Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:13 
Context2:13 “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 13:7
Context13:7 So I went to Perath and dug up 2 the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found 3 that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.
Jeremiah 18:22
Context18:22 Let cries of terror be heard in their houses
when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. 4
For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden traps for me to step into.
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
2 tn Heb “dug and took.”
3 tn Heb “And behold.”
4 tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.
