Winnowers: By a change in the vowels of the Hebrew text, the meaning “foreigners” (Good News Translation) results. For lines 1-2 of the verse, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes “Against Babylon I will bring foreigners who will winnow it.” However, many readers would not understand the meaning of “winnowing,” which describes an event foreign to many cultures (see 4.11). This is why Good News Translation is a more useful model: “I will send foreigners to destroy Babylonia like a wind that blows straw away.”

Empty her land may be understood to mean either “leave the land bare” (Good News Translation), “leave her country bare” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “plunder the entire country” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Come against her: See 50.26.

On the day of trouble: Good News Translation renders this as “When that day of destruction comes.”

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 .