Jeremiah 13
1 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it around your waist. Do not put it in water.”
2 So I bought the belt, as the LORD had said, and put it around my waist.
3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:
4 “Take the belt you bought, the one around your waist. Get up, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a crevice in the rock.”
5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD had commanded me.
6 After many days, the LORD said to me: “Get up, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the belt I commanded you to hide.”
7 So I went to the Euphrates, dug it up, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it. And there it was, ruined and useless.
8 Then the word of the LORD 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.
10 This wicked people refuse to listen to my words. They follow the stubbornness of their own hearts and go after other gods, serving and bowing down to them. They will be like this belt, useless.
11 For just as a belt clings to a man’s waist, I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, so that they might be my people, my name, my praise, and my glory. But they did not listen.’”
12 “You are to say this to them: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “Every jar is filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Don’t we know that every jar is filled with wine?’”
13 Then say to them: ‘This is what the LORD says: “I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness: the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
14 I will smash them against one another, fathers and children together, says the LORD. I will show no pity, spare no one, and have no compassion; I will destroy them.”’”
15 Listen and pay attention; do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken.
16 Give glory to the LORD your God before it grows dark, before your feet stumble on the mountains at dusk. You hope for light, but he will turn it into deathly gloom and make it deep darkness.
17 But if you will not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. I will weep bitterly, and my eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and the queen mother: “Come down and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”
19 The cities of the Negev are shut up, with no one to open them. All Judah has been carried into exile, taken away completely.
20 Lift your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep you took pride in?
21 What will you say when he appoints as your leaders those you trained to turn against you? Won’t pain seize you like a woman in labor?
22 And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?”—it is because of your great guilt that your skirts have been lifted and your heels treated violently.
23 Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard its spots? Then you too could do good, though you are accustomed to doing evil.
24 I will scatter them like chaff blown away by the desert wind.
25 This is your lot, the portion I have measured out for you, says the LORD, because you have forgotten me and trusted in a lie.
26 I too will lift your skirts over your face, and your shame will be exposed.
27 Your adulteries, your lustful cries, the indecency of your prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be made clean. How long will this go on?”
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