For this verse, see 39.10.

Some of the poorest of the land: This uses the same term in Hebrew as in the previous verse. New International Version takes the term to refer to the same group, translating “some of the poorest people” in verse 15 and “the rest of the poorest people” here. New Jerusalem Bible seems to take the poorest of the land here as referring to a different group: “some of the poor country-people.” Note that Good News Translation adds the clause, “who owned no property,” which occurs in 39.10. However, it is not necessary to say that here.

To be vinedressers and plowmen is rendered by Good News Translation as “to work in the vineyards and fields.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates plowmen by the idiomatic “field hands.”

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 .