Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

I made a covenant: In Hebrew the occurrence of the pronoun I is emphatic. It is sometimes rendered with an expression such as “I am the one who made a covenant.” Here, unlike verse 10, the word covenant should be translated by the same expression used elsewhere to refer to the covenant the LORD made with his people. See 31.31.

Fathers is better rendered “ancestors,” including all Israelites who were brought out of the land of Egypt. See 2.5.

When I brought them out: Whereas Hebrew has only one verb (brought), Good News Translation uses two, “rescued” and “set … free.”

In place of the house of bondage, Good News Translation renders “from slavery.” This could also be expressed as “the place where they were kept as slaves.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates God’s words as “When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, where they had lived as slaves, then I made a covenant with them and decree.”

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 .