Jeremiah 13:1-11 ▼

1 Thus said YHWH to me: “Go, and you have acquired a girdle of linen for yourself, and have placed it on your loins, and you do not cause it to enter into water.”

2 And I get the girdle, according to the word of YHWH, and I place [it] on my loins.

3 And there is a word of YHWH to me a second time, saying,

4 “Take the girdle that you have acquired, that [is] on your loins, and rise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock”;

5 and I go and hide it by the Euphrates, as YHWH commanded me.

6 And it comes to pass, at the end of many days, that YHWH says to me, “Rise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle there, that I commanded you to hide there”;

7 and I go to the Euphrates, and dig, and take the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and behold, the girdle has been marred, it is not profitable for anything.

8 And there is a word of YHWH to me, saying, “Thus said YHWH:

9 Thus I mar the excellence of Judah, || And the great excellence of Jerusalem.

10 This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, || Who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, || And go after other gods to serve them, || And to bow themselves to them, || Indeed it is—as this girdle, that is not profitable for anything.

11 For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, || So I caused to cleave to Me || The whole house of Israel, || And the whole house of Judah,” || A declaration of YHWH, || “To be to Me for a people, and for a name, || And for praise, and for beauty, || And they have not listened.