Jeremiah 13
13
Jeremiah's Linen Shorts
1The Lord told me, “Go and buy a pair of linen shorts. Wear them for a while, but don't wash them.” 2So I bought a pair of shorts and put them on.
3Then the Lord said, 4“Take off the shorts. Go to Parah#13.4 Parah: Or “the Euphrates River.” Parah was a village about nine kilometers northeast of Jerusalem. and hide the shorts in a crack between some large rocks.” 5And that's what I did.
6Some time later the Lord said, “Go back and get the shorts.” 7I went back and dug the shorts out of their hiding place, but the cloth had rotted, and the shorts were ruined.
8Then the Lord said:
9Jeremiah, I will use Babylonia to#13.9 I will use Babylonia to: Or “that's how I'm going to.” destroy the pride of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. 10The people of Judah are evil and stubborn. So instead of listening to me, they do whatever they want and even worship other gods. When I am finished with these people, they will be good for nothing, just like this pair of shorts. 11These shorts were tight around your waist, and that's how tightly I held onto the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. I wanted them to be my people. I wanted to make them famous, so that other nations would praise and honor me, but they refused to obey me.
Wine Jars
The Lord said:
12Jeremiah, tell the people of Judah, “The Lord God of Israel orders you to fill your wine jars with wine.”
They will answer, “Of course we fill our wine jars with wine! Why are you telling us something we already know?”
13Then say to them:
I am the Lord, and what I'm going to do will make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem appear to be full of wine. And the worst ones will be the kings of David's family and the priests and the prophets. 14Then I will smash them against each other like jars. I will have no pity on the young or the old, and they will all be destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken.
The People of Judah Will Be Taken Away
15People of Judah,
don't be too proud to listen
to what the Lord has said.
16You hope for light,
but God is sending darkness.
Evening shadows already deepen
in the hills.
So return to God
and confess your sins to him
before you trip and fall.
17If you are too proud to listen,
I will weep alone.
Tears will stream from my eyes
when the Lord's people
are taken away as prisoners.
18The Lord told me to tell you
that your king and his mother#13.18 mother: The king's mother usually had an important position in the royal court.
must surrender their thrones
and remove their crowns.#13.18 and remove their crowns: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
19The cities in the Southern Desert
are surrounded;
no one can get in or out.
Everyone in Judah
will be taken away.
20Jerusalem, you were so proud
of ruling the people of Judah.
But where are they now?
Look north, and you will see
your enemies approaching.
21You once trusted them to help,
but now I'll let them rule you.#13.21 You once … rule you: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
What do you say about that?
You will be in pain
like a woman giving birth.
22Do you know why
your clothes were torn off
and you were abused?
It was because
of your terrible sins.
23Can you ever change
and do what's right?
Can people change the color
of their skin,
or can a leopard
remove its spots?
If so, then maybe you can change
and learn to do right.
24I will scatter you,
just as the desert wind
blows husks from grain
tossed in the air.
25I won't change my mind.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
You rejected me
and worshiped false gods.
* 26You were married to me,
but you were unfaithful.
You even became a prostitute#13.26 prostitute: See the note at 2.20.
by worshiping disgusting gods
on hilltops and in fields.
27So I'll rip off your clothes
and leave you naked and ashamed
for everyone to see.
You are doomed!
Will you ever be worthy
to worship me again?
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Jeremiah 13: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 13
13
1This is what the Lord told me to do: Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it on, but don't wash it. 2So I went and bought a loincloth as the Lord had instructed me, and I put it on.
3Then the Lord gave me another message: 4Take the loincloth that you bought and put on, and go immediately to the River Perath#13:4. The River Perath in Hebrew is usually translated as the Euphrates. However, this would mean Jeremiah going on two round trips of some 700 miles each. Some have suggested that the river in question was one with a similar name located near to Anathoth. Insofar as this is an acted parable it seems likely that others were supposed to see what happened and understand what it meant, so the actual Euphrates seems an unlikely location. However, the symbolic aspect must be included since the invaders would be coming from Babylon on the Euphrates. and hide it there in a hole among the rocks. 5So I went and hid it at the River Perath, as the Lord had told me.
6A long time later the Lord told me, Go to Perath, and get the loincloth that I ordered you to hide there. 7I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and removed it from where I'd hidden it. Obviously it was ruined—completely useless.
8Then a message from the Lord came to me: 9This is what the Lord says: I will ruin the arrogance of Judah and the great arrogance of Jerusalem in exactly the same way. 10These evil people refuse to listen to what I tell them. They follow their own stubborn and evil thinking and run off to worship other gods—they will be like this loincloth, completely useless.
11In the same way that a loincloth holds tightly to the body, so I made all the people of Israel and Judah hold tightly to me, declares the Lord. Then they could have been my people, representing me, giving me honor and praise. But they refused to listen.
12So tell them this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Every wine jar shall be filled with wine.
When they reply, “Don't we know that already? Of course every wine jar should be filled with wine!” 13then tell them that this is what the Lord says: I'm going to make everyone who lives in this land drunk—the kings sitting on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. 14I'm going to smash them against each other like wine jars,#13:14. “Like wine jars”: supplied for clarity. both parents and children, declares the Lord. I won't let any mercy or pity or compassion stop me from destroying them.
15Listen and pay attention. Don't be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken. 16Honor the Lord your God before he brings the darkness, before you trip and fall in the twilight on the mountains. You long for light to come, but he sends only gloom and complete darkness.
17But if you refuse to listen, I will weep secretly inside because of your pride. My tears pour down because the Lord's flock has been captured.
18Tell the king and the queen mother: Get down from your thrones, because your splendid crowns have fallen from your heads. 19The towns in the Negev are surrounded; no one can get through to them. The whole of Judah has been taken away into exile, everyone has been exiled. 20Look up and you'll see the invaders coming from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you to look after? Where are the sheep you were so proud of? 21What are you going to say when he puts your enemies in charge of you, people you once counted as your friends? Won't you suffer pains like a woman in labor?
22If you say to yourself, Why has this happened to me? it's because you have been so wicked. That's why your skirts were stripped off and you were raped. 23Can Ethiopians change the color of their skin? Can a leopard change its spots? In the same way you can't change and do good because you're so used to doing evil.
24I'm going to scatter you like chaff blown away by the desert wind. 25This is what's going to happen to you; this is what I have decided to do to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and believed in lies. 26I will pull your skirts up over your face, so you will be seen naked and ashamed. 27I watched your acts of adultery and lust, how you prostituted yourselves shamelessly, worshiping idols on the hills and in the fields. Yes, I saw the disgusting things you did.
Disaster is coming to you, Jerusalem! How long are you going to remain unclean?
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com