The nations: See verse 1. Here “other nations” or “all the nations” would be good renderings.

Your shame may be misunderstood, as though Egypt had done some shameful thing. The sense here can be expressed as “how you were humiliated.”

The earth is full of your cry: This can be “Everywhere on earth people can hear your cries [of pain].” The first two lines of this verse are translated by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “The nations have found out how terribly you were humbled; all the world has heard you scream.”

Warrior has stumbled against warrior: This expression is usually translated as “One soldier trips over another” (Good News Translation) or “soldiers stumble against each other.”

They have both fallen together: Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch understands this to mean “no one escapes with their life.” Other translations have the more literal “they both fall down” or “they all fall together.”

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 .