11 They have made it a desolation.

It mourns, desolate, before me.

All the land is desolate,

but no one takes it to heart.aa

12 Over all the barren heights in the wilderness

the destroyers have come,

for the Lord has a sword that devours

from one end of the earth to the other.

No one has peace.ab

13 They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.ac

They have exhausted themselves but have no profit.ad

Be put to shame by your harvests

because of the Lord’s burning anger.ae

14 This is what the Lord says: “Concerning all my evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to my people, Israel, I am about to uproot themaf from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them. 15 After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassiona on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. 16 If they will diligently learn the ways of my peopleb—to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal—they will be built up among my people. 17 However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation.”c

This is the Lord’s declaration.

LINEN UNDERWEAR

13 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarmentd and put it on.A But do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought underwear as the Lord instructed me and put it on.

3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: 4 “Take the underwear that you bought and are wearing,B and go at once to the EuphratesC and hide it in a rocky crevice.”e 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.

6 A long time later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined—of no use at all.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “This is what the Lord says: Just like this I will ruin the great pride of both Judah and Jerusalem.f 10 These evil people, who refuse to listen to me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts,g and who have followed other gods to serve and bow in worship—they will be like this underwear, of no use at all. 11 Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to me”h—this is the Lord’s declaration—“so that they might be my people for my fame, praise, and glory,i but they would not obey.