Jeremiah 13:1–11

The Ruined Waistband

¹Thus the Lord said to me, “Go and ^abuy yourself a linen waistband and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”

²So I bought the waistband in accordance with the ^aword of the Lord and put it around my waist.

³Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying,

⁴“Take the waistband that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to ¹the ^aEuphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.”

⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, ^aas the Lord had commanded me.

⁶After many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there.”

⁷Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was ruined, it was totally worthless.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹“Thus says the Lord, ‘Just so will I destroy the ^apride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰‘This wicked people, who ^arefuse to listen to My words, who ^bwalk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.

¹¹‘For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah ^acling to Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for ^1brenown, for ^cpraise and for glory; but they ^ddid not listen.’