Jeremiah 13

The ruined waistcloth

1This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen waistcloth. Put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”

2So I bought the waistcloth as the LORD had said and put it around my waist.

3The LORD’s word came to me a second time:

4“Take the waistcloth you bought, the one around your waist. Go at once to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rock.”

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

6Many days later, the LORD said to me, “Go at once to Perath and get the waistcloth I told you to hide there.”

7I went to Perath, dug up the waistcloth, and took it from the place where I had hidden it. It was ruined—good for nothing.

8Then the LORD’s word came to me:

9“This is what the LORD says: In the same way, I will ruin Judah’s pride and Jerusalem’s great pride.

10This evil people refuses to listen to my words. They follow their stubborn hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them. They will be like this waistcloth, good for nothing.

11As a waistcloth clings to a man’s waist, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me,” declares the LORD, “to be my people, my name, my praise, and my glory. But they would not listen.

Jars filled with wine

12“Tell them this: This is what the LORD, Israel’s God, says: Every jar will be filled with wine. They will answer, ‘Don’t we know that every jar will be filled with wine?’

13Then tell them: This is what the LORD says: Look, I am filling everyone who lives in this land with drunkenness—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and everyone who lives in Jerusalem.

14I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons together,” declares the LORD. “No pity, no mercy, no compassion will keep me from destroying them.”

Pride and humiliation

15Listen and pay attention;
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 the mountains at dusk.
You hope for light,
but he will turn it to deep darkness,
make it thick gloom. 17But if you will not listen,
my soul will weep in secret because of your pride.
My eyes will weep bitterly and stream with tears,
for the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

18Say to the king and the queen mother,
“Take a low seat,
for your glorious crown
has fallen from your heads.”

19The cities of the Negeb are shut,
with no one to open them.
All Judah has gone into exile,
wholly carried away.

20Lift your eyes and see those coming from the north!
Where is the flock entrusted to you,
your glorious sheep?

21What will you say when he sets over you as rulers
those you trained to be your close friends?
Will pain not seize you
like a woman in labor?

22And if you ask yourself,
‘Why has this happened to me?’—
it is because of your great guilt
that your skirts have been stripped back
and your body violated.

23Can a Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard its spots?
Then you too could do good,
though you are trained in doing evil.

24“I will scatter them like straw
blown by a wilderness wind.

25This is your lot,
the portion I have measured out for you,”
declares the LORD,
“because you forgot me
and trusted in falsehood.

26I myself will strip your skirts up over your face,
and your shame will be seen.

27Your adulteries, your lustful neighing,
your shameless prostitution—
on the hills, in the open country,
I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
How much longer before you are clean?”