Moab is destroyed: This can be expressed as “The enemy has destroyed Moab.”

Zoar: As the Revised Standard Version note indicates, this represents the Greek text; the standard Hebrew text has “her little ones.” It is quite likely that the name Zoar was brought in under the influence of Isa 15.5. The Hebrew text may be translated by assuming that “her little ones” is either a reference to the children of Moab (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “Her young ones cry aloud”; Good News Translation “listen to the children crying”) or to the people of the city in general. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests the rendering “her little ones,” and we recommend this interpretation. Good News Translation is therefore a good model for the verse, or translators can say something like the following:

• They [or, Enemies] have destroyed Moab. Her children are crying loudly.

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 .