Jeremiah
Chapter 13
1 God said to me, “Go and buy a linen belt and wear it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”
2 So I took a belt as God had said, and tied it around my waist.
3 God’s message came to me again, saying,
4 Take the belt you have, which is around your waist, get up, go to the Euphrates, and hide it in a rock’s hole.
5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, just as God told me to.
6 After many days, God told me, “Get up, go to the Euphrates and get the belt I told you to hide there.”
7 I went to the Euphrates, dug up, and took the belt from where I hid it, and look, the belt was ruined, it was useless.
8 God’s message came to me, saying,
9 God says, I will ruin the pride of Judah and the big pride of Jerusalem in this way.
10 These bad people, who won’t listen to what I say, who follow their own desires, and worship other gods, serving them, will be like this useless belt.
11 Just as a belt fits tightly around a person’s waist, I brought the entire nations of Israel and Judah close to me, declares God, so they would be my people, bring me fame, praise, and honor. But they did not listen.
12 So, tell them this message: God of Israel says, every jar will be filled with wine. And when they ask you, “Don’t we already know that every jar will be filled with wine?”
13 Then you will tell them, ‘This is what God says: Look, I will make everyone in this land, including the kings on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem, very drunk.
14 I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike, says God. I will show no pity or mercy and will destroy them.
15 Listen and pay attention; don’t be proud: for God has spoken.
16 Praise God before he brings darkness, before you trip on the shadowy mountains, and while you seek light, he turns it to deep shadow, and makes it very dark.
17 If you don’t listen, I will cry quietly because of your pride; my eyes will cry a lot and overflow with tears, because God’s people are taken as prisoners.
18 Tell the king and the queen to be humble and sit down, because their power will fall, including the crown they’re proud of.
19 The southern cities will be closed, with no one to open them. Everyone in Judah will be taken away as prisoners, completely taken away.
20 Look up and see those coming from the north: where is the group of sheep given to you, your beautiful sheep?
21 What will you say when God punishes you? You have trained them to lead and command over you; will you not be in pain like a woman giving birth?
22 If you think, “Why are these things happening to me?” It is because of your great sins that you are exposed and humiliated.
23 Can a person change their skin color or a leopard its spots? In the same way, you who always do bad might start doing good.
24 So I will spread them out like straw blown away by the desert wind.
25 This is what you get, the share I have given you, says God; because you forgot me and believed in lies.
26 So I will lift your skirts over your face, and your disgrace will be seen.
27 I have seen your unfaithfulness and your wild desires, the shameful acts of your prostitution, and the disgusting things you do on the hills in the fields. How terrible for you, Jerusalem! Will you ever be clean? When will it happen?