Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor is potentially ambiguous. New Jerusalem Bible expresses the meaning as “You have disobeyed me, by failing to grant freedom to brother and neighbour.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh renders “You would not obey Me and proclaim a release, each to his kinsman and countryman.” Translators can also use a rendering such as “You have not obeyed me and declared your fellow Israelites to be free [as I commanded].” Brother and neighbor are evidently references to the same people, “fellow Israelites” (so Good News Translation). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch also uses only one reference, “your brother.” Bible en français courant makes the reference clear by putting the two terms together: “who is your brother, your neighbor.” See 9.4.

Behold demands attention for the LORD’s judgment, and should be translated. Good News Translation is a good model in English: “Very well, then.”

I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine: The LORD will punish his people in accordance with the nature of their sin of failing to proclaim liberty to their slaves. Here again the sword represents war (see 5.12), while famine and pestilence refer to those events that follow in the wake of war. See 14.12. There are two basic ways translators can express the meaning of this expression. One is as in Good News Translation “I will give you freedom: the freedom to die by war, disease, and starvation.” The other meaning is the sense of releasing warfare, disease, and starvation to attack the people, as represented by Bible en français courant “I shall liberate against you warfare, disease, and famine.”

Horror: See 15.4.

Kingdoms is here the equivalent of “nations” (Good News Translation “every nation in the world”).

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 .