Jeremiah 2:11-13
What is written? (ESV)
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
What does it say?
Isn't a nation with lifeless gods still loyal to them? Yet My [God] people have traded their glory for nothing. Be witness to this, heavens, and be amazed, for the two transgressions of My people: forsaking Me who is the only fountain of living waters, and making instead cisterns that can't hold any water.
What is its immediate context?
Jeremiah’s book of prophecy as the people of Judah (the northern tribes of Israel already long lost to Assyrian captivity) are faced with Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah’s main message (from God) is that they should not resist, and they will be there for seventy years.
How Jeremiah 2:11-13 is applied across Bible answers
What is ‘living water’ (John 7:38)?
God calls Himself the "fountain of living waters".
He does this again in Jeremiah 17:13, "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water."
