Jeremiah 13

1Thus the LORD said to me: “Go, buy yourself a linen belt, and put it around your waist. But do not put it in water.”

2So I bought the belt, according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

3The word of the LORD came to me a second time:

4“Take the belt that you bought, which is around your waist. Get up, go to Perath, and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.”

5So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me.

6After many days, the LORD said to me, “Get up, go to Perath, and take from there the belt that I commanded you to hide there.”

7So I went to Perath and dug, and I took the belt from the place where I had hidden it. And look—the belt was ruined; it was good for nothing.

8Then the word of the LORD came to me:

9Thus says the LORD: “In this way I will ruin the great pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and who go after other gods to serve them and bow down to them, will become like this belt, good for nothing.

11For just as a belt clings to a person’s waist, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me,” declares the LORD, “to be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.

12“You shall say to them this word: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Every jar will be filled with wine. And when they say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every jar will be filled with wine?’

13then say to them: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am filling all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness—the kings who sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

14I will smash them, each one against another, fathers and children together,” declares the LORD. “I will not spare; I will not pity; I will not have compassion, so as to keep from destroying them.”

15Listen and give ear;
do not be proud,
for the LORD has spoken. 16Give glory to the LORD your God
before he brings darkness,
before your feet stumble
on mountains at twilight.
You hope for light,
but he will make it deep darkness;
he will turn it into gloom. 17But if you will not listen,
my whole being will weep in secret because of your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly
and flow with tears,
because the flock of the LORD
has been taken captive.

18Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves; sit down, for your splendid crowns have come down from your heads.”

19The cities of the Negeb are shut up, with no one to open them. Judah has gone into exile—all of it; it has gone into exile completely.

20Lift up your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, your splendid flock?

21What will you say when he appoints over you those whom you yourself taught to be leaders over you? Will not pains seize you like those of a woman in labor?

22And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things happened to me?”—because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels violated.

23Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard its spots? Then you also could do good, you who are trained to do evil.

24I will scatter them like chaff swept away by the wind of the wilderness.

25This is your lot, the portion measured out to you from me,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten me and trusted in falsehood.

26I myself will also lift your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen.

27Your adulteries, your lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution—on the hills in the field I have seen your detestable things. Woe to you, Jerusalem! Will you not be made clean? How long yet?”