Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 2:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 2:13. Two evils — First, they forsook God, the Fountain of life, light, prosperity, and happiness. Secondly, they hewed out broken cisterns; they joined themselves to idols, from whom they could receive neither temporal nor spiritual good! Their conduct was the excess of folly and blindness. What we call here broken cisterns, means more properly such vessels as were ill made, not staunch, ill put together, so that the water leaked through them.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

A nation’s unfaithfulness (2:1-19)

While Josiah was reconstructing the outward form of Judah’s religion, Jeremiah was searching into the deeply rooted attitudes of the people and trying to bring about a truly spiritual change. He contrasts the nation’s present sad condition with its devotion to God in former days. Israel once loved God, as a bride loves her husband. She was like the firstfruits of the harvest that belonged to God, and those who plundered her were punished (2:1-3).
God now challenges the nation to produce proof that her turning away from God has resulted from any failure on God’s part. He brought his people out of Egypt, cared for them on their long journey through harsh dry country, and gave them a pleasant fertile land to live in. But they polluted the land by their wickedness. Under the leadership of ungodly priests, ignorant teachers, corrupt rulers and worthless prophets, they turned away from God and followed the religious practices of their heathen neighbours (4-8).
Therefore, God lays a charge of unfaithfulness against his people, and calls upon the sun, moon and stars that shine upon them to be his witnesses. Heathen nations remain true to their gods, even though those gods may be lifeless and useless. Israel and Judah, by contrast, exchanged the true and living God for useless idols (9-12). They acted like people who turned away from the natural spring that gave them a permanent supply of pure water, and trusted for their water supply in a cracked cistern they had made themselves (13).
Israel and Judah boasted that they were God’s children, but now they are becoming slaves of other nations. A century earlier Assyria had invaded the northern kingdom, destroyed its cities and taken its people into captivity (14-15). Other nations now threatened the southern kingdom. God warns that it is useless and foolish for Judah to ask either Egypt or Assyria to help defend it against enemy invasions. It is useless because such attacks are a judgment on Judah for its disobedience. It is foolish because, in seeking aid from a more powerful nation, Judah is placing itself under that nation’s religious influence and political power (16-19).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Wherefore I will yet contend with you, saith Jehovah, and with your children's children will I contend. For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there hath been such a thing. Hath a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith Jehovah. 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."

Jeremiah 2:13 is the climax of this paragraph. The first verse (Jeremiah 2:9) uses legal terms that represent God as pressing a lawsuit against his people for doing a totally unheard of thing, namely, they had deserted the true God and gone after Baal. Furthermore, in all history it was never even heard of that even a pagan nation would forsake its ancestral gods!

Perhaps the reason why pagan nations had so generally clung to their ancient "no gods" was rooted in the fact that the worship of such nonentities was rooted in and designed to satisfy basic instincts and passions; whereas the higher religion of the true God was designed to lift man to a far more spiritual and exalted level.

"Kittim… and Kedar" Kittim (Chittim in some versions) is the same as Cyprus. "Cyprus represents the West; Kedar (in N. Arabia) represents the East. Taken together they stand for the whole pagan world."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 629.

"My people have committed two evils" Whereas the pagan nations were guilty of the one evil of worshipping their "no-gods," Israel was guilty of two evils: (1) forsaking the true God, and (2) going after worthlessness.

The foolishness and stupidity of Israel's dual crime is illustrated here by the imaginary action of a rancher or farmer stopping up a flowing spring of water and constructing cisterns in place of it. The cisterns soon cracked and could hold no water.

Sermons sometimes stress the stagnant waters of a cistern compared with spring waters; but the text states that such cisterns "could hold no water," not even stagnant water. This is indeed an apt illustration of the folly of men who turn away from the saving religion of God to build instead of it their own worthless systems of religion.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The pagan are guilty of but one sin - idolatry; the covenant-people commit two - they abandon the true God; they serve idols.

