complete verse (Jeremiah 16:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 16:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “Really, does a person make something with the hands that he can worship?
    If he has done that, it is confusion!’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Can- a man -make his god? If (he) can-do, that is not a true god!’ ’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 16:20

Can man make for himself gods? may be more effective as a statement: “No one can make his own gods” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation retains the question form, but then answers in the negative: “No, if they did, those would not really be gods.” A similar rendering is “No, because what people make cannot be gods.”

See also 1.16 for a discussion of “other gods.”

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 .