Now the word of the LORD came to me saying: Revised Standard Version represents a literal rendering of the Hebrew text. Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch shift to a construction that is more natural for their readers: “The LORD said to me.” In 1.1 a third person reference was used for Jeremiah, but here he is referred to in the first person.

A significant problem for some translators of Jeremiah will be the matter of direct and indirect (or reported) speech.

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 .