Fountain - Not a spring or natural fountain, but a tank or reservoir dug in the ground (see Jeremiah 6:7), and chiefly intended for storing living waters, i. e., those of springs and rivulets. The cistern was used for storing up rain-water only, and therefore the quantity it contained was limited.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

If a reason is given here why the Prophet had bidden the heavens to be astonished and terrified, then we must render the words thus, “For two evils have my people done:” but I rather think that the preceding verse is connected with the former verses. The Prophet had said, “Go to the farthest lands, and see whether any nation has changed its gods, while yet they are mere inventions.” I think then the subject is closed with the exclamation in the preceding verse, when the Prophet says, “Be astonished, ye heavens.” It then follows, “Surely, two evils have my people done,” even these, — “they have forsaken me,” — and then, “they sought for themselves false gods.” When any one forsakes an old friend and connects himself with a new one, it is an iniquitous and a base conduct: but when there is no compensation, there is in it united together, folly, levity, and madness. If I despise what I know to be profitable to me, and embrace what I understand will be to my hurt, does not such a choice prove madness? This then is what the Prophet now means, when he says, that the people had sinned not only by departing from the true God, but also by going over, without any compensation, unto idols, which could confer no good on them.

He says that they had done two evils: the first was, they had forsaken God; and the other, they had fallen away unto false and imaginary gods. But the more to amplify their sin, he makes use of a similitude, and says that God is a fountain of living waters; and he compares idols to perforated or broken cisterns, which hold no water ⁽⁴⁰⁾ When one leaves a living fountain and seeks a cistern, it is a proof of great folly; for cisterns are dry except water comes elsewhere; but a fountain has its own spring; and further, where there is a vein perpetually flowing, and a perennial stream of waters, the water is more salubrious and much better. The waters which rain brings into cisterns are never so wholesome as those which flow from their own native vein: and when the very receptacles of water are full of chinks, what must they be but empty? Hence then God charges the people with madness, because he was forsaken, who was a fountain and a fountain of living waters; and further, because the people sought unprofitable things when they went after their idols. For what is to be found in idols? some likeness; for the superstitious think that they labor not in vain, when they worship false gods, and they hope to derive some benefit. There are then some resemblances to the true in false religions; and hence the Prophet compares false gods to wells, because they were made hollow, suitable to hold water; but there was not a drop of water in them, as they were broken cisterns.

We now perceive what the Prophet meant, — that we cannot possibly be free from guilt when we leave the only true God, as in him is found for us a fullness of all blessings, and from him we may draw what may fully satisfy us. When therefore we despise the bounty of God, which is sufficient to make us in every way happy, how great must be our ingratitude and wickedness? Yet God remains ever like himself: as then he has called himself the fountain of living waters, we shall at this day find him to be so, except he is prevented by our wickedness and neglect. But the Prophet adds another crime; for when we fall away from God, our own conceits deceive us; and whatever may appear to us at the first view to be wells or fountains, yet when thirst shall come, we shall not find a drop of water in all our devices, they being nothing else but dry cavities. It follows —

(40) Blarney innovated here, because he seemed not rightly to distinguish between the two words that are here used. Both are rendered “cisterns” in our version; but they are two distinct words, though they are similar, and mean similar or the same things. The first is בארות, pits, and the other is בארת in our received text, but ought evidently to be ברות, or, as in one MS., בורת, which means “wells” or pools. The first is a feminine noun, the last is a masculine noun; and hence we find that the adjective added here to the last word is masculine, as in other places, see Deuteronomy 6:11; 2 Chronicles 26:10; Nehemiah 9:25; while the first is accompanied with adjectives in the feminine gender. The verse may be thus rendered, —

For two evils have my people done, — Me have they forsaken, the fountain of living waters; In order to dig for themselves pits, Broken wells, which cannot hold water.

It is singular that Adam Clarke should say that these cisterns were “vessels in put together,” since they were pits dug in the ground to receive rain-water. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD ( Jeremiah 2:1-2 );

Now this is the first message that he has to deliver. As God is calling to His people and it's really a very pathetic thing. It's filled with pathos as God is calling the people much as Jesus did in His message to the church of Ephesus. "Oh, you've got your works. You've got your organizations. You've got your committees. You're functioning but oh, I've got this against you. You've left your first love. Now remember from whence you have fallen." And God is actually calling the people to the very same thing-to remember the first love that they had for God. God said, "I can remember that first love that you had. That excitement that you had in Me where all you could think about all day long was Me. You were singing the praises unto Me. Your life was just filled with joy and ecstasy as you were walking with Me. You were writing little notes to Me. You were singing praises unto Me. You were making up love songs to Me. I remember those days," God said. The days of your first love. And God is recalling it to Jerusalem.

Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of that engagement, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown ( Jeremiah 2:2 ).

"When you were willing to follow Me wherever I would lead you. When you were so dedicated and committed that nothing was held back as far as your commitment." "Where do you want me to go, Lord? What do you want me to do? Lord, I'm for it. Let's go." And God said, "I remember those days when you were so devoted, so committed. The love that you had for Me then."

Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity did your fathers find in me, that they are gone far from me, and walked after emptiness, and become empty? ( Jeremiah 2:3-5 )

"What have I done? What did I do?" And the messages are perennial. There's always a certain group to whom the message still applies. And I feel that God is speaking to many of you tonight, even as He spoke to Israel. Even as Jesus spoke to the church of Ephesus. He said, "Hey, what did I do that you would turn away from Me? I remember the love, the devotion, the commitment that you used to have. What did I do? How did I offend you? Where did you get turned off? How is it that you've turned your heart away from Me? How is it that you don't have that same devotion and dedication anymore? What iniquities did your fathers find in Me that they would turn and follow after these emptinesses until they themselves became empty?"

They no longer say, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through the land of the deserts and pits, through a land of drought, and the shadow of death, through the land that no man passed through, and where no man lived? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and you made my heritage an abomination. The priests weren't saying, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law did not know me: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after the things that do not profit ( Jeremiah 2:6-8 ).

Now of course when the priests, the pastors become corrupted, then what can you expect? There are so many men today who are so completely liberal in their theology that they no longer really rank as Christians. But still they occupy pulpits and preach their messages to the attended throngs on Sunday morning. But it is no longer the Gospel that they preach. It is no longer the power of Jesus Christ to save a man from sin and the blood of Jesus Christ that redeemed us from our lost estate. But they are flowery speeches of, "It's nice to be nice so go out and be nice this week and just platitudes. Think right. You are what you think. You become what you think. And so correct your thinking." The whole problem with the world is the way men are thinking. Get rid of your negative thoughts; only think in positive terms and all. And there is no more a preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is tragic. The same condition that God was crying about in Israel.

John Hilton, I was with him this week back in Maryland, Middletown, Maryland. And John met the pastor in Middletown of the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ. Now you that know John can appreciate it. John was in his cut offs. He introduced himself as the new pastor of Calvary Chapel there in Middletown and he thought, "Well, this fellow's a pastor of the United Church of Christ," so he said, "Well, it's great to meet you and I imagine you've been a pastor there for thirty-five years." He said, "I imagine it's a real thrill to share Jesus Christ with people for thirty-five years." He said I was just trying to make conversation. And this guy turned on him and said, "Young man, you don't know a thing about the gospel, talking about Jesus Christ." Just started berating, yelling at John, getting livid with him. And John said, "I didn't know what I'd said. Just tried to talk to the man about the joy of the Lord and loving Jesus." But what can you expect from the people that are sitting under that man's ministry week after week of a real devotion to God or a love for God or a commitment of their lives to Him? It's all programmed. It's all a formal relationship with God.

So God speaks out against them, "The priests who handle the law, they don't even know me. The pastors have transgressed against Me. The prophets are prophesying by Baal."

Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead ( Jeremiah 2:9 ).

Even so I'm still going to plead with you, God said.

For pass over the isles of Cypress ( Jeremiah 2:10 ),

In other words, go to the west. And Cypress was considered the door to the whole western part of the world. Chittim, Cypress.

and send unto Kedar ( Jeremiah 2:10 ),

Now Kedar was the gateway to the east. So go to the west, go to the east.

and consider diligently, and see if such a thing has ever happened before ( Jeremiah 2:10 ).

Such a thing exists.

Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? ( Jeremiah 2:11 )

People don't do that. Their whole religious system is so deeply involved in their cultural aspects that people just don't change their gods, even those that worship false gods.

