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.
My people have done two terrible things: they have abandoned me, who am like a spring of fresh, life-giving water, and instead they have dug out their own water storage tanks—broken ones that can't even hold water.
God is saying His people made a foolish trade—they left Him (their source of real life and satisfaction) to chase after empty substitutes that can never truly fulfill them.
📚 Historical Context
This was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah around 627-586 BC when the kingdom of Judah was repeatedly turning away from God to worship idols and form political alliances with pagan nations. In the ancient Middle East, access to fresh water was literally a matter of life and death, making God's metaphor of being a 'fountain of living waters' versus broken cisterns particularly powerful to his audience.
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