Jeremiah 13:1–11

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.

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

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

⁴Take 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.

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

⁶And 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.

⁷And 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.

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

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

¹⁰This 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.

¹¹For 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.