Keeps … fresh (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, Moffatt) assumes that the verb derives from a Hebrew stem that means “keep cool,” that is, fresh. Other scholars believe that it comes from a verb that means “gush up” or “bubble forth” (see New American Bible, New International Version, Luther 1984, An American Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). No final decision is possible, though the comparison is carried better in the second image: just as a spring of water constantly gushes forth, so the people of Jerusalem consistently do nothing but evil. New International Version has “As a well pours out its water, so she pours out her wickedness.”

Wickedness translates the same noun first used in 1.16; more recently it occurred in 6.1 (“evil”). If wickedness is difficult to express as a noun, a verbal expression is also possible: “The wicked things her people do flow out of the city like water pouring out of a well.”

Violence is mentioned also in 20.8; 51.35, 46. Destruction appears together with “violence” in 20.8; see also 48.3 for the only other usage of destruction in Jeremiah (Revised Standard Version “Desolation”). Some languages may not allow for violence and destruction to be heard, though people may hear “of” or “about” them. Thus Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “One hears only of violence and destruction.” Translators could say something like “In the city is the noise of people doing violent and destructive things.”

New Jerusalem Bible assumes, together with Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, that are heard is to be understood in an impersonal sense: “… are what you hear in her.” Another interpretation is that these are the words people are shouting in the city. In support of this position, one commentator suggests that these two words are the normal outcry of a person attacked by robbers, and so equivalent to “Help, police!” However, the passive is frequently used of the LORD, and before me of the following line refers to the LORD. Thus Good News Translation has a first person reference with the LORD as subject: “I hear violence and destruction in the city….”

Sickness and wounds is the rendering accepted by most translations, though some differ rather radically. The noun translated sickness is found elsewhere in Jeremiah only in 10.19, where it is translated “affliction.” And a verb from the same stem is translated “felt … anguish” in 5.3 by Revised Standard Version. Thus some translations differ rather radically from the traditional rendering: “wounds and blows” (Moffatt, New American Bible), “murder and blows” (Luther 1984), and “blows and agony” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The context, which speaks of suffering occasioned by violence, would seem to support this group of renderings. The noun wounds is literally “blow” or “stroke” (of being hit).

One problem for translators is to decide who is sick and who is receiving the wounds. New International Version has “her sickness and wounds,” but most translations in English have left it open, as in “I see sickness and wounds everywhere.” In many languages the sufferers have to be identified, as in “Everywhere I look I see people who are suffering and wounded.” Some commentators tie this expression to the first line of verse 8, thereby having the LORD warn the people by sending them sickness and injury. Thus the translation would be “Be warned, Jerusalem, by your sickness and injury.”

Are ever before me is translated more naturally in Good News Translation: “are all I see.”

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 .