As the Revised Standard Version footnote states, 9.1 is 8.23 in Hebrew. English translations follow the tradition of the Septuagint and the Vulgate by beginning chapter 9 with this verse. 9.2 of the English translations is 9.1 in Hebrew. In either case, what is important is to note that this verse is a continuation of the previous section. There should be no break or transition in the translation.

The wish of the text, expressed by O that my head … my people, is a wish for something that is not possible or is not the case. Good News Translation has simply “I wish…,” but others strengthen this with “How I wish…” or “I wish so much….” The second part of the verse is sometimes more easily rendered with a separate sentence: “Then I could weep day and night….”

Waters may have to be qualified as “a well of water” (Good News Translation) or “a spring” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

If fountain is unknown, translators can use a word such as “source” or “spring,” as long as it is not the same term they used for waters.

The text has day and night, but in some languages “night and day” is more natural. The expression means “all the time” or “continuously.”

For the slain of the daughter of my people is translated “for the many of my people whom they have slain” by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. For the daughter of my people, see 4.11.

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 .