Whatever is done for them is false: The translation must make it clear that them refers to the idols, not the women referred to in verse 43. The Good News Translation rendering of this sentence, “Everything about these idols is false,” is an equally good translation of the Greek. New American Bible has an interesting approach: “All that takes place around these gods is a fraud.” This is not only a justifiable translation of the Greek text, but it also relates the verse to the verse just before it. Another way to say this is “Everything that happens around these idols is false.”

A more difficult problem for some translators may be finding an appropriate equivalent for the term false. The worship of these idols is useless, vain, without value. Contemporary English Version follows this interpretation with “Everything the Babylonians do to serve their idols is useless.” New English Bible attempts to round out the meaning with two descriptive nouns, “fraud and delusion,” where the fraud is on the part of the priests and the delusion is on the part of the worshipers.

Why then must any one think that they are gods, or call them gods?: This occurrence of the refrain is almost word for word the same as in verse 40. The difference in Greek is altogether too minor to be reflected in translation.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.