“Broken cisterns that cannot hold water”
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A general metaphor about futility or leaky containers.
The cultural key
The contrast is between two very different water sources, and it is sharper than the English shows. A 'fountain of living water' (mayim chayyim) is a natural spring or running stream, self-replenishing, fresh, and cool, the best water there is. A cistern is a hole hewn in rock and plastered to catch and hold rainwater for the dry season; even at its best it holds still, warm, stale water, and the plaster lining constantly cracks, so a 'broken cistern' leaks its precious water into the ground and holds nothing at all. God's charge is a picture of absurd exchange: His people have walked away from a living spring, free and endless, to dig for themselves leaky tanks that cannot even keep the rainwater they catch. To trade the LORD for idols is to swap a fountain for a cracked pit. The modern reader hears vague futility; the ancient hearer, who knew the daily difference between spring and cistern, heard exactly how foolish the trade was.
Recovered meaning
'Living water' is a fresh, flowing spring; a cistern is a plastered pit that stores stagnant rainwater and cracks and leaks. Forsaking God for idols is trading an endless spring for a leaky tank that holds nothing, a self-defeating swap.