约四13~14 耶稣回答说，凡喝这水的，还要再渴；人若喝我所赐的水，就永远不渴；我所赐的水，要在他里面成为泉源，直涌入永远的生命。

　　在耶利米二章十三节，我们不仅看见积极的事—活水的泉源，也看见消极的事—以色列人离弃这泉源，为自己凿出破裂不能存水的池子。这消极的事指明，以色列人和创世记三章的亚当一样堕落了。亚当因着离弃生命树，转向另一棵树—善恶知识树，而堕落了。以色列人因着离弃神作活水的泉源，并且转向神以外的源头，而堕落了。

　　神有负担，叫以色列饮于祂，好成为祂的扩增，作祂的丰满，使他们彰显祂。以色列本该饮于神这活水的泉源，但他们反倒作了两件恶事：第一件恶事是离弃神；第二件恶事是凿出池子作另一个源头。然而，那些池子是破裂不能存水的。这指明除了神这活水的泉源，没有什么能解我们的干渴，没有什么能满足我们。除了神自己分赐到我们里面作活水以外，没有什么能使我们成为祂的扩增，使祂得着彰显（耶利米书生命读经，二二至二三页）。

　　John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.

　　In Jeremiah 2:13 we see not only something positive—the fountain of living waters—but also something negative—the children of Israel’s forsaking this fountain to hew out for themselves broken cisterns, which hold no water. This negative thing indicates that Israel, like Adam in Genesis 3, had become fallen. Adam fell by forsaking the tree of life and turning to another tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Israel fell by forsaking God as the fountain of living waters and turning to a source other than God.

　　God was burdened that Israel would drink Him to become His increase as His fullness that they might express Him. Israel should have drunk of God as the fountain of living waters, but instead they committed two evils. The first evil was to forsake God; the second evil was to hew out cisterns as another source. Those cisterns, however, were broken and could hold no water. This indicates that apart from God as the fountain of living waters, nothing can quench our thirst, nothing can satisfy us. Nothing apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water can make us His increase for His expression. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 18-19)

　　以色列的第一件恶事，就是离弃耶和华这活水的泉源。……在耶利米书里，耶和华神将自己看作祂所爱之选民以色列的丈夫，将以色列看作祂的妻子。因此，二章一节至三章五节可视为丈夫与妻子之间的谈话。……“你去向耶路撒冷人的耳中喊叫，说，耶和华如此说，你幼年的恩爱，新婚的爱情，你怎样在旷野，在未曾耕种之地跟随我，我都记得。”（二2）耶和华与以色列有一个新婚的日子—婚礼的日子，耶和华（丈夫）仍记得那个爱的日子。

　　“耶和华如此说，你们的列祖见我有什么不义，竟远离我，随从虚无的神，自己成为虚妄呢？”（5）这节的虚无一辞指偶像。以色列随从虚无，他们自己也成为虚无；他们拜偶像，结果使自己也成为无有。……以色列也忘记耶和华是那领他们从埃及地上来，经过沙漠的旷野和死荫之地，并领他们进入肥美之地的（6~7）。……最终，神的百姓离弃耶和华这活水的泉源，就像耶和华的妻子和许多所爱的人行邪淫一样（三1）。以色列知道耶和华是她的丈夫，但她继续和许多所爱的人，和许多偶像行邪淫。这是以色列有罪的光景。

　　以色列的第二件恶事是为自己凿出池子，是破裂不能存水的池子。……二章十三节关于池子的话，当然是比喻的说法，描绘以色列人辛苦地制作一些东西，顶替神这活水的泉源。从磐石凿出池子是非常艰难的工作；而池子也可能破裂，池子一旦破裂，其中的水就漏掉了。这是人的劳碌和事业的一幅图画。我们也许劳碌地要为自己得一些东西，但我们的“池子”产生裂缝，我们就失去了所得着的一切。

　　以色列拣选许多无益的偶像，顶替那是他们荣耀的独一之神（11）。这与罗马一章二十三节所描述的非常相似，那里保罗说到那些人“将不能朽坏之神的荣耀，改换为必朽坏的人、飞禽、走兽和爬物之像的样式”（耶利米书生命读经，四八至五二页）。

　　参读：耶利米书生命读经，第三、三十二篇。

　　The first evil of Israel was to forsake Jehovah, the fountain of living waters….In the book of Jeremiah, Jehovah God considers Himself a husband to His beloved elect, Israel, and Israel a wife to Him. Jeremiah 2:1—3:5 may thus be regarded as a conversation between a husband and wife. “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah: / I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, / The love of your bridal days, / When you followed after Me in the wilderness, / In a land that was not sown” (2:2). There was a bridal day, a wedding day, for Jehovah and Israel, and Jehovah, the Husband, still remembered that day of love.

　　“Thus says Jehovah: / What iniquity did your fathers find in Me / That they went far away from Me / And walked after vanity / And became vain?” (v. 5). The word vanity in this verse refers to idols. Israel walked after vanity, and they themselves became vain; they worshipped idols and as a result they made themselves nothing. Israel also forgot Jehovah, who brought them up from Egypt through the wilderness of deserts and the shadow of death and brought them into the land of the fruited field (vv. 6-7). In forsaking Jehovah, the fountain of living waters, God’s people were like Jehovah’s wife committing fornication with many lovers (3:1). Israel realized that Jehovah was her Husband, but she continued to commit fornication with many lovers, with many idols. Such was the sinful condition of Israel.

　　Israel’s second evil was to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water. The word in 2:13 about cisterns is, of course, a figure of speech portraying Israel’s toil in making something to replace God as the fountain of living waters. To hew out a cistern from rock is very hard labor. Then the cistern may become broken. Once a cistern is broken, the water in it leaks out. This is a picture of human labor and enterprise. We may labor to get something for ourselves, but then our “cistern” develops a crack, and we lose whatever we have gained.

　　Israel chose many idols, which are of no benefit, to replace the unique God, who is their glory (2:11). This is very similar to what is described in Romans 1:23, where Paul speaks of those who “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.” (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 39-42)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Jeremiah, msgs. 3, 32