And concerning: Although Hebrew frequently begins sentences with And (see verse 31), this is not a typical English pattern.

You shall say introduces a series of quotations within quotations, which is the preference in Hebrew. However, other languages may prefer a mixture of direct and indirect discourse, as in Good News Translation.

Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it…?”: The question that the LORD says Jehoiakim is asking can be particularly difficult in some languages. Good News Translation is a helpful model for some, but it is also possible to say “You have burned the scroll and you have said, ‘Jeremiah, why did you write…?’ ”

Will certainly come is literally “coming will come,” a Hebrew construction that expresses emphasis.

Will cut off from it man and beast: Cut off translates the causative form of a verb that in its simple form means “cease” or “stop” (see 31.36). In this particular form, it is also used in 7.34 (Revised Standard Version “make to cease”); 16.9 (Revised Standard Version “make to cease”); 48.33 (Revised Standard Version “made cease”), 35 (Revised Standard Version “bring to an end”). Good News Translation translates “kill” and Revised English Bible “exterminate.” The two nouns man and beast are used collectively: “its people and its animals” (Good News Translation).

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 .