Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 6:16

"Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk [therein]." — Jeremiah 6:16 (ASV)

Stand you in the ways. —In the prophet’s mind, the people were as a traveler who has taken a self-chosen path and finds that it leads him to a place of peril. Is it not well that they should stop and ask where the old paths were (literally, the eternal paths; the words going, as in Jeremiah 18:15, beyond the mere antiquity of the nation’s life), on which their fathers had traveled safely? Of these old paths, they were to choose that which was most distinctly “the good way,” the way of righteousness, and therefore of peace and health also. The call, however, was in vain. The people chose to continue traveling in the broad way that led them to destruction.