The calamity of Moab is near: Calamity occurs elsewhere in Jeremiah only in 18.17; 49.8, 32. Its basic meaning is “disaster” or “destruction.” Both Good News Translation and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh render “doom,” while New Jerusalem Bible has “ruin.” Translators can say, for example, “The time is near for Moab to be destroyed” or, if an active sentence is needed, “The time is near for the enemy to destroy Moab.”

His affliction hastens apace: Affliction is here used in parallel with calamity in line 1. The root meaning of the word is “evil,” and its first occurrence is in 1.14. Both New Jerusalem Bible and the New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh render “downfall,” while Good News Translation translates “ruin.” New English Bible renders the first of these two words as “downfall” and the second as “disaster,” which shows how much their meanings overlap. Translators can also say something like “The time when great evil comes on them is near” or “Soon it will be ruined.”

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 .