⁴ “Take the ^[a]sash that you acquired, which is ^[b]around your waist, and arise, go to the ^[c]Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.” ⁵ So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.

⁶ Now it came to pass after many days that the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷ Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the ^[d]sash from the place where I had hidden it; and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁹ “Thus says the Lord: ‘In this manner ^(A)I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great ^(B)pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ This evil people, who ^(C)refuse to hear My words, who ^(D)follow^[e] the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.

¹⁴ And ^(A)I will dash them ^[a]one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the Lord. “I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them.” ’ ”

¹⁵ For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will ^(A)uproot Israel from this ^(B)good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them ^(C)beyond ^[a]the River, ^(D)because they have made their ^[b]wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger.