The LORD continues to speak, and so Good News Translation identifies the speaker, since this is the beginning of a new section: “The LORD said, ‘Moab….’ ”

A basic difficulty in the translation of this verse relates to the author mixing together the illustration of winemaking and comments about exile. The first and fourth lines are drawn from the imagery of peace, which is followed by exile, while lines 2, 3, 5, and 6 relate to winemaking.

Good News Translation has unscrambled the two elements and restructured: “Moab has always lived secure and has never been taken into exile. Moab is like wine left to settle undisturbed and never poured from jar to jar. Its flavor has never been ruined, and it tastes as good as ever.” This is a particularly helpful model for translators because it not only unscrambles the two elements, but it also renders the wine metaphor as a simile (“like wine”).

Settled on his lees: For wine to develop a good taste, it is left undisturbed for a period of time with the sediment (called lees or “dregs”) still in it to give flavor. If winemaking is not known in a culture, rather than building this information into the translation, it is sufficient to say, for example, “like wine left undisturbed” (see Good News Translation).

His taste remains in him: As in Good News Translation, this means “it tastes as good as ever.”

His scent is not changed; that is, “it still has a good flavor.”

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 .