11 They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart.

12 The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.

13 They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.

14 Thus saith the Lord against all wicked neighbours, that touch the inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda out of the midst of them.

15 And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have mercy on them: and will bring them back, every man to his inheritance, and every man into his land.

16 And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name: The Lord liveth, as they have taught my people to swear by Baal: that they shall be built up in the midst of my people.

17 But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.

Chapter 13

Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.

2 And I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.

3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:

4 Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

5 And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.

6 And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.

7 And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out of the place where I had hid it and behold the girdle was rotten, so that it was fit for no use.

8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

9 Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.

10 This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle,which is fit for no use.

11 For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.