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

You people of this generation, listen to what the Lord says. "Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel? Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you? Why then do you say, 'We are free to wander. We will not come to you any more?'

The Lord answered, "This will happen because my people are foolish. They do not know me. They are like children who have no sense. They have no understanding. They are skilled at doing evil. They do not know how to do good."

"Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people. They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. They set deadly traps to catch people.

But my people did not obey me; Israel did not submit to me.

An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; but Israel does not recognize me, my people do not understand."

Therefore my people will be deported because of their lack of understanding. Their leaders will have nothing to eat, their masses will have nothing to drink.

He said, "Certainly they will be my people, children who are not disloyal." He became their deliverer.

but you rise up as an enemy against my people. You steal a robe from a friend, from those who pass by peacefully as if returning from a war.

"My people, how have I wronged you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!

The fountain

You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. All who leave you will suffer shame. Those who turn away from you will be consigned to the nether world. For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life.

Does the snow ever completely vanish from the rocky slopes of Lebanon? Do the cool waters from those distant mountains ever cease to flow?

For you are the one who gives and sustains life.

But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life."

On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

He also said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water free of charge from the spring of the water of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life -- water as clear as crystal -- pouring out from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

Broken cisterns

Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, for a god that cannot help them at all!

Their idols are made of silver and gold -- they are man-made.

Do not trust in princes, or in human beings, who cannot deliver!

"Futile! Futile!" laments the Teacher, "Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!"

Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it, I concluded: "All these achievements and possessions are ultimately profitless -- like chasing the wind! There is nothing gained from them on earth."

Then I considered all the skillful work that is done: Surely it is nothing more than competition between one person and another. This also is profitless -- like chasing the wind.

"Absolutely futile!" laments the Teacher, "All of these things are futile!"

All who form idols are nothing; the things in which they delight are worthless. Their witnesses cannot see; they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.

Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it.

Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? Why spend your hard-earned money on something that will not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is nourishing! Enjoy fine food!

These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved.

General references

But since you abandoned me and worshiped other gods, I will not deliver you again.

He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not follow the Lord's instructions.

I have seen a disgusting thing in the temple of Israel: there Ephraim practices temple prostitution and Judah defiles itself.

Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.