Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria were all religious centers in the northern kingdom of Israel. This information might be helpful in a footnote. In the text translators can say “the towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria.”

With their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed: The eighty men came with marks of mourning on their bodies. What these symbolic acts represented can be put in a footnote, or translators can add to their translation “to show they were in mourning.” Note that these were things they had done to themselves, so some translations have “they had shaved their beards and torn their clothes, and had cut their bodies [to show they were in mourning].”

Bringing cereal offerings and incense to present at the temple of the LORD: The offerings had to be bloodless since the altar had been destroyed. However, even though the temple had also been destroyed, people still came to worship there where it had stood. For cereal, translators can use a general word like “grain.” If there is no such word in the language, then “foods they had harvested from the fields” can be used. For cereal offering, see 14.12. Incense is something that could be burned to make a pleasant smell as an offering. See 6.20, where Revised Standard Version renders this word as “frankincense.”

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 .