They are identified by Good News Translation as “The LORD’s people”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “The people of Judah.” Since the last mentioned noun that They could refer back to is “the house of Israel and the house of Judah” in verse 11, it is equally possible to have simply “the people.”

Spoken falsely of is translated “denied” by Good News Translation, New American Bible, Revised English Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible. New International Version has “lied about” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “do not take seriously.” The verb is used only here in Jeremiah, but its meaning is similar to what it is in other Old Testament contexts, where it means verbal rejection. Since rejecting Yahweh with words is to reject him in substance, “rejected” or “denied” are both better than “spoken falsely of.”

He will do nothing (Good News Translation “He won’t really do anything”) is more literally “Not he” (New American Bible), which New English Bible interprets to mean “He does not exist.” But a footnote in New Jerusalem Bible correctly warns against this interpretation: “This is a denial not of God’s existence but of his intervention….” It would therefore be possible to say “He is nothing,” “He doesn’t count for anything,” or “There is nothing to him.” New Jerusalem Bible also points out an alternative possibility, which is represented by the Good News Translation footnote: “We don’t want anything to do with him.” In light of the parallel statement that follows (no evil will come upon us), the interpretation represented by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is preferable to this.

No evil will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine may be expressed as a causative construction with the LORD as subject: “The LORD will not send war and famine on us; he won’t let any evil thing happen to us.” The first clause could also be “No disaster will happen to us.” As in numerous other biblical passages, sword is equated with war, and famine is used to describe the terrible aftermath of war. See very often means to experience. Consequently, we may render this as “We won’t suffer from war or famine” or “We won’t suffer from war or starve to death.”

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 .