In this verse Good News Translation (“The people of Jerusalem cried out”) and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“Jerusalem cries”) each identify the speaker. This is important in translation; otherwise, the reader will naturally assume that either Jeremiah or the LORD is speaking.

Woe is me was discussed at 4.13 and 4.31.

The three nouns of pain (hurt … wound … affliction) are perhaps equivalent in meaning. Hurt is first used in 4.6 (Revised Standard Version “destruction”); wound and affliction (in reverse order) are both first used in 6.7, where affliction is rendered “sickness.” Translators will find different ways to render hurt, wound, and affliction, possibly “pain,” “injury [or, sore],” and “sickness [or, illness].”

The phrase and I must bear it can be understood in two ways on the basis of assuming different vowels in the Hebrew text. One is to understand that the people are aware of their guilt and are determined to bear their punishment as best they can. Revised Standard Version seems to take this position, as does New International Version “This is my sickness, and I must endure it.” But the sense could also be that the people assume that their hardship is not serious, and is therefore something they can bear easily. New American Bible follows this with “Yet I had thought: if I make light of my wound, I can bear it,” as does Good News Translation “And we thought this was something we could endure!” This latter interpretation is preferable.

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 .