As at the temple in verse 10, the secretary is a high official at the palace. Here Good News Translation has “court secretary,” and Revised English Bible has “chief adviser.”

The princes (Good News Translation “officials”) are the equivalent of modern cabinet ministers. Elishama, Delaiah, and Zedekiah are mentioned only here in the Old Testament; for Elnathan, see also 26.22.

These officials were sitting there. As is clear in Good News Translation, they were actually having a meeting, and translators can say “were meeting together.”

If translators have used a term such as “officials” for the first occurrence of princes in this verse, then all the princes at the end can be “all the other officials,” as in Good News Translation.

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 .