The two evils (Jer 2:13-2:13)

“My people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me.

I am the fountain of living waters.

They dug out cisterns for themselves.

These broken cisterns cannot hold water.”

The Israelites had committed two evils. First, they gave up on the living fountain of water, Yahweh, in forsaking him. Then secondly, they relied on their own dug out wells or cisterns for water. But their leaky cisterns could not even hold stagnant water in them. They gave up on God and relied on themselves, but even that was not successful.