In this verse the imagery of the camel and the wild donkey in heat is applied to the people of Israel. Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch indicate this by introducing the noun of address “Israel.”
Keep your feet from going unshod is the picture of someone running about so much that his sandals are worn out. A few scholars trace the root meaning of the term unshod to a companion word in Arabic which means “tired.” Thus the meaning would be “don’t let your feet become tired out.” However, none of the major translations seem to follow this interpretation. New English Bible (“Why not save your feet from stony ground”) and Luther 1984 (“Be careful not to injure your feet”) apparently follow the Hebrew, but focus upon the damage that results to the feet from worn-out shoes. Good News Translation is similar: “Israel, don’t wear your feet out.” Bible en français courant has “In running so fast you’re going to hurt your feet.” A similar expression is “Be careful you don’t wear out your sandals.”
And your throat from thirst describes what happens to an individual who runs frantically in a hot, dry, desert region. Good News Translation (“don’t … let your throat become dry”) and Jerusalem Bible (“your own throat may grow dry”) use a more idiomatic English expression. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch includes the cause of the dryness: “… and your throat become dry from much running around.” Good News Translation, on the basis of what follows in the remainder of the verse, goes even further: “don’t … let your throat become dry from chasing after other gods.”
It is hopeless means “I can’t turn back” (Good News Translation). New International Version has “It’s no use!”
Good News Translation identifies strangers as “foreign gods.” A Traduction œcuménique de la Bible footnote indicates that the primary reference is to people (as in 5.19; 30.8; 51.2, 51; usually translated “foreigners” by Good News Translation), though gods are also included (as in 3.13). But the context would suggest that the meaning here is to be confined solely to foreign gods. Revised English Bible dramatically portrays the response of the people to God’s accusation: “No; I am desperate. I love foreign gods and I must go after them.” In this context “go after” is the equivalent of “worship and serve.”
As we suggested in the discussion at 1.4, some languages will require indirect speech here, as in “But you have said that your case is hopeless because you have loved strange gods and must go after them.”
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 .