13This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” ²So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist.

³Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time:^v ⁴“Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath^a^w and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” ⁵So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me.^x

⁶Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” ⁷So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹“This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride^y of Jerusalem. ¹⁰These wicked people, who refuse to listen^z to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts^a and go after other gods^b to serve and worship them,^c will be like this belt—completely useless!^d ¹¹For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown^e and praise and honor.^f But they have not listened.’^g

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Footnotes

aOr possibly to the Euphrates; similarly in verses 5–7

Cross references

v Jer 33:1
wSee Ge 2:14
x Ex 40:16
ySee Lev 26:19; See Mt 23:12; See Lk 1:51
z Jer 22:21
aSee Ecc 9:3; See Jer 3:17
bSee Dt 8:19; Jer 9:14
cSee Jdg 10:13
d Eze 15:3
e Isa 63:12; Jer 32:20
f Ex 19:5–6; Isa 43:21; See Jer 3:17
gSee Isa 65:12; See Jer 7:26