Albert Barnes Commentary


Albert Barnes Commentary
"How canst thou say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: [thou art] a swift dromedary traversing her ways;" — Jeremiah 2:23 (ASV)
In their defense of themselves , the people probably appealed to the maintenance of the daily sacrifice and the Mosaic ritual; and, even more confidently perhaps, to Josiah’s splendid restoration of the temple and to the suppression of the open worship of Baal. All such pleas availed little as long as the rites of Moloch were still privately practiced.
Your way in the valley - that is, of Hinnom (see 2 Kings 23:10 note). From the time of Ahaz it had been the seat of the worship of Moloch, and the prophet more than once identifies Moloch with Baal. “Way” is put metaphorically for “conduct, doings.”
Traversing - Interlacing her ways. The word describes the tangled mazes of the dromedary’s course, as she runs here and there in the heat of her passion.