As with verse 1 of the previous chapter, the beginning here can be “Here is what the LORD says about the land [or, the people] of Ammon.”

Ammonites: For Ammon see 9.25-26.

Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir?: Sons and heir refer to the same people. However, most translations do not combine the two terms; for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “It is as though Israel has no sons and rightful heirs!” Note that this model emphasizes the point with a statement instead of rhetorical questions. This will also be more natural in some other languages. The heir would be the person to inherit the land, but instead, the Ammonite god Milcom has taken over part of the Israelites’ land. In addition to a rendering like that of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, translators can say “Aren’t there any people of Israel left to possess their land?”

Milcom was the Ammonite god. If the Hebrew text is read with different vowels, the meaning may be “their king.” However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes the form of the text represented by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Of course, it was not Milcom who occupied the land, but the people who worshiped him, as Good News Translation makes clear. Further, Good News Translation uses the more familiar name “Molech.”

The territory of the tribe of Gad, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, was east of the Jordan River and north of the Dead Sea. In 734 B.C. the Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser conquered this territory and carried its people away into exile. The Ammonites then moved into the territory that the Israelites had previously occupied. In this verse translators may have to render dispossessed Gad as “taken the land of the tribe of Gad.”

Bible en français courant has reordered the verse in a way that makes it more readable:

• Why has the god Milcom taken over the territory of Gad? Why do the Ammonites occupy the Israelite towns? Doesn’t Israel have any sons to be its heirs?

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 .