Now in Babylon you will see gods made of …: Good News Translation translates Now in Babylon as “There in Babylon.” Another way to render this phrase is “When you are in Babylon.” Gods is better translated as “idols” or “images representing gods.” Made of … may be more fully expressed as “that people have made from….”

Silver and gold and wood: As a rule, idols were carved from wood and overlaid with precious metal (see Isa 41.7; Jer 10.3-4). Good News Translation changes the order of the nouns here, saying “wood, silver, and gold.” This change was made for naturalness in English. Translators using this Handbook may use the original order as in Revised Standard Version, or change the order to what sounds more natural to them.

Which are carried on men’s shoulders: Good News Translation has “which people carry on their shoulders.” The drawing in Good News Translation illustrating LetJer 26 is misleading, at least if applied to this verse. The idea in this verse is not of someone carrying an idol on his back as in the Good News Translation illustration. It is rather one of a sacred image being carried in procession, probably seated on a throne, which is carried on poles by men bearing the poles on their shoulders. See verse 5, where this will become clearer.

Inspire fear in the heathen is literally “showing fear to the nations.” Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation (“fill the heathen with fear”) do not express the meaning clearly here. Fear has the same meaning here that it does when applied to the worship of God; in that context translators generally prefer to translate “honor,” “worship,” “reverence,” “awe,” or something similar, and this approach is called for here. The writer is not saying that these people are scared of the idols, frightened by them. Rather, the images inspire them to awe; they produce a feeling of reverence. Perhaps the last half of this verse could be said this way: “gods which people carry on their shoulders and which they worship [or, think are holy].”

The Greek word for heathen here is the word meaning “nations.” It is translated in some contexts as “Gentiles” (some other translations have “pagans”). Another Greek term is used in verse 5, which Revised Standard Version renders “foreigners” and Good News Translation “Gentiles.” The problem in verse 5 is that in Babylonia, the Jews are the foreigners; the native people can hardly be called that, and Good News Translation rightly avoids that term. But that leaves a problem here. In English the words “heathen” and “pagan” have come to have an unfavorable, even insulting, sense. Two possible solutions to this problem are to translate the last clause of this verse and the first clause of the next verse as follows: “which make the Gentiles want to worship them. You must be careful never to imitate those people” or “which fill their worshipers with awe….”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• In Babylon you will see idols [or, images representing gods] that people have made from silver, gold, and wood. They carry these idols on their shoulders and the idols fill their worshipers with awe.

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.