Since the two pillars (Good News Translation “columns”) were identical, Good News Translation places verses 21-22 together.

Eighteen cubits; that is, “8 meters” or “27 feet” (Good News Translation).

Twelve cubits; that is, “5.3 meters” or “18 feet” (Good News Translation).

Four fingers; that is, “75 millimeters” or “3 inches” (Good News Translation); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “8 centimeters.”

A capital: This is a piece at the top of a column that bears the weight of the roof. If readers are not familiar with the use of columns in buildings, then they can use an expression such as “On top of each column was the large section of bronze that supported the weight of the roof.”

Five cubits; that is, “2.2 meters” or “7 feet” (Good News Translation); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “2 meters.”

Good News Translation translates network as “grillwork.”

Pomegranates are a round fruit about the size of oranges. It would seem that these bronze ones were used for decoration. If the name is unfamiliar, translators can say something like “round balls of bronze” or “round bronze fruits.”

And the second pillar had the like, with pomegranates: With pomegranates is omitted by some and left trailing by others (New American Bible “The pomegranates…”). However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes the meaning represented by Revised English Bible (“The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was exactly like it”) and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (“the two had the same measurements and the same pomegranates”).

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 .