Jeremiah 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.”

Jud 10:13; 1Sa 12:10; Ps 36:9; Ps 81:11-13; Ps 115:4-8; Ps 146:3,4; Ec 1:2,14; Ec 2:11,21,26; Ec 4:4; Ec 12:8; Isa 1:3; Isa 5:13; Isa 44:9-20; Isa 46:6,7; Isa 55:2; Isa 63:8; Jer 1:16; Jer 2:11,26; Jer 2:17; Jer 2:31,32; Jer 4:22; Jer 5:26,31; Jer 15:6; Jer 17:13; Jer 18:14; Mic 2:8; Mic 6:3; Joh 4:14; Joh 7:37; 2Pe 2:17; Re 21:6; Re 22:1,17

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.