16 Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the Lord. Comparison, however, with the rest of the context, especially the consequential clause “then it becomes” (וְהָיָה, véhayah), and Jer 23:36 shows that it is “the word of the Lord.”
17 The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself … then it [his word] becomes.” See §112.kk for the construction.
18 Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 ]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 ]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.

In other versions

If I say, “I will not mention him,

or speak any more in his name,”

there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones,

and I am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

But if I say, “I will not mention his word

or speak anymore in his name,”

his word is in my heart like a fire,

a fire shut up in my bones.

I am weary of holding it in;

indeed, I cannot.

I say, “I won’t mention him

or speak any longer in his name.”

But his message becomes a fire burning in my heart,

shut up in my bones.

I become tired of holding it in,

and I cannot prevail.

But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord

or speak in his name,

his word burns in my heart like a fire.

It’s like a fire in my bones!

I am worn out trying to hold it in!

I can’t do it!

But if I say, “I will not mention him

and I will no longer speak in his name,”

then it becomes in my heart like a fire burning,

locked up in my bones,

and I struggle to contain it,

and I am not able.

Then I said, I will not make mention of him,

Nor speak any more in his name.

But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones,

And I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Public Domain