workplace.

I will let you hear my words is more naturally expressed as in Good News Translation “I will give you my message” or Revised English Bible “I shall tell you what I have to 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 .

This place: The reference is to the city of Jerusalem, as this city makes clear. Good News Translation avoids the repetition, referring simply to “this city and its inhabitants.”

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 .

In place of The burden of the LORD, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “What has the Lord laid on us?” In Bible en français courant the first part of the verse is rendered “If a prophet, a priest, or anyone speaks of a burden imposed by the Lord….” The sense conveyed here is that this burden is imposed on “us,” that is, on the people who are using the expression “the burden of the LORD.”

Household is rendered “family” by Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, and others. This would include the person’s immediate relatives together with his slaves and servants.

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 .

Drink often requires an object, as in “drink the wine [or, anger] in the cup” or perhaps “drink what is in the cup.” In some languages “drink from the cup” is possible.

Stagger: In another form this verb is rendered by Revised Standard Version as “toss” in 5.22 and as “surge” in 46.7. In the same form in which it appears here, it is translated “surge” by Revised Standard Version in 46.8. Most versions have the equivalent of “stagger,” though Revised English Bible has “vomit” and New American Bible “be convulsed.” Moffatt combines this and the following verb: “stagger madly to and fro.”

The relation between shall drink and stagger is one of consequence, as Good News Translation makes clear: “When they drink from it, they will stagger.”

Be crazed (Good News Translation “go out of their minds”) is the meaning of this verb as rendered by most versions. See elsewhere at 46.9 (Revised Standard Version “rage”); 50.38 (Revised Standard Version “are mad”); 51.7 (Revised Standard Version “went mad”). It can also be expressed as “act as if they are crazy” or “act like crazy people.”

Because of the sword which I am sending among them: As throughout the Bible, the sword often stands for warfare (see 5.12). In this verse, however, it is sometimes easier for readers to understand the sense if translators say “because of the killing that I am sending their way,” “because of the killing that will take place among them,” “because of the many of their people who will be killed,” or even “because of the massacres I am going to bring about 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 .