But God said,

but my people have changed their glory ( Jeremiah 2:11 )

That is, their fellowship with Me.

for that which does not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens ( Jeremiah 2:11-12 ),

The angels looking down with astonishment. And I'm sure that they do that on us many times. The angels, I'm sure, are just shocked when they see us starting to do something. "Oh no, look at that, what's that?" Now you know it. And they see us in our stupid moves. I'm sure they just think, "Oh no, I can't look." And they know the disaster that we're going to fall into because of our own follies.

Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; [first] they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters ( Jeremiah 2:12-13 ),

So many times water is used as a symbol of life because water is so essential for life. And the Lord so often takes it from the physical on into the spiritual and He said, "I am the water of life. If any man drinks of Me, he will never thirst again."

Jesus cried to the assembled multitude at the Feast of Tabernacles. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that drinks of the water that I give, out of his belly there will flow rivers of living water" ( John 7:37-38 ). And the last chapter of the Bible, the last invitation in the Bible, "And he that is athirst, let him come and drink of the water of life freely" ( Revelation 22:17 ). The last invitation to the gospel, for thirsty man to come and to drink of the water of life freely.

Now God said they were forsaken me, the fountain of living water. The source, the spring from which life comes.

and [instead they have] hewed out cisterns ( Jeremiah 2:13 ),

Now, that land being an arid land and not really receiving that much rain, it is necessary over there that they set up exotic type of water systems. The Essenes were able to exist in the very dry, barren area down near the Dead Sea where you get maybe an inch of water a year or an inch and a half, two inches at the most a year. But the way they were able to survive down there was by building these great cisterns. And then when it would rain up in the highlands and these washes and gullies would become full of water, they had their dams and they diverted the flow of the water on into these cisterns that they had carved out of this limestone. If you go to Masada, you'll find that all the way around the side of the hill there in Masada are these huge cisterns that they've carved out, as well as the cisterns up on the top of Masada. These huge caverns that have been carved down of the sandstone and, again, they had a dam in the river. And you can see the little ledges that they have carved where they would bring the water along the ledges and dump into these cisterns. And thus, they would gather just the sparsest amount of rain but they would gather the over, the water that would run off and they would preserve it in these cisterns.

But cisterns were not a source of water, except that they were a reservoir. In other words, they weren't springs; they had no source within them. They had to gather the runoff water. And so at best, a cistern could hold only water that would get stagnant. And God said, "Marvel ye heaven, be astonished. Look at that. They have forsaken Me, the spring, the fountain of living water, in order that they might hew out these cisterns." But then He said, they are

broken cisterns, that can't hold water ( Jeremiah 2:13 ).

Now carrying it over to the spiritual aspect of it, man basically, instinctively is religious. He's got to believe in something. And when men forsake God, they establish a system of thought, a philosophy, concepts, or whatever that they commit themselves to. They become devoted to and they have to believe in it and it requires faith. A creed to be believed, a standard of life, philosophy of life or whatever. So men create their own philosophies, their own rationales for life, their own cisterns. But the thing is all of these cisterns, they can't hold water. They leave you thirsty. They will not satisfy you. The end result is emptiness.

Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes [actually cities of Egypt] have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself ( Jeremiah 2:14-17 ),

Haven't you brought all of this upon yourself? God said.

in that thou hast forsaken the LORD your God? ( Jeremiah 2:17 )

Looking at the calamities that have happened, we bring them upon ourselves. If we'd only been serving the Lord these things wouldn't have happened. Why does it take calamity many times to wake us up?

And now what have you to do with the way of Egypt? ( Jeremiah 2:18 )

They were, of course, looking to an alliance with Egypt to save them from the Babylonians. And an alliance with Assyria, but Assyria was soon to fall to the Babylonians. So an alliance with Assyria wasn't going to be any good. Egypt itself will be taken.

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you are wondering, playing the harlot ( Jeremiah 2:19-20 ).

So the high hills were the places of worship, under the groves that they planted, the green trees. Again, the places of worship as they had turned from God and were committing spiritual adultery or playing the harlot in a spiritual sense.

