Bible Strands
Jeremiah 2:13
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah in a public indictment of Israel, framed by a call for the heavens themselves to be appalled (v.12). The moment is a formal accusation: two specific evils are named.
The words — מקור (mêqôr, H4726), "a spring of," is the word for the LORD's provision; it denotes a source that flows outward, in direct contrast to cisterns that do not.
The thread — The same image of the LORD as a living source that satisfies thirst appears in John 4:14 and John 7:37, where Jesus claims the role Jeremiah's God claims here. Jeremiah 17:13 reinforces the warning: those who abandon this source are written in the dust.
Why it lands — The verse forces a binary: you are drinking from the source or from your own broken cistern. There is no third option, and the cistern's failure is not a matter of degree but of design.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Cross-references
- John 4:14 But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
- John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
- Jeremiah 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.
- Revelation 21:6 And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.
- Psalms 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.
- Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
- Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.
- Isaiah 55:2 Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
- Psalms 81:11 But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Jeremiah 4:22 “For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”