The question form of Revised Standard Version (Were they ashamed…?) and New English Bible (“Are they ashamed…?”) reflects a slight change in the vowels of the Hebrew. This interpretation is also followed by Good News Translation, New International Version, Moffatt, and An American Translation. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, however, recommends that the question form should not be adopted. Some translations that reflect this are Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and New Jerusalem Bible with “They should be ashamed…” and New American Bible with “They are odious….” Luther 1984 and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible also adopt this interpretation. For abomination see 2.7. The first line could be “They should be ashamed of the things they did that were offensive to me” or “They should be ashamed for having done things that I can’t bear to see.” The second line, No, they were not at all ashamed, should then follow smoothly: “But they aren’t” or “But they have no shame at all.”
They were not at all ashamed and they did not know how to blush mean essentially the same thing, with the second of the two clauses perhaps focusing more upon the physical showing of shame. In some languages it will seem odd to say know how to blush, since blushing is generally something that a person cannot really control. The sentence might be rendered “But they weren’t ashamed at all; they didn’t even blush” or “They had no sense of shame at all (New International Version); nothing they did even caused them to blush.” For the first three lines Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “They should be ashamed of their disgraceful behavior. But they do not think about it; they do not know what this means.”
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall is stated more clearly in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “Therefore they will perish as all others in Israel.” “They will be among the victims who are destroyed” would be another way to express it. In the context shall fall is essentially equivalent to shall be overthrown, thus forming another parallel construction. Good News Translation translates they shall be overthrown as “that will be the end of them,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar. For lines 4-5 translators can also say “They will be among those who are destroyed. I will put an end to them when I come to punish those people.”
For says the LORD, see 1.8.
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 .