complete verse (Jeremiah 48:39)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 48:39:

  • Kupsabiny: “Oh, yes, what a terrible destruction! Cry out!
    See how (they/it) have hid the eyes because of fear/shame!
    (People) grin and laugh
    and it is terrible when all its neighbors hear (it).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “How ruined Moab is! Listen to the crying of her residents. Moab was truly put to shame, and it (is)-being-mocked and being-loathed by all the nations in its surrounding.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Moab will be completely shattered!
    And you will hear the people wailing loudly!
    They will be disgraced.
    Moab will become a nation that people ridicule.
    The people in nearby countries will be horrified about what has happened there.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 48:39

How it is broken!: The reference is to Moab (Good News Translation “Moab has been shattered!”).

How they wail! may be rendered “Listen to them cry out!” For wail see 4.8.

Turned his back in shame: Good News Translation renders this as “has been disgraced.” This is the interpretation of most other translations too, with something such as “turned their back in disgrace.” New Jerusalem Bible, however, understands the expression to refer to retreating: “so shamefully in retreat.”

A derision and a horror to all that are round about him: Derision is used earlier in verses 26 and 27; its first occurrence is in 20.7 (Revised Standard Version “laughingstock”). The word may mean either “laughter” or “mockery, laughingstock.” It comes from the same verb used in 15.17 (Revised Standard Version “merrymakers”); 30.19 (Revised Standard Version “make merry”); 31.4 (Revised Standard Version “merrymakers”). As elsewhere, it is translated as “something to mock.” Good News Translation translates horror (see 17.17) as “in ruins”; others have “an object of horror.” Good News Translation places the two events in the order in which they happen: “It is in ruins, and all the surrounding nations make fun of it.” Translators can say something like “All the surrounding nations find Moab as a thing of horror and something to mock.” The meaning of all that are round about him (see verse 17) is probably “all the surrounding nations” (Good News Translation).

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 .