The house which is called by thy name: The temple is referred to here. Good News Translation expresses the force of the idiom called by thy name (see verse 15) with “your own Temple,” or we may say “your own house.” Numerous times in Jeremiah the temple is referred to by God as “the house which is called by my name.” See, for example, Jer 7.14.

Thou hast made as it is today means the temple was in “ruins” or “destroyed,” as Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version helpfully remind the reader.

Because of the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Judah may be translated “because the people of Israel and Judah did evil” (Contemporary English Version).

The presence of the phrase as it is today makes it awkward to add the last clause because of the wickedness …. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have therefore reversed the clauses in this verse and gained in clarity. Another approach to this would be to speak of the temple in one sentence and put the remark about the people’s sin in a separate following sentence; for example:

• You [even] reduced your own temple to ruins, and it is still like that today. All this was because of [or, as punishment for] the sin of the people of Israel and Judah.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.