Jeremiah 2:13 · Bible study
Jeremiah 2:13 Commentary: The Two Evils
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Examine the double evil of forsaking God the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. Meaning, historical background, and application for today.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God’s people committed a double evil: forsaking Him (the fountain of living water) and turning to broken, man-made cisterns (idols or any substitute) that cannot satisfy.
- Key words: fountain (maqor, a spring of fresh water), living water (mayim chayim, flowing, life-giving water), cisterns (borot, human-dug reservoirs), broken (nishbarim, cracked, useless).
- Main debate: Minimal, the double evil is universally agreed upon. Some nuance exists over whether ‘cisterns’ refers strictly to idols or includes any human resource trusted apart from God.
- Theological theme: God alone is the source of life; idolatry is not only sin but folly, exhausting labor that ends in emptiness.
- Best use: To expose the futility of turning from God to any substitute, and to call people back to the only fountain that truly quenches.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
“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.
WEB World English Bible 2000
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.
KJV King James Version 1769
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.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
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.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
For two evils hath My people done, Me they have forsaken, a fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves wells--broken wells, That contain not the waters.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Porque dos males ha hecho mi pueblo: dejáronme á mí, fuente de agua viva, por cavar para sí cisternas, cisternas rotas que no detienen aguas.
Pois meu povo fez dois males: deixaram a mim, que sou fonte de água viva, para cavarem para si cisternas, cisternas rachadas, que não retêm águas.
Car mon peuple a commis un double péché:
Denn mein Volk tut eine zwiefache Sünde: mich, die lebendige Quelle, verlassen sie und machen sich hier und da ausgehauenen Brunnen, die doch löcherig sind und kein Wasser geben.
Want Mijn volk heeft twee boosheden begaan; Mij, den Springader des levenden waters, hebben zij verlaten, om zichzelven bakken uit te houwen, gebroken bakken, die geen water houden.
Poiché il mio popolo ha commesso due mali: ha abbandonato me, la sorgente d’acqua viva, e s’è scavato delle cisterne, delle cisterne screpolate, che non tengono l’acqua.
Bo dwojaką złość popełnił lud mój: mnie opuścili, źródło wód żywych, a wykopali sobie cysterny, cysterny dziurawe, które wody zatrzymać nie mogą.
Ибо два зла сделал народ Мой: Меня, источник воды живой, оставили, и высекли себе водоемы разбитые, которые не могут держать воды.
因為 我的百姓 做了 兩件 惡事，就是離棄 我 這活 水 的泉源，為自己 鑿出 池子，是 破裂 不能 存 水 的池子。
For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Jeremiah 2:13
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree this verse lays bare the core of Israel's sin as a double folly. Calvin calls it 'madness', leaving a known good for what can do no good. Clarke and Gill both note that the 'two evils' go beyond pagan idolatry: God's own people not only worship false gods but also abandon the true God who had revealed Himself. The metaphor is piercing: God is the 'fountain of living waters', a perennial, life-giving source that never runs dry (Barnes, Cambridge). The idols are 'broken cisterns' that cannot hold water even when collected. Keil and Delitzsch stress the incredibility of such a choice, which ‘astonishes the heavens.’ The consensus is clear: the verse condemns not just religious infidelity but the tragic stupidity of trading infinite supply for leaky substitutes.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The double evil is clearly forsaking God (the fountain of living water) and turning to deficient substitutes (broken cisterns) that cannot satisfy.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Number and nature of the evils | The two evils are specifically forsaking God and turning to substitutes (idols). | Some traditions see these as two separate acts; others view them as two sides of one sin, leaving God necessarily means turning to something else. |
| What the 'cisterns' represent | The cisterns represent false gods, human effort, or any resource trusted in place of God. | Some commentators (e.g., Gill) include religious duties, spiritual experiences, or even acts of faith when rested in; others restrict the image to literal idolatry. |
