¹This is what the Lord said to me: “Buy a linen belt. Put it around your waist. Don’t let it get wet.” ²So I bought the belt, as the Lord had told me, and put it around my waist.

³The Lord spoke his word to me again. He said, ⁴“Take the belt that you bought, the one you’re wearing. Go to the Euphrates River, and bury it there in a crack in the rocks.” ⁵So I went and buried it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had told me.

⁶After many days the Lord said to me, “Go to the Euphrates, and get the belt from where I told you to bury it.” ⁷So I went back to the Euphrates and dug it up. I got the belt from where I had buried it. Now the belt was ruined. It was good for nothing.

⁸Then the Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ⁹“This is what the Lord says: This is how I will destroy Judah’s arrogance and Jerusalem’s extreme arrogance. ¹⁰These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They go their own stubborn ways and follow other gods in order to serve them and worship them. They are like this good-for-nothing belt. ¹¹As a belt clings to a person’s waist, so I have made the entire nation of Israel and the entire nation of Judah cling to me,” declares the Lord. “I did this so that they would be my people and bring fame, praise, and honor to me. However, they wouldn’t listen.

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