This verse is God’s reply to Israel’s statement of repentance, just as 4.1-2 is God’s response to Israel’s repentance of 3.22-25.

Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child?: The two rhetorical questions expect the answer “Yes,” and so Good News Translation renders them as a statement: “Israel you are my dearest child, the one I love best.” The word translated dear (Good News Translation “dearest”) is used only here in the Old Testament; in 20.5 an adjective from the same Hebrew root is rendered “prized,” referring to possessions. New American Bible translates “favored”; almost all other versions use “dear.”

Darling is used only here in Jeremiah, though it occurs five times in Psa 119 (verses 24, 77, 92, 143, 174), where the psalmist speaks of his “delight” in the law of the LORD. It occurs twice in Proverbs (8.30-31) and once in Isaiah (5.7, Revised Standard Version “pleasant”). Revised English Bible retains the sense of the psalmist with “in whom I so delight.” New International Version and New Revised Standard Version are similar. Other translations use “preferred” or “favoured” (New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation is also a good model: “the one I love best.”

I speak against him may also be rendered “I speak of him” or “I mention your/his name” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Jerusalem Bible takes the verb to mean “threaten” (see the Good News Translation note), while New English Bible has “I turn my back on him.”

I do remember him still is emphatic in Hebrew, which is literally “remembering I remember him still.” Most translators understand this as Good News Translation does: “I think of you with love.”

My heart yearns is literally “my inward parts rumble” (see 4.19, where “rumble” is rendered “beating wildly” by Revised Standard Version). For the Jews the interior of the body was the center for emotions such as mercy and pity. In English it is the heart (as in Good News Translation), but in other languages it may be other parts of the body. Translators should use whatever expression would naturally express great feelings of tender love and compassion here.

I will surely have mercy on him translates the Hebrew construction “showing mercy, I will show him mercy.” Translators can say “I will surely show him mercy.”

Says the LORD: See 1.8.

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 .