The first sentence of this verse is omitted by Revised English Bible, but without the support of Hebrew manuscripts. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible retains the sentence, though with a note, suggesting that it represents a scribal attempt to apply the message to his own day.

And you, O generation addresses the people of Jeremiah’s day (New International Version “You of this generation”), which is made clear by Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “People of Israel.”

The vocative, O generation, is placed after And you, but many languages will find it necessary to have it at the beginning, as in “People of Israel, pay attention” or “You people of Israel, pay attention.”

In Hebrew heed is literally “see,” hence New Revised Standard Version “behold”; but in such a context the meaning would be “pay attention to” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The Septuagint has “hear.”

Good News Translation uses first person in this line: “listen to what I am saying.” This seems quite appropriate since the rest of the verse does have the LORD speaking as “I.” But other possibilities are “pay attention to what I the LORD say to you” and “listen carefully to this word I the LORD give you.”

Have I been a wilderness … a land of thick darkness? may need to be shifted to a comparison: “Have I been like a wilderness…?” For the meaning of wilderness, see 2.2. The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “Of course not!” For some translators this idea is better communicated as a statement; for example, “In no way have I been like a wilderness or a land of thick darkness to Israel” or “I have never been like a land….”

The noun translated thick darkness is found only here in the Old Testament. New International Version (“great darkness”) and New American Bible (“darkness”) retain the symbolism, as does Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “in which there is never day.” Both Moffatt and New Jerusalem Bible refer to it as a land of “gloom” (Jerusalem Bible “deepest gloom”). Good News Translation attempts to retain the figure of darkness together with its interpretation (“a dark and dangerous land”), while Luther 1984 and Revised English Bible dispense with the figure altogether: “a waterless land.” Inasmuch as a land of thick darkness may convey no meaning to the readers, it may be best to follow the solution of Revised English Bible and Luther 1984, interpreting this figure as a parallel to wilderness of the previous line.

Why then do my people say…? must be interpreted in the sense of “What reason then do my people have for saying…?” In some languages a statement will convey the meaning more naturally than a question: “My people do not have the right to say….”

The meaning of the Hebrew verb translated We are free is uncertain. At least one scholar believes it derives from a stem that means “go here and there,” which points back to the figure of the camel in verse 23. Since these two passages are not so far apart, he proposes that the Hebrew must have read “We rebel” or “We renounce obedience.” This is very close to the meaning of the Septuagint (“We will not be ruled over”), which may be the basis for most modern translations. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “We will have nothing more to do with you” and Jerusalem Bible has “We will go our own way.” A common translation is “We are free to do as we wish.” This idea of doing as you please or going your own way finds support in the parallel statement we will come no more to thee.

We will come no more to thee may have to be expressed as “We will not come back to serve you again” or “We will not come back to your rule [over us].”

The text uses direct speech for the people, as do the examples above, but some languages will require that translators use indirect speech, as in Good News Translation, or “How can my people then say that they are free to do as they wish and that they will not come back to me?”

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 .