Commentary - Jeremiah 2:9-13

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah continues to prosecute God's covenant lawsuit against Judah. The charge is not some minor infraction, but an act of cosmic treason and unparalleled folly. God summons the entire pagan world as a character witness against His own people, pointing out that even idolaters show more loyalty to their worthless "no-gods" than Judah has shown to Yahweh, the source of all life and glory. The indictment is summarized in one of the most powerful metaphors in all of Scripture: God's people have committed two evils. First, they have abandoned the free-flowing, life-giving artesian well of God's presence. Second, in an act of strenuous stupidity, they have labored to carve out their own leaky, broken cisterns that can hold no water at all. This is not just a picture of sin, but a diagnosis of its essential nature: the exchange of infinite satisfaction for guaranteed futility.

This is a courtroom scene. God is the plaintiff, the prosecutor, and the judge. Israel is in the dock. The heavens are called to be the horrified jury. The evidence is plain, the crime is unprecedented, and the verdict is therefore inescapable. The core of their sin is a bad trade, the worst trade in the history of the world.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

Jeremiah begins his ministry during the final decades of the kingdom of Judah, a time of political turmoil and deep spiritual decay. Chapter 2 functions as God's opening argument in His covenant lawsuit against His unfaithful bride, Israel. He begins by reminding them of their "honeymoon" period, their early devotion in the wilderness (Jer 2:2-3). He then pivots to their current state of apostasy. This section (vv. 9-13) builds the case by demonstrating that Israel's unfaithfulness is not only a violation of their covenant vows but is also an act of irrationality that even pagan nations would find shameful. This indictment sets the stage for the judgments that Jeremiah will prophesy throughout the book, culminating in the Babylonian exile. God is establishing the legal grounds for the severe discipline that is to come. He is a just judge, and He lays out the charges plainly before executing the sentence.

Key Issues

Fountains and Broken Cisterns

The logic of sin is always a bad logic. The math of rebellion never adds up. And here, God, through His prophet, lays this reality bare with a force that should leave us breathless. The charge against Judah is not simply that they broke the rules. It is that they have behaved in a way that is profoundly, demonstrably, and historically stupid. They made a trade that no one in their right mind would ever make. They traded an infinite, self-replenishing fountain for a leaky bucket that they had to carve out of rock with their own hands. This is the essential nature of all sin, from Adam's first bite to our own sophisticated modern idolatries. It is the exchange of the Glory of God for something that, in the final analysis, does not profit.

Verse by Verse Commentary

9 “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” declares Yahweh, “And with your sons’ sons I will contend.

The word contend here is a legal term. This is not a petty squabble. God is bringing a formal, covenantal lawsuit against His people. He is the aggrieved party, the plaintiff. And notice the generational scope. The covenant was made with Abraham and his descendants forever. God's faithfulness spans generations, and so does His judicial oversight. The sins of the fathers are being visited upon the children because the children have adopted and ratified the sins of the fathers. This is not God being unfair to the grandkids; this is God holding a rebellious family line to account. The case is not closed with one generation's apostasy; God will press His suit until righteousness is established.

10 For cross to the coastlands of Kittim and see, And send to Kedar and perceive closely And see if there has been such a thing as this!

God now calls witnesses for the prosecution, and His witnesses are the pagan nations. He tells Judah to conduct an investigation. Go west to Kittim (Cyprus, representing the maritime nations of the Mediterranean) and go east to Kedar (the nomadic Arab tribes of the desert). Look at the whole Gentile world, from one end to the other. He invites them to scrutinize the behavior of these idolaters. The implication is that they will find a standard of religious loyalty that puts Judah to shame.

11 Has a nation changed gods Though they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory For that which does not profit.

Here is the finding of the investigation. The pagan nations, God says, are loyal to their gods. They stick with the deities they have, even though, as God points out with divine irony, they are not gods at all. They are fabrications, chunks of wood and stone. Yet the pagans have a certain brute loyalty to their own traditions. But what has God's covenant people done? They have done the unthinkable. They have changed their glory. Their glory was Yahweh Himself, the living God, the creator of heaven and earth. And they traded Him. And what did they get in return? "That which does not profit." They got nothing. Less than nothing. They exchanged infinite value for zero. It is the ultimate bad deal, an act of spiritual insanity for which there is no pagan parallel.

12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid, be very devastated,” declares Yahweh.

The crime is so heinous, so unnatural, that God calls upon the created order itself to react. The heavens, which declare the glory of God, are summoned to be appalled. This is not mere poetic flourish. In covenantal settings, the heavens and earth are often called as witnesses (Deut 32:1). God is saying that this sin is an offense not just against His law, but against the very fabric of reality. The universe runs on the wisdom and glory of God, and for the people who were supposed to be the stewards of that glory to trade it away is an act of cosmic sabotage. The creation itself shudders at such treason.

13 “For My people have done two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.

God now summarizes the entire case in one devastating image. The indictment consists of two counts, which are really two sides of the same coin. The first evil is an act of omission: They have forsaken Me. They have walked away from the source of all life. God is not a stagnant pond; He is a fountain of living waters, an artesian spring, gushing forth with infinite, life-giving refreshment. To leave Him is to choose thirst and death. But it is worse than that. The second evil is an act of commission: they set to work to replace Him. They hew for themselves cisterns. A cistern is a man-made reservoir, an attempt to capture and store water. It requires great effort to carve one out of rock. So this is a picture of religion as strenuous human effort. But the punchline is that their cisterns are broken. They are cracked. They leak. They cannot hold any water. All that work, all that religious activity, all that idol-making, results in a system that is utterly useless. It cannot provide the satisfaction and life that it promises. This is the definitive statement on all false religion and every form of godless self-reliance.

Application

It would be a great mistake for us to read this passage and cluck our tongues at the foolishness of ancient Judah. We are surrounded by, and swim in, a culture that has committed these same two evils on a massive scale. The Western world was, for centuries, watered by the fountain of the gospel. Our laws, our ethics, our institutions, and our liberties grew up in the soil nourished by this living water. But we have, as a civilization, largely forsaken that fountain. We have turned our back on the God of the Bible.

And what have we done instead? We have been very busy hewing out cisterns. The cistern of secular humanism, which promises progress and dignity without God, is a broken cistern. The cistern of materialism, which promises happiness through possessions, is a broken cistern. The cistern of the sexual revolution, which promises freedom and fulfillment through the abolition of all restraint, is a broken cistern. They are all cracked. They all leak. They cannot hold water. They cannot deliver on their promises, and the proof is the anxiety, despair, and confusion that characterize our age.

The application for us as individuals is just as pointed. Every time we seek ultimate satisfaction, security, or identity in something other than God, we are hewing a broken cistern. We are trading the fountain for a cracked pot. The call of the gospel is the call to return to the fountain. Jesus stood in the temple and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). He is the fountain of living waters. Repentance is not about trying harder to patch up our leaky cisterns. It is about abandoning our worthless cisterns altogether and returning to the only source of true life.