Jeremiah 2:23

Sin

²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine?

²² Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.

“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

²⁴ a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.

²⁵ You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,
KJV: How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
WEB: “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways,
ASV: 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;
DARBY: How sayest thou, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals? See thy way in the valley, acknowledge what thou hast done a swift dromedary traversing her ways!
BLB: How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley; know what you have done—a swift young she-camel entangling her ways,

ÅB: Hvordan kan du si: Jeg er ikke blitt uren, jeg har ikke gått etter Ba'alene? Se på din vei i dalen[^6]! Forstå hva du har gjort, du lette kamelhoppe som løper hit og dit!
OTB: "Hvordan kan du si, 'Jeg er ikke besmittet; jeg har ikke løpt etter Baalene'? Se din oppførsel i dalen; vurder hva du har gjort. Du er en rask kamelhoppe som løper hit og dit,
B1930: Hvorledes kan du si: Jeg er ikke blitt uren, jeg har ikke gått efter Ba'alene? Se på din vei i dalen! Forstå hvad du har gjort, du lette kamelhoppe som løper hit og dit! / < JER 7, 31.>

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Jeremiah 7:31
They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
Read in context
Proverbs 30:12
There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.
Read in context
Jeremiah 3:2
“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
Read in context
Proverbs 30:20
This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
Read in context
Romans 3:19
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
Read in context
Revelation 3:17–18
You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
Read in context
Jeremiah 9:14
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
Read in context
Esther 8:16
For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.
Read in context