The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Good News Translation expresses this with a sentence, “The LORD spoke to me.” Translators can also say “This is what the LORD said to me.” See 1.4; 7.1. Note that the first person “me” (so Good News Translation) may be more natural than the third person Jeremiah of the text.

The tenth year of Zedekiah and the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar; that is, 588 B.C. In January of that year the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem and captured the city in August of 587 B.C. Both tenth and eighteenth refer to the number of years that these rulers had reigned, as Good News Translation makes clear. Nebuchadrezzar is transliterated slightly differently in Good News Translation to be consistent with other occurrences of the name, and to use the more familiar form. See 21.2.

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 .