Jeremiah 2:15 describes the devastation of the land of Judah and its cities as a consequence of turning away from God. The verse pictures enemies as roaring lions who have ravaged the country until its towns stand empty and burned. The prophet Jeremiah speaks these words on behalf of the LORD to the people of Judah and Israel, who had abandoned the God who had led them and made them a nation.
The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
Jeremiah 2:15 (WEB)
What Jeremiah 2:15 Means
The opening image is one of hostile animals. Young lions roar and yell at a target, which signals an attack that is loud, fierce, and not quiet or subtle. The lions stand for invading armies, and the roaring suggests the terror that came with them. The next phrase describes the result: the land has been made waste, meaning emptied of its farms, harvests, and ordinary life. The final image, cities burned and left without inhabitants, shows how complete the ruin became.
The verse describes what happened to the land. It does not state a rule that every hardship is a direct punishment for a specific sin, and it does not promise that God will always send judgment in exactly this form. What it does say is that the suffering of the nation was tied to its departure from the LORD, a link the prophet makes plain in the verses around it.
The Context of Jeremiah 2:15
The book of Jeremiah is traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, who ministered in Jerusalem in the late seventh and early sixth centuries before Christ, through the final decades of the kingdom of Judah. Chapter 2 opens a long series of messages in which God, through Jeremiah, calls his people back after years of idolatry and reliance on foreign alliances. The audience is the people of Israel and Judah, and the prophet speaks in the courtroom language of a covenant lawsuit.
Just before verse 15, God asks the heavens to be astonished, and then accuses his people of forsaking him, the spring of living water, and digging broken cisterns that hold no water. Verses 16 to 18 then ask why they have turned to Egypt and Assyria for help instead of trusting the LORD who brought them out of slavery. Read in that setting, verse 15 is less a freestanding prophecy and more an illustration of what happens when a people chooses broken sources of security over the living God.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 2:15
Jeremiah 2:13
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
(WEB)
This verse is the heart of the chapter’s accusation, describing God as the living spring and Judah’s turn to broken cisterns. Reading it alongside verse 15 shows that the devastation described there is the outworking of the choice named here.
Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
(WEB)
Where Jeremiah describes a nation laid waste, this psalm proclaims God as a refuge and strength who is a very present help in trouble. Together they show both the cost of forsaking God and the security found in returning to him.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 2:15
Lord, you are the spring of living water, and I confess the times I have turned to broken cisterns for security, approval, and peace. Show me where my trust has drifted from you, and give me the humility to name it honestly. Restore what has been emptied in my life, and draw me back to the strength that does not fail. Keep my heart near to you in every season. Amen.
