[1] There is no general agreement whether this chapter (and especially the concluding part of it) refers to the personal experiences of Jeremias, or describes poetically the misfortunes of the Jewish race.
[2] The sense given here is that of the Septuagint Greek; the Latin version gives in the first half, ‘He has broken my teeth one and all’; the Hebrew text in the second half is usually rendered, ‘he has bowed me down among the ashes’.
[3] vv. 33-36. This is perhaps the least unnatural of the various interpretations suggested for this difficult passage. It assumes that the word ‘wantonly’ is emphatic, and that the end of verse 36 is a question, ‘Does the Lord take no notice?’
[4] In the Hebrew text, ‘Peril and pitfall, rack and ruin have overtaken us’.
[5] Literally, ‘My eye has treated my soul harshly as the result of all the daughters of my city’; the text is perhaps corrupt.
Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd