But … you shall mention no more: In Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch the verse is made to begin “but the question ‘What has he laid on us?’ must never again be raised!” Translators could equally well have “But no one should ever again say the words [or, expression] ‘the burden the LORD has placed on us.’ ” In some languages this would have to be expressed in indirect speech, as in “But no one should ever again speak about a burden the LORD has imposed [on us]” or “But never again should people talk about the LORD imposing burdens on us.”
The expression the burden is every man’s own word would seem to mean that a person’s own word becomes a burden; but it is rendered by Good News Translation as “I will make my message a real burden to them,” where it is the LORD’s word that is a burden. Other versions understand this to be a question; Bible en français courant, for example, has “The word of the Lord, is it a burden for man? No, of course not”; and Revised English Bible asks “how can his word be a burden to anyone?” Holladay proposes that the meaning for this verse is “You are to use the term ‘burden of the LORD’ no more—the term ‘burden’ is to be confined to human words, and to use the term to refer to divine words would be to insult the LORD.” If translators accept this solution, then the burden is every man’s own word could be translated “the word ‘burden’ should only be used when it refers to things people [or, human beings] say.”
And you pervert the words of the living God: The verb rendered pervert has as its basic meaning “turn” or “overturn.” New Jerusalem Bible has “twist” and New English Bible “make nonsense of”; An American Translation and New International Version prefer “distort.” If the interpretation of burden given above is accepted, and you pervert the words of the living God would be “for otherwise you distort the words of the living God.” The living God can be expressed as “[the] God who lives” (see 10.10).
The LORD of hosts: See 2.19.
In this verse God is referred to by three expressions in sequence: the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. Translators must be sure that readers do not get the wrong impression that these are three different gods. They can say, for example, “our God, [who is] the God who lives, and [who is] the LORD of all the universe.”
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 .