Let us lie down in our shame is best understood as Good News Translation has it: “We should lie down in shame.” For shame see “shamed” in 2.26.

Dishonor is used in parallel with the noun shame. Elsewhere in Jeremiah the noun is used only twice (20.11; 51.51); it is commonly rendered “disgrace.” If it is unnatural to speak of it covering someone, then a simile (comparison) can be used: “our disgrace will cover us like a blanket.” Bright is very descriptive:

We have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day is more naturally expressed in Good News Translation: “We and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God.”

And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God appears in Good News Translation as “we have never obeyed his commands.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, which continues the use of the second person reference to God, has “We have never obeyed you.”

For LORD our God, see 2.17. It may not be natural in some languages to use the phrase twice in the same sentence. Good News Translation, for example, uses “his” in the second instance.

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 .