Jeremiah 13
Evangelical Heritage Version
A Linen Undergarment
13 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and purchase a linen undergarment[a] for yourself. Put it around your waist. Do not let it touch water.” 2 So I bought an undergarment as the Lord said, and I put it on.
3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: 4 “Take the undergarment you purchased, the one you are wearing around your waist, and go right now to Perath[b] and hide it there in a cleft in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord commanded me.
6 Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go to Perath and retrieve the undergarment I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to Perath and searched. I took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and worthless.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me.
9 This is what the Lord says. I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem in the same way. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They follow their own stubborn hearts. They follow after other gods by serving them and worshipping them. They are all like this worthless undergarment. 11 Just as an undergarment fits tightly around a man’s waist, in the same way I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord. I did this so that they would be my people and so that they would bring praise and honor to my name, but they would not listen.
The Broken Wine Jar
12 Give this message to them.
This is what the Lord God of Israel says: “Every clay jar will be filled with wine.” Then they will say to you, “We know that every clay jar will be filled with wine.”
13 So say to them, “This is what the Lord says. I will certainly make everyone who lives in this land drunk. The kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all those who live in Jerusalem will become drunk. 14 Then I will smash them to pieces—a man against his brother, fathers, and sons, declares the Lord. I will not spare them. I will destroy them without pity or compassion.”
15 Listen and pay attention!
Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.
16 Honor the Lord your God before he brings darkness,
and before your feet stumble on the mountains at dusk.
You will look for light,
but he will turn it into the shadow of death
and change it into deep darkness.
17 If you will not listen,
I will cry for you in secret because of your arrogance.
My eyes will weep bitterly and overflow with tears,
because the Lord’s flock will be taken captive.
18 Say to the king and to the queen mother,
“Come down from your thrones,
because your crowns will fall from your heads.”[c]
19 The cities of the Negev are under siege,
and no one can get through to them.
All of Judah will be taken into exile.
They will be carried away completely.
20 Look up and see those who are coming from the north.
Where is the flock entrusted to you,
the sheep you were so proud of?
The Future of Jerusalem
21 What will you say when associates whom you yourself have taught are appointed as masters over you? Won’t pain seize you like a woman in labor? 22 If you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” you should know that it is because of your great guilt that your skirt has been torn off, and you have been violated.
23 Can an Ethiopian[d] change the color of his skin?
Can a leopard change its spots?
Just as little can you, who are disciples of evil, do good.
24 I will scatter you like chaff blown by the desert wind.
25 This is your lot.
This is what I have assigned to you,
declares the Lord.
This will take place because you have forgotten me
and trusted in falsehood.
26 I myself will lift your skirt over your head,
so that your shame can be seen—
27 your adulteries, your lust-filled neighing,
and your shameless prostitution.
I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the countryside.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
You are unclean.
After this, will you ever be clean again?
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 13:1 Suggested translations include loincloth, shorts, wrap, and belt. It was probably a skirt-like garment reaching from the waist to the knees.
- Jeremiah 13:4 Or the Euphrates. The Hebrew name Perath is often used in the Old Testament as the name for the river Euphrates, which was about 350 miles away. Was Jeremiah told to make the long journey to the Euphrates or to go to a nearby location whose name served as a symbol of the Euphrates? We do not have enough information to answer the question.
- Jeremiah 13:18 The Greek and other versions support the reading fall from your heads. The meaning of the reading in the Hebrew text is uncertain.
- Jeremiah 13:23 Hebrew Cushite. Cush was the territory just south of Egypt, present-day Sudan. Cushite refers to black Africans.
Jeremiah 13
Lexham English Bible
The Linen Loincloth
13 Thus Yahweh said to me: “Go and buy for yourself a loincloth of linen and put it on your loins, but you must not place[a] it in water.” 2 So I bought the loincloth according to the word of Yahweh and I put it[b] on my loins.
3 Now the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying,[c] 4 “Take the loincloth that you bought, that is on your loins, and stand up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in the cleft of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates just as Yahweh had commanded me.
6 And then,[d] after a long time,[e] then Yahweh said to me, “Stand up, go to the Euphrates and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and I dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it, and look, the loincloth was ruined; it was not good for anything.
8 And then[f] the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,[g] 9 “Thus says Yahweh: ‘So I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who go[h] in the stubbornness of their hearts,[i] and have gone after other gods, to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, let them be like this loincloth which is not good for anything. 11 For as the loincloth clings to the loins of a person, so I caused to cling to me all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah,’ declares[j] Yahweh, ‘to be for me a people, and a name, and a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.’
12 “Therefore, you shall say to them this word, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: “Every jar must be filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every jar should be filled with wine?’ 13 Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Look, I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit on David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. 14 And I will smash them, each one against his brother, and the fathers and the sons together,” declares[k] Yahweh. “I will not have compassion, and I will not take pity, and I will not show compassion from destroying them.”’”
15 Listen, and pay attention,
you must not be haughty, for Yahweh has spoken.
16 Give glory to Yahweh your God before[l] he brings darkness,
and before[m] your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight.
And you will hope for light, but he makes it as gloom,
he makes it[n] as thick darkness.
17 But if you will not listen to it,
my inner self[o] will weep in secret places,
because of the presence of[p] your pride.
And my eyes[q] will weep bitterly,
and they will melt in tears,
because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.
A Message for the King and the Queen Mother
18 “Say to the king and to the queen mother, ‘Take a lower seat,[r]
for your beautiful crown[s] has come down from your head.’[t]
19 The towns of the Negev are shut up,
and there is no one who opens them.[u]
All of Judah is deported;
it is deported in completeness.
20 Lift up your eyes
and see those coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was given to you,
your magnificent flock?[v]
21 What will you say when he sets over you—
and you have taught them—allies as head over you?
Will not labor pains take hold of you,
like a woman giving birth?
22 And if you say in your heart,
‘Why have these things happened to me?’
Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered;
your heels have endured violence.
23 Can a Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots?
Then you also will be able to do good,
who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 And I will scatter them
like stubble scattered by the wind of the desert.[w]
25 This is your lot,
the portion of your measure from me,” declares[x] Yahweh,
“because you have forgotten me,
and you have trusted in the lie.
26 So in turn I will bare your skirts over your face,
and your shame will become visible.
27 Your adulteries, and your neighings,
the shameful behavior of your fornications
on the hills in the countryside,
I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will you continue to be unclean?[y]”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 13:1 Literally “bring”
- Jeremiah 13:2 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 13:3 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 13:6 Literally “And it happened”
- Jeremiah 13:6 Literally “from the end of many days”
- Jeremiah 13:8 Literally “And it happened”
- Jeremiah 13:8 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 13:10 Or “walk”
- Jeremiah 13:10 Hebrew “heart”
- Jeremiah 13:11 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 13:14 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 13:16 Literally “at not yet”
- Jeremiah 13:16 Literally “at not yet”
- Jeremiah 13:16 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 13:17 Or “soul”
- Jeremiah 13:17 Literally “the face of”
- Jeremiah 13:17 Hebrew “eye”
- Jeremiah 13:18 Literally “Bring low sit”
- Jeremiah 13:18 Literally “the crown of your beauty”
- Jeremiah 13:18 Or “at the head of you”
- Jeremiah 13:19 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 13:20 Literally “the flock of your splendor”
- Jeremiah 13:24 Or “wilderness”
- Jeremiah 13:25 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 13:27 Literally “Not you are clean after how long still”
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