1. written / with a pen of iron, / incised with an adamantine point. The writing in question is incised on a stone or clay tablet. The pen of iron has a point of very hard stone, shamir, for this purpose; shamir is perhaps diamond, though that identification is not certain.

on the tablet of their hearts / and on the horns of their altars. Inwardly, the consciousness of their offense is indelible, whatever they outwardly profess. The altars should be sacred places but have been profaned by their acts, which would involve performing pagan rites on the altars. The altars usually had protuberances at their four corners, referred to as “horns.” The received text has “your altars” but many Hebrew manuscripts show “their altars.”

2. as their sons recall. The phrase is somewhat obscure and has been construed by some antithetically, making “sons” the object of the recalling. In the understanding of this translation, the verse is a direct continuation of the previous one: Judah’s offense is manifested in the pagan altars and in the sons, perniciously taught by their fathers, who cling to all the paraphernalia of pagan worship.

4. And you shall let your estate slip away, on your own. The wording is not entirely transparent, but this translation hews to the received text.

And I will make you serve your enemies. These two lines of poetry replicate 15:14, with minor variations.

5. humans. Although ʾadam can be translated as “man,” it is the generic term either for “person” or for “humankind” and is not limited to the male gender.

strong arm. The Hebrew says merely “arm,” an epithet for “strength.”

6. an arid shrub. The exact identity of the plant named is not certain, but it should be noted that this Hebrew term ʿarʿar clearly evokes ʿariri, “barren,” and alliterates with the next word in the Hebrew text, ʿaravah, “desert.”

barren land. Literally, “a salt land.”

8. And he shall be like a tree planted by waters. The kinship of this entire verse with Psalm 1 has often been noted, though it is unclear whether Jeremiah was alluding to that psalm or simply deploying a stock comparison shared by his poem and the psalm.

9. More crooked the heart than all things. While the adjective ʿaqov certainly suggests “deceitful,” as many translations reflect, the root meaning of “crooked” is worth preserving. This is an etymology of Jacob’s name, as the angry Esau reminds us in Genesis 27:36.

it is grievously ill. The crooked human heart is the manifestation of a pathological condition. Though Jeremiah may sometimes seem a ranter, on occasion he shows himself to be a shrewd moral psychologist.

10. I am the LORD who probes the heart. No human can fathom the deviousness of the heart, but God can.

conscience. As before, the literal sense is “kidneys.”

11. A partridge that hatched but did not lay. At least in ancient understanding, the male partridge sits on the eggs (the noun and verb here are both masculine), which of course he could not have produced.

it forsakes him. The logical antecedent is “wealth.”

an abject man. The Hebrew naval does not really mean “fool,” as most translations continue to represent it. A naval is a scoundrel, a base fellow, someone in an abject state, and that is surely the dire end predicted for the person with ill-gotten wealth, not the condition of foolishness.

12. The throne of glory. This verse appears to be a fragment not directly connected with what proceeds or what follows and so it is marked off with dashes in the translation.

13. those who swerve from You. The translation reads wesurekha for the Masoretic yesurey, “torments of.”

shall be cut off. The translation reads yikareitu for the Masoretic yikateivu, “shall be written.”

15. Look, they say to me. These mockers are obviously the hostile Judahites to whom Jeremiah refers frequently.

16. I did not urge to be a shepherd following You. Although the translation proposed here is a viable understanding of the Hebrew, the meaning of this clause has been disputed. “Shepherd” would refer to the role of prophet. But a frequently proposed emendation of that Hebrew word yields: “I did not urge to evil”—that is, the evil fate predicted for Israel.

18. Let them be terrified. The verb used can also mean “be shattered.”

21. do not carry a burden on the sabbath day and bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Some scholars have claimed that the emphasis here on observance of the sabbath reflects a sixth-century B.C.E. exilic setting, as in the late chapters of Isaiah. This is by no means a necessary inference because the sabbath is, after all, part of the Decalogue, and its violation in the Book of Exodus is considered to be a capital crime. The “burden” brought through the gates would be produce from the surrounding countryside and perhaps also merchandise transported from abroad.

22. nor any task shall you do. Both the verb and the noun are the ones used in the prohibition of work on the sabbath in the Decalogue.

25. who sit on the throne of David and who ride in chariots and on horses. The translation follows the Hebrew wording, which is distributive—that is, only the kings sit on the throne whereas the nobles ride in chariots and on horses.

26. the lowlands. This refers to the coastal plain. Thus the four points of the compass in the land are invoked: Benjamin to the north of Jerusalem, the hill country of its eastern region, the Negeb to the south, and the lowlands to the west.