As a comparison of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation will immediately indicate, the two negative rhetorical questions (Shall I not … shall I not…?) have been restructured by Good News Translation into strong affirmations: “But I, the LORD, will punish them for these things; I will take revenge on this nation.”

For says the LORD, see 1.8. Some translators find it more natural in this verse to drop the expression.

Punish … avenge myself: See verse 9. Here translators can say something like “Surely I the LORD will punish them for these things. I will take revenge on people like this.”

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 .