Both Good News Translation (“The LORD said, ‘Jeremiah…’ ”) and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“The Lord answered me”) identify God as the speaker and Jeremiah as the one being addressed in verses 5-6. God’s reply indicates that Jeremiah’s future responsibilities will require stronger faith and more patience than he has thus far shown. Two examples are provided to demonstrate what is meant: (1) a runner who is too weak to run against other men cannot expect to compete against horses; and (2) a person who stumbles in the open country cannot manage his way through a thick jungle.

Safe land is translated “open country” by Good News Translation, which contrasts with the jungle. It is rendered “easy country” by Revised English Bible, and “safe country” by New International Version.

The jungle of the Jordan is better rendered “thickets of the Jordan,” as in New Revised Standard Version. The reference is to the bush and reeds in the area where the Jordan River overflows. Translators can say something like “in the thick brush along the Jordan River.”

In some languages a more natural way to express the two rhetorical questions here is:

• You have raced with men on foot, and they wore you out. Do you think you can compete with horses? You have fallen down in open country. What will happen to you in the thick bush along the Jordan River?

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 .