Jeremiah 6

16. Image from travellers who have lost their road, stopping and inquiring which is the right way on which they once had been, but from which they have wandered.
old paths--Idolatry and apostasy are the modern way; the worship of God the old way. Evil is not coeval with good, but a modern degeneracy from good. The forsaking of God is not, in a true sense, a "way cast up" at all ( Jeremiah 18:15 , Psalms 139:24 , Malachi 4:4 ).
rest--( Isaiah 28:12 , Matthew 11:29 ).

17. watchmen--prophets, whose duty it was to announce impending calamities, so as to lead the people to repentance ( Isaiah 21:11 , 58:1 , Ezekiel 3:17 , Habakkuk 2:1 ).

18. congregation--parallel to "nations"; it therefore means the gathered peoples who are invited to be witnesses as to how great is the perversity of the Israelites ( Jeremiah 6:16 Jeremiah 6:17 ), and that they deserve the severe punishment about to be inflicted on them ( Jeremiah 6:19 ).
what is among them--what deeds are committed by the Israelites ( Jeremiah 6:16 Jeremiah 6:17 ) [MAURER]. Or, "what punishments are about to be inflicted on them" [CALVIN].

19. ( Isaiah 1:2 ).
fruit of . . . thoughts--( Proverbs 1:31 ).
nor to my law, but rejected it--literally, "and (as to) My law they have rejected it." The same construction occurs in Genesis 22:24 . Literally, "To what purpose is this to Me, that incense cometh to Me?"
incense . . . cane--( Isaiah 43:24 , 60:6 ). No external services are accepted by God without obedience of the heart and life ( Jeremiah 7:21 , Psalms 50:7-9 , Isaiah 1:11 , Micah 6:6 , &c.).
sweet . . . sweet--antithesis. Your sweet cane is not sweet to Me. The calamus.

21. stumbling-blocks--instruments of the Jews' ruin (compare Matthew 21:44 , Isaiah 8:14 , 1 Peter 2:8 ). God Himself ("I") lays them before the reprobate ( Psalms 69:22 , Romans 1:28 , 11:9 ).
fathers . . . sons . . . neighbour . . . friend--indiscriminate ruin.

22. north . . . sides of the earth--The ancients were little acquainted with the north; therefore it is called the remotest regions (as the Hebrew for "sides" ought to be translated, of the earth. The Chaldees are meant ( Jeremiah 1:15 , 5:15 ). It is striking that the very same calamities which the Chaldeans had inflicted on Zion are threatened as the retribution to be dealt in turn to themselves by Jehovah ( Jeremiah 50:41-43 ).

23. like the sea--( Isaiah 5:30 ).
as men for war--not that they were like warriors, for they were warriors; but "arrayed most perfectly as warriors" [MAURER].

24. fame thereof--the report of them.

25. He addresses "the daughter of Zion" ( Jeremiah 6:23 ); caution to the citizens of Jerusalem not to expose themselves to the enemy by going outside of the city walls,
sword of the enemy--literally "there is a sword to the enemy"; the enemy hath a sword.

26. wallow . . . in ashes--( Jeremiah 25:34 , Micah 1:10 ). As they usually in mourning only "cast ashes on the head," wallowing in them means something more, namely, so entirely to cover one's self with ashes as to be like one who had rolled in them ( Ezekiel 27:30 ).
as for an only son--( Amos 8:10 , Zechariah 12:10 ).
lamentation--literally, "lamentation expressed by beating the breast."

27. tower . . . fortress--( Jeremiah 1:18 ), rather, "an assayer (and) explorer." By a metaphor from metallurgy in Jeremiah 6:27-30 , Jehovah, in conclusion, confirms the prophet in his office, and the latter sums up the description of the reprobate people on whom he had to work. The Hebrew for "assayer" (English Version, "tower") is from a root "to try" metals. "Explorer" (English Version, "fortress") is from an Arabic root, "keen-sighted"; or a Hebrew root, "cutting," that is, separating the metal from the dross [EWALD]. GESENIUS translates as English Version, "fortress," which does not accord with the previous "assayer."

28. grievous revolters--literally "contumacious of the contumacious," that is, most contumacious, the Hebrew mode of expressing a superlative. So "the strong among the mighty," that is, the strongest ( Ezekiel 32:21 ). See Jeremiah 5:23 , Hosea 4:16 .
walking with slanders--( Jeremiah 9:4 ). "Going about for the purpose of slandering" [MAURER].
brass, &c.--that is, copper. It and "iron" being the baser and harder metals express the debased and obdurate character of the Jews ( Isaiah 48:4 , 60:17 ).

29. bellows . . . burned--So intense a heat is made that the very bellows are almost set on fire. ROSENMULLER translates not so well from a Hebrew root, "pant" or "snort," referring to the sound of the bellows blown hard.
lead--employed to separate the baser metal from the silver, as quicksilver is now used. In other words, the utmost pains have been used to purify Israel in the furnace of affliction, but in vain ( Jeremiah 5:3 , 1 Peter 1:7 ).
consumed of the fire--In the Chetib, or Hebrew text, the "consumed" is supplied out of the previous "burned." Translating as ROSENMULLER, "pant," this will be inadmissible; and the Keri (Hebrew Margin) division of the Hebrew words will have to be read, to get "is consumed of the fire." This is an argument for the translation, "are burned."
founder--the refiner.
wicked . . . not plucked away--answering to the dross which has no good metal to be separated, the mass being all dross.

30. Reprobate--silver so full of alloy as to be utterly worthless ( Isaiah 1:22 ). The Jews were fit only for rejection.