Jeremiah 2:13

2:13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:

they have rejected me,

the fountain of life-giving water, ¹ 

and they have dug cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”

Jeremiah 2:1

The Lord Recalls Israel’s Earlier Faithfulness

2:1 The Lord spoke to me. He said:

Jeremiah 17:7

17:7 My blessing is on those people who trust in me,

who put their confidence in me. ² 

Jeremiah 17:2

17:2 Their children are always thinking about ³  their ⁴  altars

and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ⁵ 

set up beside the green trees on the high hills

Jeremiah 18:1

An Object Lesson from the Making of Pottery

18:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: ⁶ 

Joel 1:20

1:20 Even the wild animals ⁷  cry out to you; ⁸ 

for the river beds ⁹  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ¹⁰  the grassy pastures. ¹¹ 

Amos 4:8

4:8 People from ¹²  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ¹³  water,

but remained thirsty. ¹⁴ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

[2:13]  ¹ tn It is difficult to decide whether to translate “fresh, running water” which the Hebrew term for “living water” often refers to (e.g., Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5), or “life-giving water” which the idiom “fountain of life” as source of life and vitality often refers to (e.g., Ps 36:9; Prov 13:14; 14:27). The contrast with cisterns, which collected and held rain water, suggests “fresh, running water,” but the reality underlying the metaphor contrasts the Lord, the source of life, health, and vitality, with useless idols that cannot do anything.

[17:7]  ² tn Heb “Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord, and whose confidence is in the Lord.” However, because this is a statement of the Lord and the translation chooses to show that the blessing comes from him, the first person is substituted for the divine name.

[17:2]  ³ tn It is difficult to convey in good English style the connection between this verse and the preceding. The text does not have a finite verb but a temporal preposition with an infinitive: Heb “while their children remember their altars…” It is also difficult to translate the verb “literally.” (i.e., what does “remember” their altars mean?). Hence it has been rendered “always think about.” Another possibility would be “have their altars…on their minds.”

[17:2]  ⁴ tc This reading follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions. Many other Hebrew mss read “your” [masc. pl.].

[17:2]  ⁵ sn Sacred poles dedicated to…Asherah. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], plural). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[18:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:” This same formula occurs ten other times in Jeremiah. It has already occurred at 7:1 and 11:1.

[1:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[1:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “long for you.” Animals of course do not have religious sensibilities as such; they do not in any literal sense long for Yahweh. Rather, the language here is figurative (metonymy of cause for effect). The animals long for food and water (so BDB 788 s.v. עָרַג), the ultimate source of which is Yahweh.

[1:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “sources of water.”

[1:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “consumed.”

[1:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[4:8]  ¹² tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “were not satisfied.”