Jeremiah 13
1 Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
This is what the Lord told me to do: Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it on, but don't wash it.
2 So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah, and put it upon my loins.
So I went and bought a loincloth as the Lord had instructed me, and I put it on.
3 And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying,
Then the Lord gave me another message:
4 Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.
Take the loincloth that you bought and put on, and go immediately to the River Perath and hide it there in a hole among the rocks.
5 So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me.
So I went and hid it at the River Perath, as the Lord had told me.
6 And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
A long time later the Lord told me, Go to Perath, and get the loincloth that I ordered you to hide there.
7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and removed it from where I'd hidden it. Obviously it was ruined—completely useless.
8 Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
Then a message from the Lord came to me:
9 Thus saith Jehovah, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
This is what the Lord says: I will ruin the arrogance of Judah and the great arrogance of Jerusalem in exactly the same way.
10 This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, that walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is profitable for nothing.
These evil people refuse to listen to what I tell them. They follow their own stubborn and evil thinking and run off to worship other gods—they will be like this loincloth, completely useless.
11 For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
In the same way that a loincloth holds tightly to the body, so I made all the people of Israel and Judah hold tightly to me, declares the Lord. Then they could have been my people, representing me, giving me honor and praise. But they refused to listen.
12 Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word: Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
So tell them this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Every wine jar shall be filled with wine. When they reply, “Don't we know that already? Of course every wine jar should be filled with wine!”
13 Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
then tell them that this is what the Lord says: I'm going to make everyone who lives in this land drunk—the kings sitting on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.
14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith Jehovah: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.
I'm going to smash them against each other like wine jars, both parents and children, declares the Lord. I won't let any mercy or pity or compassion stop me from destroying them.
15 Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud; for Jehovah hath spoken.
Listen and pay attention. Don't be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to Jehovah your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
Honor the Lord your God before he brings the darkness, before you trip and fall in the twilight on the mountains. You long for light to come, but he send only gloom and complete darkness.
17 But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your] pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah’s flock is taken captive.
But if you refuse to listen, I will weep secretly inside because of your pride. My tears pouring down because the Lord's flock has been captured.
18 Say thou unto the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headtires are come down, even the crown of your glory.
Tell the king and the queen mother: Get down from your thrones, because your splendid crowns have fallen from your heads.
19 The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive.
The towns in the Negev are surrounded; no one can get through to them. The whole of Judah has been taken away into exile, everyone has been exiled.
20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
Look up and you'll see the invaders coming from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you to look after? Where are the sheep you were so proud of?
21 What wilt thou say, when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyself taught to be friends to thee? shall not sorrows take hold of thee, as of a woman in travail?
What are you going to say when he puts your enemies in charge of you, people you once counted as your friends? Won't you suffer pains like a woman in labor?
22 And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore are these things come upon me? for the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels suffer violence.
If you say to yourself, Why has this happened to me? it's because you have been so wicked. That's why your skirts were stripped off and you were raped.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Can Ethiopians change the color of their skin? Can a leopard change its spots? In the same way you can't change and do good because you're so used to doing evil.
24 Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passeth away, by the wind of the wilderness.
I'm going to scatter you like chaff blown away by the desert wind.
25 This is thy lot, the portion measured unto thee from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
This is what's going to happen to you; this is what I have decided to do to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and believed in lies.
26 Therefore will I also uncover thy skirts upon thy face, and thy shame shall appear.
I will pull your skirts up over your face, so you will be seen naked and ashamed.
27 I have seen thine abominations, even thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, on the hills in the field. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! thou wilt not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?
I watched your acts of adultery and lust, how you prostituted yourselves shamelessly, worshiping idols on the hills and in the fields. Yes, I saw the disgusting things you did. Disaster is coming to you, Jerusalem! How long are you going to remain unclean?
