As Revised Standard Version shows, verses 5-7 consist of four “if” clauses, followed by a conclusion introduced by “then” (verse 7). For the average English reader this is an extremely difficult construction, and so Good News Translation shifts to a series of five commands, each of which is a separate sentence: “Change … Be fair … Stop … Stop … Stop….” Then verse 7 of Good News Translation ties the conclusion to the commands: “If you change, I will….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch places verses 5-7 together, and begins: “Only if you completely change your life, will you remain in this land which I have given to your ancestors as a permanent possession….” Then Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch follows with a series of four imperatives.

Amend your ways and your doings is repeated from verse 3.

Execute justice one with another is translated “Be fair in your treatment of one another” by Good News Translation and “treat one another fairly” by New Jerusalem Bible. The command is not to be limited to judicial matters, as might be suggested by Revised Standard Version. See also 5.1.

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 .