Yet [when I created, when I planted you] I planted you a noble vine, it was good seed ( Jeremiah 2:21 ):

Abraham.

how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? ( Jeremiah 2:21 )

Again, the figure as Isaiah so graphically illustrates the fifth chapter of the vine that became wild.

For though thou wash thee with nitre ( Jeremiah 2:22 ),

That isn't the saltpeter that we know today, potassium nitrate, but it is a residue that is on the bottom of the lakes when the lakes dry up that they would boil and use in making soap. They'd use it for cleaning.

and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD ( Jeremiah 2:22 ).

You may try to wash yourself outwardly, but it's an inward problem.

How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? See thy way in the valley, know what you have done: for you are as a swift camel traversing her ways; you're like a wild donkey that is used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure ( Jeremiah 2:23-24 );

Now this figure of the wild donkey that God uses is a wild donkey that is in heat, a female donkey in heat. And she's sniffing the wind trying to find out where the male donkeys are in order that she might go and she doesn't care what the male donkey is. She just wants a male donkey. And God uses this as a figure here of Israel who is just turned away from God and just will take anything. Will worship anything. And so susceptible to worship anything. Like the wild donkey snuffing the wind at her pleasure.

in her occasion ( Jeremiah 2:24 )

That is, during the time of her season.

who can take her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her heat they will find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod ( Jeremiah 2:24-25 ),

In other words, you're running after these things until you wear your feet out.

and thy throat from thirst: but you have said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, the kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, Saying to a stock [that is, to a piece of wood they've carved into an idol], You are my father; and to a stone [that they've carved out a little figure, You are the one that created me], You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise O god, and save us. But where are your gods that you have made? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah ( Jeremiah 2:25-28 ).

So each city had its own local pagan deity. And as many cities as they had, they had gods. And the tragic thing was God said, "Hey, look, you've turned away from Me. You've turned to these other gods, but in trouble you'll be calling. When your calamity comes you'll be saying, 'Arise, God, save us.'" He said, "But don't bother calling. Go ahead and call unto these gods that you have been worshipping, you have been serving."

It is a tragic thing when God turns a deaf ear to man. When God said to Jeremiah, "Ephraim is given over to her idols. Let her alone. Don't pray anymore for their good, for if you do I'm not going to listen." That's a sad day when God turns a deaf ear to man and God said that day is coming. If you persist in following after strange flesh, strange gods and the worship of these strange gods, there will come a day of trouble and you will call upon God. But He said, "I won't hear, I won't answer." "Many will come in that day," Jesus said, "saying, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us.'" He'll say, "No, I never knew you." Those are heavy words that we need to consider seriously.

Wherefore will ye plead with me? you've all transgressed against me ( Jeremiah 2:29 ),

Why are you going to plead? You've been transgressing against Me.

In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion ( Jeremiah 2:30 ).

God said, "I've dealt with you in vain. Your children are so stubborn and rebellious. And with your own sword you've killed My prophets that I sent to you."

O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? Why do my people say, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her gown? yet my people have forgotten me days without number ( Jeremiah 2:31-32 ).

Now one thing we've never had and that is a bride that forgets a gown for her wedding. You just don't forget some things. And yet God said you've forgotten Me so many days that you can't number them.

Why do you trim your way to seek love? therefore you have taught the wicked ones thy ways. Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these ( Jeremiah 2:33-34 ).

You're open with it.

Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because you say, I have not sinned ( Jeremiah 2:35 ).

You say, "Well, it's not wrong. It doesn't matter. God doesn't care. It's not really sin." And God speaks out against that. He said,

Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them ( Jeremiah 2:36-37 ).

No wonder God said to Jeremiah, "Now don't look at your faces. Don't be afraid of their faces." Boy, he had a heavy, heavy message to lay on these people. He was really laying it on them and not sparing. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Yahweh’s promise to contend with His people 2:9-13

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Israelites had committed two evils: one a sin of omission, and the other a sin of commission. They had forsaken Yahweh who, like a fountain, had provided for their deepest needs (cf. Psalms 36:9; John 4:10-14; Revelation 21:6). And they had pursued idols who, like broken cisterns, could not even hold water-much less provide it. The most reliable source of water in Israel was a natural spring, and the least reliable was a cistern.

