Jeremiah 13:1-11

The Voice

13 The Eternal directed me.

Eternal One: Go and buy a linen undergarment; put it around your waist next to your body beneath your clothes, but do not wash it.

²So I bought the undergarment, just as the Eternal had told me, and put it around my waist. ³Then the Eternal spoke to me a second time.

Eternal One: ⁴Now take off this undergarment you’ve purchased and have been wearing around your waist, and go to the Euphrates. I want you to hide it in a crevice in the rocks there.

⁵So I took the undergarment to the Euphrates and hid it in the rocks, just as the Eternal told me. ⁶After many days had passed, the Eternal spoke to me a third time.

Eternal One: Now go back to the Euphrates, and get the linen undergarment I told you to hide there.

⁷When I went back and dug up this garment from the place where I’d hidden it, I found it had begun to rot. This garment that was once new and clean was now completely worthless. ⁸The word of the Eternal came to me to drive home His point.

At times God’s message given through Jeremiah must be acted out. He wants so badly for His people to understand, that mere words aren’t sufficient. This is one such moment.

Eternal One: ⁹Mark My words, for the same thing will happen to the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰I will ruin these haughty and wicked people who ignore My words, who follow their own stubborn hearts, who run after other gods, who bow down to lifeless idols. They will end up like this rotten undergarment in your hands—completely worthless! ¹¹Just as the undergarment clings to a person’s waist, so did I, the Eternal One, make Israel and Judah to cling tightly to Me. They were to be My people, known by all, bringing honor and glory to My name. That was My plan for them, but they did not listen.