Jeremiah 13:1-27

Here is the command YAHWEH spoke to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but don’t wash it.” So I obeyed YAHWEH’s command, and I bought the loincloth and wore it under my tunic. Then, YAHWEH spoke to me a second time: “Now, take the loincloth you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath and cover it up there in a crevice of the rock.” So, I obeyed YAHWEH and went and buried it at Perath. Then, after a long time, YAHWEH spoke to me again, saying, “Go at once to Perath and dig up the loincloth that I commanded you to bury there.” So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth from where I had buried it, and I found it ruined. It was worthless. Then YAHWEH spoke these words to me: “Even so, like a soiled undergarment, I will ruin all the arrogant pride of Judah and Jerusalem, says YAHWEH. These evil ones refuse to hear my words, they stubbornly follow the inclinations of their own hearts, and they follow other gods to serve and worship them. So then, they will all become like this worthless, rotten undergarment. For as the loincloth clings snugly to the loins of a man, so I brought close to me all the people of Israel and Judah, says YAHWEH. I wanted them to cling to me as my people and bring honor to me and proclaim my glory. But they would not obey.” “Speak this word to them: ‘Here is what YAHWEH, the God of Israel says: Every wine jar should be filled with wine.’ And if they say to you, ‘Of course, everyone knows that wine jars should be filled with wine. Do you think we don’t know that?’ then answer them, ‘YAHWEH says: I am going to fill all the people of this land with a drunken stupor, including the kings of David’s descendants, the unfaithful priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike, says YAHWEH. I will show no pity or compassion, and my mercy will not stop me from destroying them.’ ” Hear this and listen well. Forsake your pride, for YAHWEH has spoken. Give all glory to YAHWEH your God before he brings darkness, and you stumble and fall on mountain paths in the dusk of twilight. Give him glory before he turns the light you’re longing for into a death shadow and deep gloom. If you will not listen, I will weep bitterly in secret from the depths of my soul because of your stubborn pride. My eyes gush with copious tears running down my face, because the flock of YAHWEH is taken captive. Say to King Jehoiachin and his mother, “Come down from your high thrones and take a humble seat, for your glorious crown has tumbled off your heads.” The cities in southern Judah are under siege, and no one can free them. All the people of Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away. Lift up your eyes and see the Babylonians coming from the north. What will become of the cities of Judah? Like a beautiful flock of lambs, they were entrusted to your care. What will you say when those you courted as allies are appointed as your masters? You will be gripped with pain as a woman giving birth. And when you ask yourself, “Why are these things happening to me?”— it is because your sin was so enormous that your skirts are lifted up and your private parts exposed. Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin, or the leopard remove his spots? Of course not. And neither can you change from being schooled to do evil to doing good. “This is why I will scatter you like dust driven by the desert wind. You have it coming, and I have precisely measured your punishment,” declares YAHWEH, “because you have trusted in lies and forgotten me entirely. I, in turn, will lift your skirts over your face, and everyone will see your nakedness. Woe to you, Jerusalem! I have seen your adulteries, your lustful neighing, your shameless prostitution, your vile acts on the hills and in the fields. How long will you continue being unclean?”