Jeremiah 13:1-17 - The Linen Loincloth
1 So says Jehovah to me, Go and buy for yourself a linen girdle, and put it on your loins, and do not put it in water. 2 So I bought a girdle according to the Word of Jehovah, and put it on my loins.
3 And the Word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying, 4 Take the girdle that you bought, which is on your loins, and arise. Go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. 5 So I went and hid it by Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me.
6 And it happened at the end of many days Jehovah said to me, Arise, go to Euphrates and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide there. 7 Then I went to Euphrates and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hidden it. And, behold, the girdle was rotted; it was not good for anything.
8 Then the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 9 So says Jehovah, In this way I will spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be like this girdle, which is good for nothing. 11 For as the girdle holds fast to the loins of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, says Jehovah; so that they might be to Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory; but they would not hear.
12 So you will speak to them this Word: So says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every skin shall be filled with wine. And they shall say to you, Do we not surely know that every skin shall be filled with wine? 13 Then you shall say to them, So says Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the people of this land, even the kings that sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. 14 And I will smash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says Jehovah. I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, to keep them from their destruction.
15 Hear and give ear; do not be proud; for Jehovah has spoken. 16 Give glory to Jehovah your God, before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, He turns it into the shadow of death, setting up deep gloom. 17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride. And my eye shall weep sore and run down with tears, because Jehovah's flock was captured.