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. read more
Jeremiah 2:12-13. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this A pathetical expression, in the poetic style, signifying that the wickedness of these apostates from God was so great, that the very inanimate creatures, could they be sensible of it, might well stand amazed at it: that the heavens might be affrighted to behold it, and the celestial bodies withdraw their light and influences from that part of the world where such enormities were practised. “Such rhetorical apostrophes import the... read more
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... read more
fountain = a well dug out, but having living water. cisterns = a hewn cistern, holding only what it receives. can hold no water = cannot hold the waters. read more
Jeremiah 2:13. And hewed them out cisterns— By these cisterns are meant the foreign succours which they sought for from the Assyrians and Egyptians; succours, which became not only useless, but destructive to them. Others understand it of the false deities, upon which they built their confidence. "God," says Lowth, "is the author of all blessings, both spiritual and temporal; and if men place their happiness either in false religions, or in the uncertain comforts of worldly blessings, they will... read more
13. two evils—not merely one evil, like the idolaters who know no better; besides simple idolatry, My people add the sin of forsaking the true God whom they have known; the heathen, though having the sin of idolatry, are free from the further sin of changing the true God for idols ( :-). forsaken me—The Hebrew collocation brings out the only living God into more prominent contrast with idol nonentities. "Me they have forsaken, the Fountain," c. (Jeremiah 17:13 Psalms 36:9; John 4:14). broken... read more
Yahweh’s promise to contend with His people 2:9-13 read more
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... read more
The Prophet Sets Forth the Sin of the Nation and Points Out the Inevitable Result (Reign of Josiah, and Probably Before the Reforms of that King: cp. Jeremiah 3:6)This section furnishes us with the gist of the prophet’s testimony during the early years of his ministry, and doubtless represents the commencement of the roll written by Baruch at Jeremiah’s dictation. In these five chapters he lays before his hearers the grossness of their conduct in deserting Jehovah, and urges repentance and... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 2:13
The people's sin. This is the sum and substance of the charge the prophet was called to bring against Israel. Idolatry was their destroying sin, the root of all their discords and miseries. It involved the renunciation of their allegiance to the God of their fathers, and in this their conduct was without a parallel. No instance of such apostasy could be found elsewhere. Those whom God had chosen to be witnesses for him before all the world were put to shame in this respect by the very... read more