| Application to modern believers | The verse warns all people against idolatry in any form. | Interpreters differ on how directly it applies to Christians: some see it as a call to reject every form of self-reliance; others emphasize that Christ is the ultimate fountain, making the warning against forsaking him specific to the new covenant. |
| Water imagery and Christology | The fountain of living waters prefigures the life God gives through Christ (John 4, 7). | Reformed interpreters (Calvin, Gill) tend to see a direct christological reference; others read it primarily as a description of Yahweh’s covenantal provision, fulfilled but not exhausted in Jesus. |
| Severity of the sin | It is a great evil, especially because committed by God’s own people. | Some traditions view this as the worst sin, apostasy from the covenant; others see it as the root of all sins, each of which is a form of turning from God. |
Historical & Cultural Context
In ancient Palestine, water was life. A natural spring (maqor), water flowing fresh from the ground, was a precious, reliable gift. By contrast, cisterns (borot) were human‑made pits cut into limestone or rock, designed to collect and store rainwater. They were common but notoriously problematic. The Cambridge Bible, citing Thomson’s The Land and the Book, notes that cisterns in Galilee ‘are strangely liable to crack,’ and even when intact the water ‘has the colour of weak soapsuds, the taste of the earth or the stable, is full of worms, and in the hour of greatest need it utterly fails.’ Jeremiah’s hearers knew this reality firsthand.
The verse sits within a covenant lawsuit (Jer 2:4, 13). God argues that no other nation changes its gods, yet Israel has ‘changed their glory for that which does not profit’ (v. 11). The double accusation, forsaking God and digging defective cisterns, would land with devastating force. The exodus generation had seen God bring water from a rock (Ex 17:6); now their descendants were scraping out their own reservoirs in a land of springs. The historical irony deepens the charge: they inherited a land flowing with milk and honey, but chose to depend on cracked containers.
Textual Notes
The Masoretic Text is stable across manuscripts. Calvin notes a possible variant in the word for ‘cisterns’ (borot vs. berot, meaning ‘wells’), but modern critical editions follow the Masoretic reading, and the meaning is unaffected. The consulted sources report no significant variants that alter the interpretation of the verse.
Reception History
Jeremiah 2:13 has served as a foundational text for understanding idolatry as spiritual adultery and folly. In the early church, Theodoret of Cyrus (5th century) used the passage to highlight God’s condescending love, God does not judge as a harsh critic but invites examination, as if He were accountable. During the Reformation, both Calvin and Matthew Henry emphasized the stark contrast between God’s all‑sufficiency and human insufficiency, using the verse to call believers away from self‑reliance. In hymnody, the image of Christ as the fountain of life (drawing on John 4 and 7) echoes this verse. The passage remains a powerful lens for examining where we look for life, a question that has occupied Christians in every era.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The Sin of Abandonment: They forsook the fountain of living waters.
- The Sin of Substitution: They hewed out cisterns for themselves.
- The Tragedy of Futility: The cisterns cannot hold water, a labor of emptiness.
Five-point outline
- The Accusation: 'My people', covenant relationship made the breach personal.
- The First Evil: Forsaking God, the fountain of living waters.
- The Second Evil: Hewing out broken cisterns, human effort and false hopes.
- The Diagnosis: These cisterns 'cannot hold water', they produce only thirst.
- The Implication: Without the fountain, there is only emptiness and judgment.
Illustration hooks
- Choosing a cracked, muddy cistern when a clean, flowing spring is available, a picture of why we turn to sin when God offers life.
- The experience of buying a cheap water bottle that leaks all over your bag, while a reliable thermos sits at home unused.
- Chasing a promotion, a relationship, or a comfort that promises satisfaction but leaves you anxious and dry.
Questions your congregation is asking
- What are the 'broken cisterns' I am tempted to trust in today, money, approval, busyness?
- How do I know when I'm forsaking the fountain without fully realizing it?
- Is there a way to return to the fountain after I've been drinking from a cistern?
