I have stripped Esau bare: In Hebrew the pronoun I is emphatic; the emphasis may be expressed by saying, for example, “For my part, I have stripped Esau bare” or “But I, I have stripped Esau bare.” Esau represents “Esau’s descendants” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “the people of Edom.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch does away with the imagery of stripped Esau bare and renders “I myself will deliver the descendants of Esau to their enemies.” Other versions have “I have taken everything from the descendants of Esau.”

His children are destroyed may be translated following Good News Translation (“All the people of Edom are destroyed”) or Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“All Edomites will die”).

He is no more; that is, “not one of the descendants of Esau is left.” Good News Translation combines his brothers and his neighbors with he is no more and renders “Not one of them is left.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch retains the imagery somewhat: “There are no more brothers or neighbors….”

See discussion below for the relation of this verse to verse 11.

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 .