"The best cisterns, even those in solid rock, are strangely liable to crack, and are a most unreliable source of supply of that absolutely indispensable article, water; and if, by constant care, they are made to hold, yet the water, collected from clay roofs or from marly soil, has the color 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. Who but a fool positive, or one gone mad in love of filth, would exchange the sweet, wholesome stream of a living fountain for such an uncertain compound of nastiness and vermin!" [Note: W. H. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1:443.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For my people have committed two evils,.... Not but that they had committed more, but there were two principal ones they were guilty of, hereafter mentioned; and it was an aggravation of these crimes, that they were the professing people of God who had committed them: and it may be observed, that such sin; they are not without it, nor the commission of it; and may be left to fall into great sins, and yet remain his people; covenant interest cannot be dissolved; this should be considered not as an encouragement to sin, but as a relief under a sense of sin:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters; this is said of Christ, Song of Solomon 4:15, grace in him is compared to "water", it being cooling and refreshing, cleansing and fructifying; and to living water, because it quickens dead sinners, revives drooping saints, supports and maintains spiritual life, and issues in eternal life; and because it is perpetual and ever flowing; and to a "fountain", denoting that the original of it is in Christ, and the great abundance of it which is in him; it is as water in a fountain, in us as in streams: now to forsake this fountain is the first of these evils; which is done when the people of God are remiss in the exercise of faith on Christ; grow cold in their affections to him, and neglect his word and ordinances.

And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water; this is the other evil; and such are the world, and the things in it, when cleaved unto, and rest and satisfaction are taken in them; the inventions and ordinances of men, when followed and attended to; moral duties, and evangelical services, when depended on; and even spiritual frames, when these are lived upon, and put in the room of Christ; yea, acts of faith, when they are rested in, and the object not so much regarded as should be: moreover, what may principally be intended are, in the first place, forsaking the worship of God, as the Targum interprets it, the assembling of themselves together to attend his service and ordinances, which is to forsake their own mercies; and, in the next place, following after idols, as the same paraphrase explains it, which have no divinity in them, and can yield no help and relief, or give any comfort, or afford any supply in time of distress and need. It is egregious folly to leave a fountain for a cistern, and especially a broken one: in a fountain the water is living, and always running, and ever springing up; not so in a cistern, and in a broken cistern there is none at all.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.   10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.   11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.   12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.   13 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.

      The prophet, having shown their base ingratitude in forsaking God, here shows their unparalleled fickleness and folly (Jeremiah 2:9; Jeremiah 2:9): I will yet plead with you. Note, Before God punishes sinners he pleads with them, to bring them to repentance. Note, further, When much has been said of the evil of sin, still there is more to be said; when one article of the charge is made good, there is another to be urged; when we have said a great deal, still we have yet to speak on God's behalf,Job 36:2. Those that deal with sinners, for their conviction, must urge a variety of arguments and follow their blow. God had before pleaded with their fathers, and asked why they walked after vanity and became vain, Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 2:5. Now he pleads with those who persisted in that vain conversation received by tradition from their fathers, and with their children's children, that is, with all that in every age tread in their steps. Let those that forsake God know that he is willing to argue the case fairly with them, that he may be justified when he speaks. He pleads that with us which we should plead with ourselves.

      I. He shows that they acted contrary to the usage of all nations. Their neighbours were more firm and faithful to their false gods than they were to the true God. They were ambitious of being like the nations, and yet in this they were unlike them. He challenges them to produce an instance of any nation that had changed their gods (Jeremiah 2:10; Jeremiah 2:11) or were apt to change them. Let them survey either the old records or the present state of the isles of Chittim, Greece, and the European islands, the countries that were more polite and learned, and of Kedar, that lay south-east (as the other north-west from them), which were more rude and barbarous; and they should not find an instance of a nation that had changed their gods, though they had never done them any kindness, nor could do, for they were no gods. Such a veneration had they for their gods, so good an opinion of them, and such a respect for the choice their fathers had made, that though they were gods of wood and stone they would not change them for gods of silver and gold, no, not for the living and true God. Shall we praise them for this? We praise them not. But it may well be urged, to the reproach of Israel, that they, who were the only people that had no cause to change their God, were yet the only people that had changed him. Note, Men are with difficulty brought off from that religion which they have been brought up in, though ever so absurd and grossly false. The zeal and constancy of idolaters should shame Christians out of their coldness and inconstancy.