- Does this verse mean I can never enjoy ordinary human resources? Where is the line?
- How does Jesus Christ fulfill the image of living water for us?
Leading a Discussion
This verse confronts every generation with the most basic choice: will we drink from God, the fountain of life, or will we expend enormous energy digging our own water sources, sources that inevitably fail? The double evil is not just ancient Israel’s story; it is the human story. In a small group, take time to let the metaphor work on your hearts before moving to application.
Discussion questions
- What are the 'two evils' Jeremiah names? Why does he list them as separate? (Observation)
- The Hebrew word for 'fountain' (maqor) suggests a natural, continual spring. What does that image tell us about God? (Interpretation)
- Why does God call the cisterns 'broken'? In what ways were Israel's idols (and our substitutes) broken? (Interpretation)
- Read Jeremiah 2:9, 13 together. How do verses 10, 11 build the case against Israel? What makes their sin worse than pagan idolatry? (Context)
- Where do you see people around you 'hewing out cisterns', trying to find life apart from God? Where might you be doing this yourself? (Application)
- How does the New Testament pick up the image of 'living water'? (John 4:13, 14; John 7:37, 38) What difference does Christ make? (Connection to Jesus)
- What would it look like this week to deliberately 'return to the fountain', a specific practice of relying on God rather than your own efforts? (Application)
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Judges 10:13 | Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore I will save you no more. |
| I Samuel 12:10 | They cried to Yahweh, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth; but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.’ |
| Psalms 36:9 | For with you is the spring of life. In your light we will see light. |
| Psalms 81:11 | But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. |
| Psalms 81:13 | Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! |
| Psalms 115:4 | Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. |
| Psalms 115:8 | Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them. |
| Psalms 146:3 | Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke highlights two distinct evils: first, abandoning God, the fountain of life and blessing; second, turning to idols that are like ill-made, leaky cistern
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes notes that the covenant-people commit two sins—abandoning the true God and serving idols—while pagans are guilty of only idolatry. He clarifies that the "fountain" here is a reservoir for living spring water, not a natural spring, making the contrast with a rain-fed cistern even starker.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin highlights the double folly of Israel's sin: they abandoned God, the fountain of living water, and turned to idols that are like broken cisterns that hold nothing. For him, the madness lies in leaving a perfect source of good for something that offers no benefit at all.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
This commentary highlights the specific double sin of God's people: they not only committed idolatry like the heathen but also actively abandoned the living God himself. The image of broken cisterns that cannot hold water shows that all human substitutes for God are worthless, stagnant, and ultimately fail utterly.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note highlights the double sin of God's people: they rejected the living fountain of God's provision and instead wore themselves out digging their own cisterns, which are cracked and hold nothing. The emphasis falls on the complete foolishness of trading inexhaustible, fresh water for broken pits that offer no relief.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill emphasizes the double sin of God's professing people: fors
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB emphasizes that Israel's sin is worse than ordinary idolatry because they knowingly abandoned the true God they already knew, unlike pagans who never knew any better. He draws a sharp contrast between the ever-flowing fountain of living waters and broken cisterns that cannot even hold collected rainwater, picturing all human substitutes as ultimately useless and unsatisfying.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch highlight that even pagan nations never change their gods, worthless as they are, yet Israel exchanged the living God, their glory, for empty idols. This double evil—forsaking the fountain of living water and digging broken cisterns—is an appalling and unprecedented sin, shocking heaven itself.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues that Israel's early love for God, not God's love for Israel, is the meaning in this passage. He contends that the grammar and context show Israel actively followed and loved the Lord in the wilderness, a love brief yet sufficient to establish an enduring covenant. This first love, though now lost, remains unforgettable.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley breaks down each phrase of the verse as God's personal reminder of the covenant relationship. The love points to when God entered covenant at the giving of the law, and the wilderness recalls God's careful protection through a barren, hostile land.