Jeremiah 2:23
New International Version
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there,

New Living Translation
“You say, ‘That’s not true! I haven’t worshiped the images of Baal!’ But how can you say that? Go and look in any valley in the land! Face the awful sins you have done. You are like a restless female camel desperately searching for a mate.

English Standard Version
How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there,

Berean Standard Bible
“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,

King James Bible
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;

New King James Version
“How can you say, ‘I am not polluted, I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley; Know what you have done: You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways,

New American Standard Bible
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a swift young camel running about senselessly on her ways,

NASB 1995
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals ‘? Look at your way in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,

NASB 1977
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,

Legacy Standard Bible
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not walked after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,

Amplified Bible
“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after [man-made gods like] the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; Know [without any doubt] what you have done! You are a swift and restless young [female] camel [in the heat of her passion] running here and there,

Christian Standard Bible
How can you protest, “I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals”? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young camel twisting and turning on her way,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
How can you protest, “I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals"? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young camel twisting and turning on her way,

American Standard Version
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;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
How will you say: "I am not defiled and I did not go after Baala?” See your ways in the valleys and know what you have done. You have lifted up your voice. You have perverted the ways

Brenton Septuagint Translation
How wilt thou say, I am not polluted, and have not gone after Baal? behold thy ways in the burial-ground, and know what thou hast done: her voice has howled in the evening:

Contemporary English Version
You deny your sins and say, "We aren't unclean. We haven't worshiped Baal." But think about what you do in Hinnom Valley. You run back and forth like young camels, as you rush to worship one idol after another.

Douay-Rheims Bible
How canst thou say: I am not polluted, and I have not walked after Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a swift runner pursuing his course.

English Revised Version
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;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"How can you say that you haven't dishonored yourselves and haven't followed other gods-the Baals? Look how you've behaved in the valley. Acknowledge what you've done. You are like a young camel that swiftly runs here and there.

Good News Translation
How can you say you have not defiled yourself, that you have never worshiped Baal? Look how you sinned in the valley; see what you have done. You are like a wild camel in heat, running around loose,

International Standard Version
"How can you say, 'I'm not defiled. I haven't gone after the Baals.'? Look at what you've done in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift young camel galloping aimlessly;

JPS Tanakh 1917
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 young camel traversing her ways;

Literal Standard Version
“How can you say, I have not been defiled, | I have not gone after the Ba‘alim? See your way in a valley, know what you have done, | A swift dromedary winding her ways,

Majority Standard Bible
“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,

New American Bible
How can you say, “I am not defiled, I have not pursued the Baals”? Consider your conduct in the Valley, recall what you have done: A skittish young camel, running back and forth,

NET Bible
"How can you say, 'I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to the gods called Baal.' Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! Think about the things you have done there! You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path.

New Revised Standard Version
How can you say, “I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals”? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restive young camel interlacing her tracks,

New Heart English Bible
"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;

Webster's Bible Translation
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;

World English Bible
“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,

Young's Literal Translation
How sayest thou, 'I have not been defiled, After the Baalim I have not gone?' See thy way in a valley, know what thou hast done, A swift dromedary winding her ways,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Israel's Unfaithfulness
23“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, 24a 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.…

Cross References
Proverbs 30:12
There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.

Jeremiah 2:33
How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.

Jeremiah 2:36
How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

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.

Jeremiah 9:14
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them."

Jeremiah 31:22
How long will you wander, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land--a woman will shelter a man."


Treasury of Scripture

How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

how canst

Jeremiah 2:34,35
Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these…

Genesis 3:12,13
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat…

1 Samuel 15:13,14
And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD…

see

Jeremiah 3:2
Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

Psalm 50:21
These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

Ezekiel 16:1
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

valley

Jeremiah 7:31
And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

Isaiah 57:5,6
Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? …

thou art a swift.

Esther 8:16
The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.

Jump to Previous
Able Baalim Baals Ba'als Behaved Camel Clear Consider Defiled Polluted Quick-Footed Running Swift Tracks Traversing Twisting Unclean Valley Way Ways Young
Jump to Next
Able Baalim Baals Ba'als Behaved Camel Clear Consider Defiled Polluted Quick-Footed Running Swift Tracks Traversing Twisting Unclean Valley Way Ways Young
Jeremiah 2
1. God having shown his former kindness,
5. expostulates with the people on their causeless and unexampled revolt
14. They are the causes of their own calamities
18. The sins and idolatries of Judah
35. Her confidence is rejected.