      II. He shows that they acted contrary to the dictates of common sense, in that they not only changed (it may sometimes be our duty and wisdom to do so), but that they changed for the worse, and made a bad bargain for themselves. 1. They parted from a God who was their glory, who made them truly glorious and every way put honour upon them, one whom they might with a humble confidence glory in as theirs, who is himself a glorious God and the glory of those whose God he is; he was particularly the glory of his people Israel, for his glory had often appeared on their tabernacle. 2. They closed with gods that could do them no good, gods that do not profit their worshippers. Idolaters change God's glory into shame (Romans 1:23) and so they do their own; in dishonouring him, they disgrace and disparage themselves, and are enemies to their own interest. Note, Whatever those turn to who forsake God, it will never do them any good; it will flatter them and please them, but it cannot profit them. Heaven itself is here called upon to stand amazed at the sin and folly of these apostates from God (Jeremiah 2:12; Jeremiah 2:13): Be astonished, O you heavens! at this. The earth is so universally corrupt that it will take no notice of it; but let the heavens and heavenly bodies be astonished at it. Let the sun blush to see such ingratitude and be afraid to shine upon such ungrateful wretches. Those that forsook God worshipped the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; but these, instead of being pleased with the adorations that were paid to them, were astonished and horribly afraid; and would rather have been very desolate, utterly exhausted (as the word is) and deprived of their light, than that it should have given occasion to any to worship them. Some refer it to the angels of heaven; if they rejoice at the return of souls to God, we may suppose that they are astonished and horribly afraid at the revolt of souls from him. The meaning is that the conduct of this people towards God was, (1.) Such as we may well be astonished and wonder at, that ever men, who pretend to reason, should do a thing so very absurd. (2.) Such as we ought to have a holy indignation at as impious, and a high affront to our Maker, whose honour every good man is jealous for. (3.) Such as we may tremble to think of the consequences of. What will be in the end hereof? Be horribly afraid to think of the wrath and curse which will be the portion of those who thus throw themselves out of God's grace and favour. Now what is it that is to be thought of with all this horror? It is this: "My people, whom I have taught and should have ruled, have committed two great evils, ingratitude and folly; they have acted contrary both to their duty and to their interest." [1.] They have affronted their God, by turning their back upon him, as if he were not worthy their notice: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, in whom they have an abundant and constant supply of all the comfort and relief they stand in need of, and have it freely." God is their fountain of life,Psalms 36:9. There is in him an all-sufficiency of grace and strength; all our springs are in him and our streams from him; to forsake him is, in effect, to deny this. He has been to us a bountiful benefactor, a fountain of living waters, over-flowing, ever-flowing, in the gifts of his favour; to forsake him is to refuse to acknowledge his kindness and to withhold that tribute of love and praise which his kindness calls for. [2.] They have cheated themselves, they forsook their own mercies, but it was for lying vanities. They took a great deal of pains to hew themselves out cisterns, to dig pits or pools in the earth or rock which they would carry water to, or which should receive the rain; but they proved broken cisterns, false at the bottom, so that they could hold no water. When they came to quench their thirst there they found nothing but mud and mire, and the filthy sediments of a standing lake. Such idols were to their worshippers, and such a change did those experience who turned from God to them. If we make an idol of any creature-wealth, or pleasure, or honour,--if we place our happiness in it, and promise ourselves the comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had in God only,--if we make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a cistern, which we take a great deal of pains to hew out and fill, and at the best it will hold but a little water, and that dead and flat, and soon corrupting and becoming nauseous. Nay, it is a broken cistern, that cracks and cleaves in hot weather, so that the water is lost when we have most need of it, Job 6:15. Let us therefore with purpose of heart cleave to the Lord only, for whither else shall we go? He has the words of eternal life.