Thus says the LORD unto me, Go and buy you a linen belt, and put it upon your waist, and put it not in water.

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

Take the belt that you have bought, which is upon your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.

And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the belt was ruined, it was profitable for nothing.

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is good for nothing.

For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cling unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

Declare you among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.