Jeremiah 13
13
Jeremiah’s Linen Belt
1This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt. Then put it around your waist. Don’t let the belt get wet.”
2So I bought a linen belt, just as the Lord told me. And I put it around my waist. 3Then the Lord spoke his word to me a second time: 4“Take the belt you bought and are wearing. Go to Perath. Hide the belt there in a crack in the rocks.” 5So I went to Perath and hid the belt there, just as the Lord told me.
6Many days later the Lord said to me, “Now go to Perath. Get the belt that I told you to hide there.” 7So I went to Perath and dug up the belt. I took it from where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined. It was good for nothing.
8Then the Lord spoke his word to me. 9This is what the Lord said: “In the same way I will ruin the pride of the people of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10These evil people refuse to listen to my warnings. They stubbornly do only what they want to do. They follow other gods to serve and worship them. So they will become like this linen belt. They will be good for nothing. 11A belt is wrapped tightly around a man’s waist. In the same way I wrapped the families of Israel and Judah around me,” says the Lord. “I did that so they would be my people. Then they would bring fame, praise and honor to me. But my people would not listen to me.
Warnings About Leather Wine Bags
12“Say to them: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: All leather bags for holding wine should be filled with wine.’ People will say to you: ‘Of course, we know all wine bags should be filled with wine.’ 13Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will make everyone in this land like a drunken man. I am talking about the kings who sit on David’s throne. I am also talking about the priests and the prophets. I am talking about all the people who live in Jerusalem. 14I will make the people of Judah stumble and fall into one another. Fathers and sons will fall into one another, says the Lord. I will not feel sorry or have pity for them. My mercy will not stop me from destroying them!’”
Threat of Slavery
15Listen and pay attention.
Don’t be too proud.
The Lord has spoken to you.
16Honor the Lord your God.
Give him glory before he brings darkness.
Praise him before you fall
on the dark hills.
You hope for light.
But the Lord will turn it into thick darkness.
He will change it into deep gloom.
17If you don’t listen to the Lord,
I will cry secretly.
Your pride will cause me to cry.
I will cry painfully.
My eyes will overflow with tears.
This is because the Lord’s people will be captured.
18Tell this to the king and queen mother:
“Come down from your thrones.
Your beautiful crowns
have fallen from your heads.”
19The cities in the desert of southern Judah are shut up.
No one can open them.
All Judah will be taken as captives to a foreign land.
They will be carried away completely.
20Jerusalem, look up and see.
Someone comes from the north.
Where is the flock God gave to you to care for?
It is the flock you bragged about.
21What will you say when they appoint as your heads
those you had thought were your friends?
Won’t you have much pain and trouble?
Your pain will be like that of a woman having a baby.
22You might ask yourself,
“Why has this happened to me?”
It happened because of your many sins.
Because of your sins, your skirt was torn off
and your body has been treated badly.
23A black man from Cush cannot change the color of his skin.
A leopard cannot change his spots.
In the same way, Jerusalem, you cannot change and do good.
You always do evil.
24“I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert wind.
25This is what will happen to you.
This is your part in my plans,” says the Lord.
“This will happen because you forgot me.
You have trusted in false gods.
26Jerusalem, I will pull your skirts up over your face.
Everyone will see you, and you will be ashamed.
27I have seen the terrible things you have done.
I know your acts of adultery and your snorting.
I have seen you acting like a prostitute.
I have seen your hated acts
on the hills and in the fields.
How terrible it will be for you, Jerusalem.
How long will you continue being unclean?”
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Jeremiah 13
13
The Linen Loincloth
1Thus Yahweh said to me: “Go and buy for yourself a loincloth of linen and put it on your loins, but you must not place#Literally “bring” it in water.” 2So I bought the loincloth according to the word of Yahweh and I put it#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation on my loins.
3Now the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying,#Literally “to say” 4“Take the loincloth that you bought, that is on your loins, and stand up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in the cleft of the rock.” 5So I went and hid it by the Euphrates just as Yahweh had commanded me.
6And then,#Literally “And it happened” after a long time,#Literally “from the end of many days” then Yahweh said to me, “Stand up, go to the Euphrates and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7Then I went to the Euphrates and I dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it, and look, the loincloth was ruined; it was not good for anything.
8And then#Literally “And it happened” the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,#Literally “to say” 9“Thus says Yahweh: ‘So I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who go#Or “walk” in the stubbornness of their hearts,#Hebrew “heart” and have gone after other gods, to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, let them be like this loincloth which is not good for anything. 11For as the loincloth clings to the loins of a person, so I caused to cling to me all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah,’ declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh, ‘to be for me a people, and a name, and a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.’
12“Therefore, you shall say to them this word, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: “Every jar must be filled with wine.” ’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every jar should be filled with wine?’ 13Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Look, I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit on David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. 14And I will smash them, each one against his brother, and the fathers and the sons together,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh. “I will not have compassion, and I will not take pity, and I will not show compassion from destroying them.” ’ ”
15Listen, and pay attention,
you must not be haughty, for Yahweh has spoken.
16Give glory to Yahweh your God before#Literally “at not yet” he brings darkness,
and before#Literally “at not yet” your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight.
And you will hope for light, but he makes it as gloom,
he makes it#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation as thick darkness.
17But if you will not listen to it,
my inner self#Or “soul” will weep in secret places,
because of the presence of#Literally “the face of” your pride.
And my eyes#Hebrew “eye” will weep bitterly,
and they will melt in tears,
because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.
A Message for the King and the Queen Mother
18“Say to the king and to the queen mother, ‘Take a lower seat,#Literally “Bring low sit”
for your beautiful crown#Literally “the crown of your beauty” has come down from your head.’#Or “at the head of you”
19The towns of the Negev are shut up,
and there is no one who opens them.#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
All of Judah is deported;
it is deported in completeness.
20Lift up your eyes
and see those coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was given to you,
your magnificent flock?#Literally “the flock of your splendor”
21What will you say when he sets over you—
and you have taught them—allies as head over you?
Will not labor pains take hold of you,
like a woman giving birth?
22And if you say in your heart,
‘Why have these things happened to me?’
Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered;
your heels have endured violence.
23Can a Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots?
Then you also will be able to do good,
who are accustomed to doing evil.
24And I will scatter them
like stubble scattered by the wind of the desert.#Or “wilderness”
25This is your lot,
the portion of your measure from me,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh,
“because you have forgotten me,
and you have trusted in the lie.
26So in turn I will bare your skirts over your face,
and your shame will become visible.
27Your adulteries, and your neighings,
the shameful behavior of your fornications
on the hills in the countryside,
I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will you continue to be unclean?#Literally “Not you are clean after how long still””
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