(23) How canst thou say . . .?--The prophet hears, as it were, the voice of the accused criminal, with its plea of "not guilty." Had not the worship of Jehovah been restored by Josiah? Had he not, acting on Hilkiah's counsels, suppressed Baal-worship (2Kings 23:4-5; 2Chronicles 34:4)? The answer to such pleas is to point to the rites that were still practised openly or in secret. In the "valley" of Ben-Hinnom, which Josiah had defiled (2Kings 23:10), the horrid ritual of Molech (Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2) was still in use (Jeremiah 7:31), reviving, we may believe, on the death of Josiah; and this, though not actually the worship of Baal, was at least as evil, and probably, in the confluence of many forms of worship which marked the last days of the monarchy of Judah, was closely associated and practically identified with it, both by the prophet and the people (Jeremiah 19:5; Jeremiah 32:35). . . . Verse 23. - How canst thou say, etc.? This is not a mere rhetorical fiction equivalent to "or if thou shouldst perhaps say," but probably represents an objection really made by the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. Their fault was not in neglecting the public worship of Jehovah in his appointed temple, but in superadding to this, idolatrous rites inconsistent with the spiritual religion taught by Jeremiah. The people did not, it seems, regard this as tantamount to "following Baalim," just as some converts to Christianity in our own foreign missions might exclaim against being accused of apostasy, because they secretly carry on certain heathen practices. The prophet, however, applies a more rigorous test to their conduct. Baalim; the plural of Baal, used for "other gods" (Jeremiah 1:16; comp. on ver. 8). Thy way in the valley. The valley in this context can only be that of Hinnom (see on Jeremiah 7:31), which from the time of Ahaz had been defiled with the rites of "Moloch, horrid king" (see ' Paradise Lost,' 1:392-396). Thou art a swift dromedary. Ewald would attach this half of the verse to ver. 24; and there is something to be said for this plan. Swift dromedary is, properly speaking, in the vocative. The ardor of the people for idolatry is expressed by the comparison of it to the uncontrollable instinct of brute beasts. The word rendered "dromedary" is in the feminine gender; it means strictly the young she-camel which has not yet had a foal. Traversing her ways; rather, interlacing her ways; i.e. running backwards and forwards at the impulse of passion.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
“How
אֵ֣יךְ (’êḵ)
Interjection
Strong's 349: How?, how!, where

can you say,
תֹּאמְרִ֞י (tō·mə·rî)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

‘I am not
לֹ֣א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

defiled;
נִטְמֵ֗אתִי (niṭ·mê·ṯî)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 2930: To be or become unclean

I have not
לֹ֣א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

run
הָלַ֔כְתִּי (hā·laḵ·tî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

after
אַחֲרֵ֤י (’a·ḥă·rê)
Preposition
Strong's 310: The hind or following part

the Baals’?
הַבְּעָלִים֙ (hab·bə·‘ā·lîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1168: Baal -- a heathen god

Look
רְאִ֤י (rə·’î)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - feminine singular
Strong's 7200: To see

at your behavior
דַרְכֵּךְ֙ (ḏar·kêḵ)
Noun - common singular construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 1870: A road, a course of life, mode of action

in the valley;
בַּגַּ֔יְא (bag·gay)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 1516: A valley

acknowledge
דְּעִ֖י (də·‘î)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - feminine singular
Strong's 3045: To know

what
מֶ֣ה (meh)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

you have done.
עָשִׂ֑ית (‘ā·śîṯ)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 6213: To do, make

You are a swift
קַלָּ֖ה (qal·lāh)
Adjective - feminine singular
Strong's 7031: Light, swift, fleet

young she-camel
בִּכְרָ֥ה (biḵ·rāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1072: A young camel, dromedary

galloping here and there,
מְשָׂרֶ֥כֶת (mə·śā·re·ḵeṯ)
Verb - Piel - Participle - feminine singular
Strong's 8308: To interlace


Links
Jeremiah 2:23 NIV
Jeremiah 2:23 NLT
Jeremiah 2:23 ESV
Jeremiah 2:23 NASB
Jeremiah 2:23 KJV

Jeremiah 2:23 BibleApps.com
Jeremiah 2:23 Biblia Paralela
Jeremiah 2:23 Chinese Bible
Jeremiah 2:23 French Bible
Jeremiah 2:23 Catholic Bible

OT Prophets: Jeremiah 2:23 How can you say I am not (Jer.)
Jeremiah 2:22
Top of Page
Top of Page