Jeremiah 2:13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

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.

For my

The fountain

Revelation 22:1

Broken cisterns

General references

Bible References

For my

“O generation [that you are], consider and regard carefully the word of the Lord.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel [like a land without food],
A land of thick and deep darkness [like a path without light]?
Why do My people say, ‘We [have broken loose and we] are free to roam [at will];
We will no longer come to You’?

“For My people are stupid and foolish,” [says the Lord to Jeremiah];
“They do not know Me;
They are foolish children
And have no understanding.
They are shrewd [enough] to do evil,
But they do not know [how] to do good.”

‘For wicked men are found among My people,
They watch like fowlers who lie in wait;
They set a trap,
They catch men.

“But My people would not listen to My voice,
And Israel did not [consent to] obey Me.

“The ox [instinctively] knows its owner,
And the donkey its master’s feeding trough,
But Israel does not know [Me as Lord],
My people do not understand.”

Therefore My people go into exile because they lack knowledge [of God];
And their honorable men are famished,
And their common people are parched with thirst.

For He said, “Be assured, they are My people,
Sons who will not be faithless.”
So He became their Savior [in all their distresses].

“But lately My people have stood up as an enemy [and have made Me their antagonist].
You strip the ornaments off the garment
Of those unsuspecting passers-by,
Like those returned from war.

“O My people, what have I done to you [since you have turned away from Me]?
And how have I wearied you? Answer Me.

The fountain

O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who abandon You will be shamed.
Those who turn away on earth will be written down,
Because they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

‘Will the snow of [Mount] Lebanon melt and vanish from its rocks [which tower above Israel]?
Will the cold, rushing waters of foreign lands [that flow down from the distant land] be dried up?

For with You is the fountain of life [the fountain of life-giving water];
In Your light we see light.

But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. But the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water [satisfying his thirst for God] welling up [continually flowing, bubbling within him] to eternal life.”

Now on the last and most important day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out [in a loud voice], “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!

And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the one who thirsts I will give [water] from the fountain of the water of life without cost.

Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Christ),

Broken cisterns

“Has a nation [ever] changed gods
Even though they were not gods [but merely man-made objects]?
But My people have exchanged their Glory (the true God)
For that [man-made idol] which does not benefit [them].

The idols [of the nations] are silver and gold,
The work of man’s hands.

Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation (help).

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher.
“Vanity of vanities! All [that is done without God’s guidance] is vanity [futile, meaningless—a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes, merely chasing the wind].”

Then I considered all which my hands had done and labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and chasing after the wind and there was no profit (nothing of lasting value) under the sun.

I have seen that every [effort in] labor and every skill in work comes from man’s rivalry with his neighbor. This too is vanity (futility, false pride) and chasing after the wind.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All [that is done without God’s guidance] is vanity (futility).”

All who make carved idols are nothing. Their precious objects are worthless [to them], and their own witnesses (worshipers) fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.

“Those who lavish gold from the bag
And weigh out silver on the scales
Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
They bow down, indeed they worship it.

“Why do you spend money for that which is not bread,
And your earnings for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight in abundance.

These [false teachers] are springs without water and mists driven by a tempest, for whom is reserved the gloom of black darkness.

General references

Yet you have abandoned (rejected) Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer rescue you.

he abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.

I have seen a horrible thing [sins of every kind] in the house of Israel!
Ephraim’s prostitution (idolatry) is there; Israel has defiled itself.

“Those who regard and follow worthless idols

Turn away from their [living source of] mercy and lovingkindness.